Pausing and Resuming Playback

[The feature associated with this page, MCIWnd Window Class, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer. MediaPlayer has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer instead of MCIWnd Window Class, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

You can interrupt playback of a device or file associated with an MCIWnd window by using the MCIWndPause macro. You can then restart playback by using the MCIWndResume macro. If the device does not support resume or if an error occurs, you can use the MCIWndPlay macro to restart playback.

The following example creates an MCIWnd window and plays an AVI file. Pause and resume menu commands are available to the user to interrupt and restart playback.

MCIWnd window styles are changed temporarily by using the MCIWndChangeStyles macro to inhibit an MCI error dialog box from being displayed if MCIWndResume fails.

case WM_COMMAND: 
    switch (wParam) 
    { 
        case IDM_CREATEMCIWND:             // creates and plays clip 
            g_hwndMCIWnd = MCIWndCreate(hwnd,  
                g_hinst,                      
                WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE |    // standard styles
                MCIWNDF_NOPLAYBAR |        // hides toolbar 
                MCIWNDF_NOTIFYMODE,        // notifies of mode changes
                "sample.avi"); 
 
            MCIWndPlay(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
            break;    
        case IDM_PAUSEMCIWND:              // pauses playback 
            MCIWndPause(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
            MessageBox(hwnd, "MCIWnd", "Pausing Playback", MB_OK); 
            break; 
        case IDM_RESUMEMCIWND:          // resumes playback 
            MCIWndChangeStyles(      // hides error dialog messages
                g_hwndMCIWnd,        // MCIWnd window
                MCIWNDF_NOERRORDLG,  // mask of style to change
                MCIWNDF_NOERRORDLG); // suppresses MCI error dialogs 
 
            lResult = MCIWndResume(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
 
            if(lResult){                   // device doesn't resume 
                MessageBox(hwnd, "MCIWnd", 
                    "Resume with Stop and Play", MB_OK); 
                MCIWndStop(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
                MCIWndPlay(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
 
                MCIWndChangeStyles(        // resumes original styles
                    g_hwndMCIWnd, 
                    MCIWNDF_NOERRORDLG, 
                    NULL); 
        } 
        break; 
    } 
    break; 
 
// Handle other messages here.