The Ultimate Media Player

• Download source files - 129 KB
• Download demo project - 106 KB

Introduction

Playing media isn't hard (at least not in Visual Basic). This tutorial will teach you how to create a fully functional general media player for any use by using the Windows Media Player control.

Begin

First, you must insert a Media Player control in your form. (Note: If you cannot find the control, look under "COM Components" in the "Choose Toolbox Items" menu). The Media Player will have its own controls, so to design your own, you will have to remove these by setting the UiMode to None. Next, you will need to add your own controls, like this:

Not only are there "Play, Pause, and Stop" controls, but there are also "Volume, Balance, and Track" controls. The interesting part is the Duration and the TrackBar, which are not as easy as they look.

Duration

Dim CurPos As Integer = 
  Convert.ToInt32(PlayerControl.Ctlcontrols.currentPosition * 1000) 
  'milliseconds
Dim DurationVar As Integer = 
  Convert.ToInt32(PlayerControl.currentMedia.duration * 1000) 
  'milliseconds
If DurationVar > 0 Then
  PlayBar.Value = Convert.ToInt32((CurPos * 100) / DurationVar) '% complete
End If

'Update the time label
Duration.Text = PlayerControl.Ctlcontrols.currentPositionString

TrackBar

Try
If (PlayerControl.currentMedia.duration <> 0) Then
  Dim NewPerc As Double = Convert.ToDouble(PlayBar.Value) / 100
  Dim DurationVar As Integer = 
    Convert.ToInt32(PlayerControl.currentMedia.duration * 1000) 'milliseconds
  Dim NewPos As Integer = (DurationVar * NewPerc) / 1000

PlayerControl.Ctlcontrols.currentPosition = NewPos
Else
  PlayBar.Value = 0
End If
Catch ex As Exception
  MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try

There are a few Media Player properties that are set when the form loads:

PlayerControl.settings.autoStart = True
PlayerControl.settings.volume = VolumeBar.Value
PlayerControl.settings.balance = BalanceBar.Value
PlayerControl.settings.enableErrorDialogs = False
PlayerControl.enableContextMenu = False

Points of Interest

Well, that about wraps it up. Remember that when you add a Media Player to your form, Visual Studio will create two DLL files that are vital to run the program: AxInterop.WMPLib.dll and Interop.WMPLib.dll. Make sure that these are included wherever the main program is.

If you do not want to use Windows Media Player, there is also a Quick Time Control that's available to use (found in the COM Components). However, Quick Time Player must be installed in order to use it.