Modifying the Display

[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 It has been superseded by MediaPlayer.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.]

Playlists can alter the Windows Media Player user interface in four main ways:

• Text properties
• Image properties
• MOREINFO properties
• ABSTRACT text

Text properties

Windows Media Player enables the display of Title, Author, Copyright, and Description metadata text. Clip metadata can come from the stream or media file, or it can come from a playlist. Show metadata comes from the playlist. In general, playlists are a better method of passing text properties to Windows Media Player, especially if text elements are likely to change. It is easier to edit text in a playlist than to re-author a media file. And because properties read from a playlist override those contained in the media file, you can easily update display text by adding the new text to the corresponding property in a playlist. In the following example, the text of the Title and Author metadata in the playlist overrides the Title and Author text contained in the media file, sample.wma.

DESCRIPTION text is retrieved from a Windows Media file referenced in an ENTRY element unless there is an ABSTRACT element in a metafile playlist. If there is ABSTRACT text, it will be displayed, overriding the DESCRIPTION text.

<ASX version="3.0" BANNERBAR="AUTO" >
    <ENTRY>
        <BANNER HREF="YourPath\2.gif">
        </BANNER>
        <TITLE>Upgrade</TITLE>
        <AUTHOR>Ad Department</AUTHOR>
        <REF href="YourPath\sample.wma"/>
    </ENTRY>
</ASX>

Image properties

Banner images can be added to the user interface of Windows Media Player. The graphic can be used for advertising, providing information, and providing access to websites, to name a few possibilities.

Use the BANNER element to specify a graphic image (32 pixels high by 194 pixels wide) for display by Windows Media Player. The graphic is displayed below any video content. A hyperlink can be added to the banner using the MOREINFO child element.

A ToolTip can be defined by an ABSTRACT element within the scope of the BANNER element. Any defined ToolTip text can be displayed by pausing the mouse pointer over the banner graphic. Selecting the banner graphic with the mouse pointer will activate any hyperlink defined with the MOREINFO element.

The preferred BANNER graphics format is the GIF format. The JPG format can be used if the graphic is properly sized.

The previous example illustrates use of the BANNER element.

Note

BANNER images are not supported with DRM files or when Windows Media Player is embedded in a webpage.

 

For more information about banners, see Custom Graphics in Windows Media Player.

MOREINFO properties

Text and image areas of the user interface can be associated with URLs. During playback, users can select one of these sections to connect to the URL associated with it in their Web browser. For example, you can associate an advertiser's website with an ad banner image as shown in the following code snippet.

<BANNER HREF="YourPath\2.gif">
    <ABSTRACT>More Information.</ABSTRACT>
    <MOREINFO HREF="https://www.proseware.com" />
</BANNER>

ABSTRACT text

ABSTRACT text is used to display a short pop-up description of the text or image areas of the user interface it is associated with. During playback, if the mouse pointer hovers over one of these areas, a ToolTip appears beside the mouse pointer displaying the ABSTRACT text associated with the area. ABSTRACT text is retrieved from a metafile and is defined with the ABSTRACT element. The ABSTRACT element can be a child element of either an ENTRY or a BANNER element.

Related topics

Metafile Playlists

Using Metafile Playlists

Windows Media Metafile Elements Reference

Windows Media Metafile Guide