MCI player (for PPT) vs. Windows Media Player

[Epinn]

Hi,

You may want to refer to a thread started by "hot and bothered" on Aug 28
before you read on.

I am quite confused about MCI player and Windows Media Player and would
appreciate some guidance.

I found the following from http://www.pfcmedia.com/Tutorial.htm

"MCI Player - You may test your machine set up by manually starting the MCI
player and opening the media file to be tested. To do so click Start > Run
and type "mplayer.exe" in the command line box and click OK. (For
Windows2000 type "mplay32.exe" and for WindowsXP type "mplayer2.exe") If
this fails to start the player or if your PC can't locate it, use the
Windows search feature for "mplay*.exe" and it should find it for you. Once
found double click it to start it. This will start the MCI player (NOT the
Windows Media Player) used by PowerPoint. You may then open your media file
in the normal manner and play it. If the media fails to play in the MCI
player it will NOT play properly in PowerPoint."

I followed the instructions and keyed in "mplayer2.exe" and I got Windows
Media Player. According to the tutorial, I should get MCI player (NOT the
Windows Media Player). I did a search on "mplay*.exe" and I couldn't find
MCI player. What have I missed? Right now, I don't see a difference
between MCI player and Windows Media Player as H&B fixed his/her problem by
reinstalling Windows Media Player.

I am lost. Please help. Thank you.

Epinn

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Epinn,

from
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/multimedia.htm
or "mplay32.exe" for Win2000 or XP

Cheers
TAJ

 

[John Wilson]

1. mplay32.exe is the mci - you misread Austin's text!
2. Search will not find it unless you have advanced options > search system
folders
--

Did that answer the question / help?
_____________________________
John Wilson
Microsoft Certified Office Specialist
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk/ppttipshome.html

 

[Epinn]

Thank you TAJ. I learned quite a bit about MCI and PPT. But I am still not
sure what Windows Media Player is. All I know is Windows Media Player is
NOT MCI nor Media Player.

"When you installed all of the multimedia components with Windows, you also
installed a version of Media Player that works directly with the MCI. Wait!
Do NOT confuse this with the "Windows Media Player". Boy do I wish Microsoft
had given them different names."

I have to admit that I am a bit overwhelmed right now. Can you tell me very
briefly what Windows Media Player is without me getting too confused? Can I
say it is an "adopted child" of MCI?

The following is what I take away today. The exception (last two sentences)
is interesting.

PowerPoint does very little with Multimedia other than hand it over to
Windows for play back.......So lets start with how Windows handles
Multimedia. A common misconception is that it uses the Windows Media
Player. It does not! Instead it uses a group of Advanced Programming
Instructions (API) that is commonly referred to as the Multimedia Control
Interface (MCI). These are a part of Windows Operating System and are
present regardless of the installation or non-installation of Windows Media
Player.......

....... If you use "drag and drop" to place a multimedia file on a slide, an
instance of "Windows Media Player" is created. At that point Windows Media
Player is in control of the playback.

Thanks again for the link.

Epinn

 

[Epinn]

Hi John,

I doubt if I misread. Yes, mplay32.exe is for MCI. But the article said
"for Windows 2000." Since I use Windows XP, I read on. Here is the
complete sentence and please note the second part.

(For Windows 2000 type "mplay32.exe" and for Windows XP type "mplayer2.exe")

In my post, I did say I keyed in "mplayer2.exe" because I followed the above
instruction and I use XP.

However, TAJ pointed out in his reply to my post that with Sonia's link it
talked about mplay32.exe for Win2000 or XP.

Here is the quote:-

"If you have a Multimedia file you want to test for compatibility try using
the MCI Media Player. To do so click Start - Run, and in the command line
type "mplayer.exe" (or "mplay32.exe" for Win2000 or XP) and click
OK.......Now with File - Open, navigate to the file you want to test and see
if it plays properly.

See the discrepancy between the two articles? When I keyed in mplay32.exe,
I got Media Player. So, I am okay now. Mind you, I did try mplay32.exe
regardless **before** my very first post. But at that time, I didn't know
Media Player and Windows Media Player were **different**. I only found out
after TAJ pointed me to Sonia's link. Microsoft, please try not to confuse
us with similar terms! Now, should I email Austin about my experience and
the writeup?

Wow! I don't believe that I have learned so much in one day when H&B ran
into a problem.

Epinn

 

[Austin Myers]

Epim,

Sorry if it's confusing, but, well it is confusing. <g>

The first thing to understand is that when we talk about media players
(either one) in Windows we are not talking about a single applications or
programs. As an example, when Europe demanded that Windows be sold without
a media player Microsoft had to remove hundreds of files. (Yes, hundreds.)

You can think of both the MCI and the Windows Media Player as a "front end"
to all the various services and APIs (windows components) Windows offers.
That is, they are small programs that utilize the various APIs to do their
work. As you might expect, both applications use many of the same APIs,
they just go about them quite differently. In fact, they may also use many
of the same codecs and device drivers, but again they do it in different
ways.

So why do we have two players that seem to do much the same thing? To put
it simply, the MCI player has been around a loooong time and while Microsoft
has done much to keep it compatible with today's needs they reached a point
where to move ahead they had to go with a new one. As an example, you can't
have a hyperlink in a video with the MCI player. In fact there are many
things the Windows Media Player offers that simply wasn't possible with the
old technology.

So why not throw the MCI out? Well, because there are many, many programs
(PowerPoint is one) that depends upon it to work. If I create a
presentation that has a video in it with PowerPoint 2003 and send to someone
running PowerPoint 97 on say Windows 95, it plays fine because the MCI
player is being used by both. In other words, compatibility is maintained
as long as the video uses a common codec. Now that may not be a big issue
for you and I as individuals, but imagine your say Boeing with 60,000 PCs of
all ages and versions of Windows scattered around the world. For these
folks compatibility is much more important than having the advanced features
of the Windows Media Player. Or imagine that you are putting together a
presentation that will be distributed to many people and you have no idea
what version of Widnows they use. Again, compatiblity is the key.



Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com