Microsoft Windows Media Player for Windows XP Handbook

Seth McEvoy wrote the Microsoft Windows Media Player 7 Handbook. He was also a co-author of the Microsoft Windows Movie Player Handbook and the lead writer for the Windows Media Player SDK, which recently won an award from the Society for Technical Communication. He’s been at Microsoft for nearly ten years as an editor and writer on a variety of projects, including Access, OLE, Microsoft Press, Windows 95, Interactive Television, NetShow, Virtual Worlds, VML, Mac Office, and the Windows Media Player. Before coming to Microsoft, he wrote 33 children’s books and computer books.

Introduction xiii PART I USING WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 1 Getting Started 3 Playing a Song in Four Steps 4 Step 1: Start up the Player 4 Step 2: Go to the Now Playing View 7 Step 3: Select a Playlist 7 Step 4: Play the Song You Want 9 Main Features of Windows Media Player 10 Now Playing: Plays Music and Video 11 Media Guide: Searches the Internet 15 Copy from CD: Copies Music from Your CDs 15 Media Library: Organizes Your Files 16 Radio Tuner: Tune in to Internet Radio 17 Copy to CD or Device 18 Skin Chooser: Provides Custom User Interfaces 20 2 Operating Windows Media Player 23 Outer Frame Operations 23 Playback Controls 24 Menu Controls 25 Taskbar Controls 27 Switch to Skin Mode Control 29 Windows Media Control 29 Status Pane 29 Resize Control 30 Full Screen Controls 30 Inner Window Operations 32 Now Playing view 32 Media Guide View 42 Copy from CD View 43 Media Library View 52 Radio Tuner View 58 Copy to CD or Device View 64 Skin Chooser View 70 Hidden Menus 71 Main Menu Bar 71 Skin Menu 92 Playlist Item Menu 92 3 Understanding Media Files 95 File Formats 95 Determining File Types with File Name Extensions 96 Changing File Associations 96 Supported File Types 99 Codecs 104 Sampling and Bit Rates 104 Using MP3 Files 105 Using the Windows Media Audio Codec 105 Where Do You Get Codecs? 106 Which Codecs Do You Have? 107 Understanding Digital Rights 109 Creating Encrypted Music Files 110 Enabling Personal Rights Management 112 4 Receiving Internet Audio and Video 113 Downloading Files 113 How Files Are Transmitted 113 How to Download a File 114 Progressive Streaming 116 File Buffering 117 Streaming Media 118 Live and Recorded Streaming 119 Unicast and Multicast Streaming 119 5 Using Windows Media Player with Portable Devices 125 PC in Your Pocket 125 Getting Started with Pocket PC Player 127 Copying Music and Video to the Pocket PC 129 Using Windows Media Player on the Pocket PC 139 Music in Your Pocket 144 Advantages of WMA-compatible Devices 144 Finding a Device 145 Using a Device 146 PART II CREATING SKINS 6 How Do Skins Work? 151 Example Skins 151 Architecture of Skins 153 The Relationship between User, Skin, and Player 153 The Two Parts of a Skin 154 XML 155 How XML is Used in Skins 155 The Rules of XML 156 How to Author in XML 158 How to Create the Skin Definition File in XML 159 JScript 163 Calling JScript functions 163 Controlling the Player 164 Art Files 169 Types of Art Files 169 Art File Formats 171 Simple Art Example 171 7 How to Design Skins 179 User Interface Guidelines 179 Windows Interface Guidelines 179 Windows Media Player Interface 181 Four Steps for Designing a Skin 187 Step 1: Analyzing What to Do 187 Step 2: Designing the User Interface 188 Step 3: Creating the Art 190 Step 4: Writing the Code 192 8 Creating a Sample Skin 197 Step 1: Analyze What to Do 197 Functionality of the Sample Skin 198 Step 2: Design the User Interface 198 User Interface of the Sample Skin 199 Step 3: Create the Art 199 Creating the Art Files 200 Step 4: Write the Code 209 Creating the Skin Definition File 209 9 Adding More to Skins 217 Adding a Progress Bar 217 Progress bar art files 218 Progress Bar Code 219 Adding a Slider 220 Adding a Custom Slider 221 Custom Slider Art Files 222 Custom Slider Code 224 Adding a Video Window 225 Video Art Files 225 Video Window Code 226 Adding a Visualization 226 Visualization Art Files 227 Visualization Code 228 Adding a Sliding Drawer 228 Drawer Art Files 230 Drawer Code 231 Adding a Dialog Box for Opening Files 236 Adding a Playlist 237 Playlist Code 238 Adding Text 238 Text Code 239 Going Further 241 10 Testing and Distributing Skins 243 Testing Skins 243 Analyzing What is Going on inside Your Skin 243 Using Microsoft Visual InterDev 254 Testing to be Sure Your Skin is Complete 255 Distributing Skins 255 Zipping it Up 255 Testing it Again 256 Sending it Out 256 Part III Advanced Topics 11 Using Windows Media Player in a Web Page 259 Getting Started 259 Examples of the Player in a Web Page 260 Setting up Your Web Page 266 Using ActiveX 266 Using the OBJECT Element of HTML 267 Defining the User Interface with HTML 268 Implementing Event Handlers 273 Understanding Player Control Limitations 274 Previous Versions of the Control 275 Ensuring that the Player is Installed 275 Going Further 276 12 Creating Custom Media Content 277 Using Markers 278 Inserting Markers 278 Using Markers in Scripts 281 Using URLs 282 Inserting URLs 282 Using URLs in Scripts 285 Using Script Commands 288 Inserting Script Commands 289 Custom Script Commands 290 Using Captioning 292 13 Creating Multimedia Applications 299 Using Borders 299 How to Create Borders 302 Delivering Enhanced Content 305 14 Creating Custom Visualizations 311 Software Tools 311 Installing Visual C++ 312 Installing the Windows Media Player SDK 312 Installing the Visualization Wizard 312 What the Wizard Does 313 Project Files 314 Creating the Files 315 Building a Test Visualization 318 Seeing the Test Visualization 319 What You Must Write 322 Implementing the Render Interface 322 Providing Preset Information 323 Sample Code 325 Going Further 329 Learning More 330 Submitting Your Visualization 330 GLOSSARY 331 INDEX 343 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 349