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What's New for the Windows Media Player Control?

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New multimedia functionality has been added to the Windows Media Player control since its last release. These changes are valid for versions of the Windows Media Player control available in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, the Microsoft Windows® 98 OEM Service Release (OSR), and Microsoft Windows 2000.

The Windows Media Player control now supports playback of DVD media. Microsoft has included scripting support for nearly all DVD-specific capabilities, such as title and chapter seeking, video angle changes, and multi-language support. The added features and scripting support are listed in detail in Using DVD with the Version 6.4 Windows Media Player Control.

The Windows Media Player control now also supports playback for Compact Disc (CD) audio. By specifying "CDAUDIO:" for the input file name, you can play an entire CD as if it were a single audio stream. The Windows Media Player control treats individual tracks of the CD as markers within the audio stream. For more information, see Compact Disc Audio Playback.

Microsoft has made all Windows Media Player functionality available to Web scripting languages such as Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) and Microsoft JScript. This enables you to embed the Windows Media Player control in HTML applications.

The following scripting and Windows Media metafile elements are new to this release of the Windows Media Player control.

  • Windows Media Metafile Elements
    • PARAM Element—Defines a custom parameter associated with a clip or show. For more information, see the Windows Media Player SDK version 7 or later.
  • Scripting Methods
    • GetCurrentEntry—Retrieves the current clip being played by the Windows Media Player control.
    • GetMediaParameter—Retrieves the value of the specified parameter for an indexed Windows Media metafile entry.
    • GetMediaParameterName—Retrieves the name of the specified parameter for an indexed ASX entry.
    • SetCurrentEntry—Selects a clip for playback by the Windows Media Player control.
    • ShowDialog—Displays a modal dialog box containing a specified Windows Media Player dialog.
  • Scripting Properties
    • EntryCount—Retrieves the number of entries contained in the current Windows Media metafile.