MCISendString

[vbfingers]

I am looking for someone whose very knowledge-ible in using MCISendString functions, that could me out of some problems. I have put together a CD Player(VB program), I am trying to emulate Windows CD Player( and yet add a few other things), but am running into a lot of problems, like bad timing displays, late music startings and so forth. Could someone email me, and so I could send what I have put together - so they could look it over and fix my mistakes. I sure could use a different perspective.

Thanks, VBFingers. I am using VB5, and soon hoping to upgrade.

[SpectateSwamp]

Yup there is a problem with MciSendString for video.

I have a video player too.

On my older PC / build machine the timing is way different than on my Laptop 98 machine.

I want the video to start at 62 seconds in. That works fine for the laptop. On the older PC I need to set the start point to 50 seconds in. WOW that is a 12 second difference.

What are they doing? Generating random numbers for us to use. Somebody at MicroSoft better explain this.

I made a change to my program to allow for an alternate start point. If the program name has alt in it then the adjustment time is used. That works find for both my machines.. Buuuut other hardware could be anywhere in between. How bad is that...

[dglienna]

Still using VB5 as well?

[SpectateSwamp]

Yup VB5 Since 1999. It has and still does work for w95 I haven't tested it on Windows 8...

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/st...ast_flyers.htm
This link shows how I Use Slow motion to watch faster than sight objects. They are there..

I made a change so that the start and slow motion points can be altered. See the alt== string in the timeline playback control text file.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/st..._videosmix.txt

Does MciSendString work better for VB6?

[dglienna]

Yes. Also, DirectX

[DataMiser]

Yup VB5 Since 1999. It has and still does work for w95 I haven't tested it on Windows 8...

Why would anyone still use w95? Where would you even find hardware that it supports? I think it has been at least 10 years since I owned hardware that had w95 drivers maybe longer. Even w98 is almost impossible to get working on any hardware made in the last 10 years and Windows ME doesn't cover much in that time frame.

Does MciSendString work better for VB6?

I used Vb5 until 2000 when I switched to Vb6. I can't think of any reason to choose VB5 over VB6, all my old VB5 projects worked just fine in VB6 and VB6 has additional features that were not present in VB5.

As for MciSendString I have no idea, never had a need to use it.

Given that VB5 is now 17 years old and was designed to work with windows 95 as well as being 12 years outdated it may be time to consider something from within the last 10 years or so.

[SpectateSwamp]

A little more testing to do. Then I'll upgrade.

There are a thousand reasons to use the Greatest program on the planet. Maybe more. Random video then random segments in that video then another.

The App has been running fine all along. The only other problem is that some of the later Windows versions don't allow for me to put the results of a search in the ClipBoard. ie URL or PassWord etc

[WoF]

And anyway the original post is from year 2000 and I doubt that the OP is still interested in an answer.
The problem seems to be outdated and the solution comes 12 years too late.

I wanted to say, please don't revive dead old threads.

[SpectateSwamp]

B.S.

I have come across OLD threads about Desktop Search. The Know-It-Alls and Lord-It-Over-Yous hated it when I responded. They thought; that all that could be said of any value, already has been. I wrote a Search and most of them had NO idea. So of course I called them out on it.

[DataMiser]

I think you missed the point entirely. The question was asked 12 years ago and is related to a language that has been abandoned by almost everyone for about that same length of time. VB5 was great in the 90s, VB6 is better, no reason to use VB5.

And yes we do not like it when people revive threads that are far out of date as it wastes our time. They come to the top of the list and we look to see if we can help only to find out the person who asked the question no longer needs an answer.

[SpectateSwamp]

I had the app running under VB6 around 2002. It should be easy to get that working.

Now to find a legal copy of VB6.

If that fixes my MciSendString timing problems, I'd be doing the happy dance.

So this thread wasn't a complete waste of time..

Thanks

[dglienna]

Probably smarter to get MODERN. VS2011 Express Editions are FREE, btw

[SpectateSwamp]

Probably smarter to get MODERN. VS2011 Express Editions are FREE, btw

I will Thanks.

[WizBang]

@SpectateSwamp

I wonder if the timing issue you see might be due to loading of the file. Is there a delay with very small files, and what about the various formats, such as AVI, MPEG, etc? The control I authored does not have any such issue that I've ever seen, even on "legacy" hardware. How are you keeping track of the time?

[SpectateSwamp]

@SpectateSwamp

I wonder if the timing issue you see might be due to loading of the file. Is there a delay with very small files, and what about the various formats, such as AVI, MPEG, etc? The control I authored does not have any such issue that I've ever seen, even on "legacy" hardware. How are you keeping track of the time?

Hi WizBang
Most of my files are very small. The ones I am having problems with are under 3 minutes. My player is old and at the time only mpeg offered the ability to start and stop anywhere in a video. The app does play avi but not with the same controls as mpeg. I'm sure your player would be far better than MciSendString for timing, it couldn't be worse.
I start the video at a specific point and check to see if it has passed 1/30 of a second in time. If it has I pause for 8/30 of a second. etc. To make it work better I start the video a second or 2 before the point where I want the slow motion, once it reaches that point then it switches to slo-mo. For some reason that just works better. It could be due to interference from other background jobs. Don't know. But the timing is always the same difference. I added the alt==-11000 to the timeline playback control file and if the program name has Alt in it then that field is used to adjust the begin play and the slow motion play points. That works for the 2 computers I have that are wildly different.