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- SOLVING MCI DRIVER PROBLEMS
- ===========================
-
-
- CONTENTS
- ========
-
- 1. General Information
- 2. Missing Drivers
- 3. Invalid Drivers
- 4. Sample Working Configuration
- 5. ActiveMovie from Internet Explorer 4.0 Preview, problems
-
-
- 1. General Information
- ======================
-
- This document briefly explains problems you may encounter while you trying
- to use Multimedia Xplorer to view MOV, MPG videos or play SND, AIF, MP2 &
- AU sounds.
-
- MCI errors are usually MMSYSTEMxxx errors that you see in dialog box while
- you trying to open mentioned file types. To make sure that the error is
- caused by missing or invalid MCI drivers, try opening the same file in
- Windows Media Player. If you see similar error message also while trying to
- play the same file from Windows Media Player, it is not Multimedia Xplorer
- error, but MCI problem.
-
- There are usually 2 kinds of MCI driver problems:
-
- 1) missing drivers for certain file type
- 2) wrong or invalid driver
-
- If you have missing driver for specified file type, then you see message
- similar to "Check the filename or install a driver that supports this type
- of file". If you have some other driver problem, then you may see "The file
- cannot be played on the specified MCI device. The file may be corrupt, or
- not in the correct format" or something like "File not found". These second
- kind of problems are caused by drivers that may not support some subtypes
- of specified file, but play OK others. Such drivers you may get with
- different plug-ins from the Internet. Problem is also that when you
- install new software that has it's own MCI driver, it usually overwrites
- settings for existing one and puts itself as default driver even if it is
- not working properly with all files it supports.
-
-
- 2. Missing Drivers
- ==================
- If you have missing drivers, try downloading and installing Microsoft
- ActiveMovie. It adds support for many widely used file types and Multimedia
- Xplorer works well with it. You can download it from different locations
- (file size is about 650 KB):
-
- http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ieplatform/iewin95/11.htm
- or
- http://www.moonsoftware.ee , from Multimedia Xplorer download area.
-
- After downloading the amovie.exe file, run to install the drivers.
- Be sure to restart Windows after installation.
-
- NOTE! Some people have reported that they have problems installing
- ActiveMovie in some systems. Setup fails with message that
- "Cannot register ActiveMovie control". Currently I don't know the reason,
- but if anyone has figured this out, please let me know.
-
-
- 3. Invalid Drivers
- ==================
- Sometimes you know you have installed ActiveMovie and certain types
- still don't play. Or you have installed some software that overwrited your
- working system. Then you must edit some of your system files by hand to
- get your system working.
-
- MCI configuration and file associations are situated still in WIN.INI and
- SYSTEM.INI files even in Windows95. There are 2 sections of interest:
- section [MCI] in SYSTEM.INI and section [MCI EXTENSIONS] in WIN.INI.
- Both SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files are located in your Windows folder.
-
- The [MCI] section in SYSTEM.INI contains all installed MCI drivers along
- with their aliases.
- Typical configuration may look like this (w/o comments):
-
- [mci]
- waveaudio=mciwave.drv 3 //default driver for WAV
- sequencer=mciseq.drv //default driver for MID and RMI
- Mixer=MCIMIXER.DRV //default mixer
- cdaudio=mcicda.drv //default CD audio
- avivideo=mciavi.drv //default AVI videos
- MPEGVideo=mciqtz.drv //added ActiveMovie
-
- Please note, that alias to ActiveMovie driver is "MPEGVideo".
- Sometimes it may be also "ActiveMovie" or whatever.
-
- Let's look now into [MCI EXTENSIONS] in WIN.INI. Typical configuration
- with ActiveMovie installed may look like this (w/o comments):
-
- [mci extensions]
- mid=Sequencer
- rmi=Sequencer
- wav=waveaudio
- avi=AVIVideo
- mov=MPEGVideo
- mpg=MPEGVideo
- mp2=MPEGVideo
- mpeg=MPEGVideo
- au=MPEGVideo
- snd=MPEGVideo
- aif=MPEGVideo
-
- From above you see the file extension, and it's associated MCI driver by
- alias (see above for aliases). If file type you want to play back is not
- listed, you cannot play it. And this is the place you usually can turn
- you non-working system into working one :-)
-
- Now hands on! For example suppose you cannot play MOV files, but you
- know you installed ActiveMovie and it must play back MOV. Then you must
- find out this section and look for the row "MOV=". After "=" mark you
- see the alias to currently associated driver. Suppose you read
- "vmpegvid" there ("mov=vmpegvid"). Now you must go to SYSTEM.INI and
- look the alias for ActiveMovie driver mciqtz.drv in [MCI] section. In
- sample above it's called "MPEGVideo".
-
- Now all you must do when you want to associate the MOV with ActiveMovie,
- is writing your actual ActiveMovie driver alias ("MPEGVideo" in sample)
- instead of your current one ("vmpegvid" in sample) into [MCI EXTENSIONS]
- section in WIN.INI. But please back up your WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files
- before making modifications.
-
- AFTER MAKING CHANGES YOU MUST RESTART WINDOWS.
-
- If this was the case, you should now be able to play specified file
- format.
-
-
- 4. Sample Working Configuration
- ===============================
-
- Below is a listing of configuration, where only ActiveMovie and Windows
- default drivers for MID, RMI, WAV, AVI, CD-audio. If you have installed
- ActiveMovie and something still doesn't work, then you can try the
- following configuration. Please note that the fragments listed are not
- entire contents of these files, but only sections of interest.
-
- Fragment of WIN.INI in your Windows folder (typically c:\windows):
-
- [mci extensions]
- mid=Sequencer
- rmi=Sequencer
- wav=waveaudio
- avi=AVIVideo
- M3D=AVIVideo
- CMR=AVIVideo
- PRP=AVIVideo
- LIT=AVIVideo
- CAM=AVIVideo
- mov=MPEGVideo
- qt=MPEGVideo
- dat=MPEGVideo
- mpg=MPEGVideo
- mpa=MPEGVideo
- mpv=MPEGVideo
- enc=MPEGVideo
- m1v=MPEGVideo
- mp2=MPEGVideo
- mpe=MPEGVideo
- mpeg=MPEGVideo
- mpm=MPEGVideo
- au=MPEGVideo
- snd=MPEGVideo
- aif=MPEGVideo
- aiff=MPEGVideo
- aifc=MPEGVideo
-
- Fragment of SYSTEM.INI in your Windows folder (typically c:\windows):
-
- [mci]
- waveaudio=mciwave.drv 3
- sequencer=mciseq.drv
- Mixer=MCIMIXER.DRV
- cdaudio=mcicda.drv
- avivideo=mciavi.drv
- MPEGVideo=mciqtz.drv
-
-
- Please back up your original WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files before making
- modifications to them!
-
-
- 5. ActiveMovie from Internet Explorer 4.0 Preview, problems
- ===========================================================
-
- The Internet Explorer 4.0 Platform Preview doesn't include ActiveMovie
- MCI drivers, so you cannot use this not ready version as your MCI
- drivers source. You must use ActiveMovie 1.0 until newer release
- is complete. You can play files by clicking tham in Explorer or using
- ActiveMovie control, but you cannot play them using MediaPlayer or
- Multimedia Xplorer.
-
- If you cannot fix your problem with this document, please paste your
- system/MCI configutation information to your mail message and send it
- to me. You can copy it to clipboard by
- Help -> Support -> Copy System Information menu item or Multimedia
- Xplorer.
-
-
-
-