Microsoft Windows Media Resource Kit (Pro-Resource Kit)

The core functionality of Windows Media Player is contained within a software library called an ActiveX control. As with earlier versions of Windows Media Player, you can embed the Player ActiveX control in a Web page in order to add streaming capabilities to your Web site. By embedding the control in an HTML page, you can use Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator to craft visually complex graphical environments that take advantage of a rich and dynamic event model. Using the Player control, you can completely sculpt the Web site user’s audio and video experience.

The Windows Media Player 9 Series control adds new functionality and updatesand extends existing functionality from the previous version. New and updated features include:

• Support for Internet Explorer 5.01 and later, Netscape Navigator 4.7, Netscape Navigator 6.2, and Netscape Navigator 7. Support for the Java 2 Runtime Engine (J2RE) version 1.3.x is also provided.

• Enhanced and updated Media Library support. The Windows Media Player 9 Series ActiveX control provides greater access to metadata in a user’s Media Library. For example, you can determine how many times a user plays a particular song or content by a particular artist, and then use that information to offer that user related products or services. (See Protecting Your Privacy for information about allowing Web pages to access your Media Library.)

• Language selection. New properties and methods enable you to take advantage of multiple language tracks. For example, you can automatically provide your audio stream in the language that is appropriate for each user.

• Time compression and expansion, which enables users to slow down or speed up content while still preserving pitch. This enables users to review material such as newscasts or informational videos more quickly, or to slow down playback to understand details more clearly.

• Invisible user interface (UI) mode. The “invisible” value for the Player.uiMode property gives you the ability to embed the control in a Web page without displaying the Player interface to Web site visitors. This mode is particularly advantageous in audio-only scenarios such as Internet radio.

• Support for SMPTE time code. SMPTE time code is the industry-standard way of identifying individual video frames.

• Enhancements to closed captioning support. The ClosedCaption object exposes new methods and properties for working with languages and styles in Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI) files. For example, you can automatically provide captions in the language that is appropriate for each user.

Note that the Windows Media Player 9 Series control has the same CLSID as the Windows Media Player 7.1 control (6BF52A52-394A-11D3-B153-00C04F79FAA6). If you already embedded the Windows Media Player 7.1 control in your Web pages, you do not have to modify the number in your Web page code to take advantage of the Windows Media Player 9 Series control.

A number of changes have been made in the Windows Media Player 9 Series ActiveX control to address security and privacy issues. As a means of implementing these changes without altering the code in the version 6.4 control, a wrapper was created to map the functionality of the 6.4 control to the Windows Media Player 9 Series control.

The wrapper is installed automatically upon installation of Windows Media Player 9 Series. The wrapper provides you with the benefits of the latest Windows Media Player 9 Series control, such as security and privacy improvements, without requiring that you make significant changes to your existing Web page code.

Because the mapping between version 6.4 and 9 Series Players is not precise, the behavior of the 9 Series ActiveX control when embedded in a Web page differs in some cases from version 6.4. Additionally, some version 6.4 features are no longer supported in Web pages, including ActiveMovie and NetShow compatibility features.

It is recommended that you test your Web pages after the Player upgrade to ensure they perform as expected. For complete details about how your embedded Player will be affected once Windows Media Player 9 Series is installed, see the Windows Media Player 9 Series SDK.