Contents for Media Player Help

By using WIN-OS/2 Media Player, you can play multimedia files, such as sound or animation, and control hardware devices, such as a videodisc player.

To learn how to use Help, press F1.

How to...

Open a File

Change the Scale

Specify a Media Device

Play a Media Device

Commands

File Menu Commands

Device Menu Commands

Scale Menu Commands


Specifying a Media Device

Media Player supports two types of devices: simple and compound.

Simple devices generally control external hardware devices that do not use files--for example, an audio compact-disc player. Compound devices--for example, a MIDI sequencer--play files, so you must specify the name of a file.

Before Media Player can recognize a device, you must first install the hardware, and then use Control Panel to install the device drivers necessary for the hardware.

To specify a simple device

From the Device menu, choose the device name.

Names of simple devices are not followed by an ellipsis (...).

To specify a compound device

1	From the Device menu, choose the media-device name.

Names of compound devices are followed by an ellipsis (...).

2	Select or type the filename.

3	Choose the OK button.

See Also

Playing a Media Device

Opening a File


Opening a File

When you choose a compound device, you can open and play files appropriate for that device. For example, if you've specified a MIDI Sequencer device, then you can open and play MIDI files.

If you've specified a MIDI Sequencer device and you now want to open a waveform file, you can change devices by using the Open dialog box.

To open a file to play

1	From the File menu, choose Open.

2	Select the drive and directory where the file is located.

3	Select or type the filename.

If you want to change devices, first select the type of file you want to play from the List Files Of Type box.

4	Choose the OK button.

Note:	Your system may include sample animation, sample audio, and sample MIDI files in your WIN-OS/2 directory.

See Also

Playing a Media Device


Playing a Media Device

After specifying a media device, use the following buttons to control the device.

Choose	To

Play	Start play.

Pause	Pause or restart play.

Stop	Stop play.

Eject	Eject your media.

(The Eject button is available only with devices that include an eject function.)

Note:	You cannot play the same compact disc with both Media Player and another application simultaneously.

Media Player displays a scale above the scroll bar. The scale displays track locations or a time scale, depending on which Scale menu command you choose.

To change where the file begins playing

1	Move the scroll box to the time or track position you want.

2	Choose the Play button.

See Also

Specifying a Media Device

Changing the Scale


Changing the Scale

You can change the scale displayed above the scroll bar. There are two scales:

The Time scale shows time intervals.

The Track scale shows tracks.

The Track scale is particularly useful when playing devices oriented around different tracks, such as audio compact-disc players.

To change scales

From the Scale menu, choose Time or Tracks.

See Also

Playing a Media Device


File Menu Commands

Open

Opens a file to play with the specified device.

Exit

Quits Media Player.

Quitting Media Player ends the playing of the following types of media:

Animation

MIDI sequencer

Waveform audio

Audio compact-discs and videodiscs continue playing back after you quit Media Player.


Device Menu Commands

Device Names

The contents of the Device menu depend on which, if any, Media Control Interface (MCI) devices are installed on your system.

There are two types of media devices:

Simple devices

Compound devices

Menu options for compound devices are followed by an ellipsis (...) . When you choose a compound device, Media Player displays the Open dialog box, in which you specify the name of a file to open.


Scale Menu Commands

Time

Changes the scroll-bar scale to show time intervals.

Tracks

Changes the scroll-bar scale to show track numbers.