ASX Element

Article
06/20/2023

[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Player SDK, 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 It has been superseded by MediaPlayer.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 Windows Media Player SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

The ASX element defines a file as a metafile.

<ASX
   VERSION = "number"
   PREVIEWMODE = "YES" | "NO"
   BANNERBAR = "AUTO" | "FIXED"
>
</ASX>

Attributes

VERSION (required)

Decimal number representing the version number of the syntax for the metafile. Set to 3 or 3.0.

PREVIEWMODE (optional)

Value indicating whether Windows Media Player enters preview mode before playing the first clip.

Must be one of the following values.

Value	Description
YES	Windows Media Player enters preview mode before playing the first clip.
NO	The default value. Windows Media Player does not enter preview mode before playing the first clip.

BANNERBAR (optional)

Value indicating whether Windows Media Player reserves space for a banner graphic.

Must be one of the following values.

Value	Description
AUTO	The default value. Windows Media Player reserves space for the banner bar only when a piece of content includes one.
FIXED	Windows Media Player reserves a fixed space for a banner graphic for every piece of content played, whether there is an associated banner.

Parent/Child Elements

Hierarchy	Elements
Parent elements	None. The ASX element must be the first element in every metafile.
Child elements	ABSTRACT, AUTHOR, BANNER, BASE, COPYRIGHT, ENTRY, ENTRYREF, EVENT, MOREINFO, PREVIEWDURATION, PARAM, REPEAT, TITLE

Remarks

The first four characters of a metafile playlist must be "<ASX". Other elements defined within the scope of the ASX element, such as TITLE and AUTHOR, are associated with the show information displayed by Windows Media Player.

For Windows Media Player, the syntax version number is 3.0. Windows Media Player supports all previous versions of metafile syntax. Acceptable values for the VERSION attribute include both 3.0 and 3 (with no decimal point).

If the value of the PREVIEWMODE attribute is YES, Windows Media Player immediately enters preview mode before playing the first clip. When Windows Media Player enters preview mode, it previews each clip referenced in the metafile. The PREVIEWDURATION element determines the duration of each preview.

The BANNERBAR attribute defines whether Windows Media Player reserves space for a banner graphic. A banner is a graphic that is displayed in the video display area while media content is playing. (Use the BANNER element to add a banner to the content.) If the value of BANNERBAR is FIXED, Windows Media Player reserves banner space for every piece of media content, whether the media content has a banner. If a piece of media content does not have a banner associated with it, the space reserved for one is black. If the value of the BANNERBAR attribute is AUTO, Windows Media Player reserves space for the banner only when the media content includes one.

If you create a metafile with multiple clips (ENTRY or ENTRYREF elements) and set the value of the BANNERBAR attribute to AUTO, Windows Media Player might resize to allow space for a banner graphic for one clip, and then resize again if the next clip does not contain a banner graphic. If you want the size of the window to stay the same (except when the video size changes), use the FIXED value for the BANNERBAR attribute.

The space reserved for a banner graphic is 32 pixels high by 194 pixels wide. The reserved space appears below any rendered video content and 6 pixels above the lower edge of the video area, allowing space for the 6-pixel video area border. The reserved banner space is centered horizontally.

Windows Media Player renders the graphic beginning in the leftmost pixel of the banner space. If the graphic fills the entire space, it will appear centered horizontally. Otherwise there will be trailing space. Note that the minimum width of Windows Media Player is always wider than the size of the video clip, regardless of the value of the BANNERBAR attribute.

Examples

<ASX VERSION="3.0" PREVIEWMODE="YES" BANNERBAR="auto"  >
   <ENTRY HREF="https://sample.microsoft.com/sample1.ASX" />
</ASX>

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Version	Windows Media Player version 70 or later