TMediaPlayer won't play AVI sound for me

Any ideas why my TMediaPlayer won't play AVI Sound for me? I'm using Delphi 7 in
Windows XP.

To be precise when I open an AVI file I get a few seconds of sound then it goes
dead.

William Boyd wrote:
> Any ideas why my TMediaPlayer won't play AVI Sound for me? I'm using Delphi
7 in Windows XP.
> 
> To be precise when I open an AVI file I get a few seconds of sound then it
goes dead.
> 
> Help really appreciated.

what's the format of the audio stream?
do other avi's with the same audio format work correctly?
does it work correctly with other media players like Windows Media 

harrie <hpearce@magian[dot]com> wrote:
>William Boyd wrote:
>> Any ideas why my TMediaPlayer won't play AVI Sound for me? I'm using
Delphi 7 in Windows XP.
>> 
>> To be precise when I open an AVI file I get a few seconds of sound then
it goes dead.
>> 
>> Help really appreciated.
>
>what's the format of the audio stream?
>do other avi's with the same audio format work correctly?
>does it work correctly with other media players like Windows Media 
>Player, Media Player Classic etc ?

Hi Harrie, thanks for responding. Appreciated.

In the first place since posting I've figured out how to import the Windows
Media Player ActiveX control and use the generated WMPLib_TLB unit to access the
interfaces and that's definitely the way I'm going to go since it gives me
everything I need and loads more: it's brilliant! Actually I'm posting a couple
of quick questions about that in a fresh thread.

Regarding your queries I'm afraid I'm not expert enought to answer the first
sensibly but in the properties when I play it Windows Media Player it lists the
audio codec as AC3Filter.

The avi worked fine with Windows Media Player and Media Player Classic.
Something I did notice with some other avi files using TMediaPlayer was that the
sound came out fine but the video was played too fast ... bizarre.

But as I say I'm going to use the ActiveX control though I would still be
curious to know your thoughts.

William Boyd wrote:
> harrie <hpearce@magian[dot]com> wrote:
>> William Boyd wrote:
>>> Any ideas why my TMediaPlayer won't play AVI Sound for me? I'm
using Delphi 7 in Windows XP.
>>>
>>> To be precise when I open an AVI file I get a few seconds of sound
then it goes dead.
>>>
>>> Help really appreciated.
>> what's the format of the audio stream?
>> do other avi's with the same audio format work correctly?
>> does it work correctly with other media players like Windows Media 
>> Player, Media Player Classic etc ?
> 
> Hi Harrie, thanks for responding. Appreciated.
> 
> In the first place since posting I've figured out how to import the Windows
Media Player ActiveX control and use the generated WMPLib_TLB unit to access the
interfaces and that's definitely the way I'm going to go since it gives me
everything I need and loads more: it's brilliant! Actually I'm posting a couple
of quick questions about that in a fresh thread.
> 
> Regarding your queries I'm afraid I'm not expert enought to answer the
first sensibly but in the properties when I play it Windows Media Player it
lists the audio codec as AC3Filter.
> 
> The avi worked fine with Windows Media Player and Media Player Classic.
Something I did notice with some other avi files using TMediaPlayer was that the
sound came out fine but the video was played too fast ... bizarre.
> 
> But as I say I'm going to use the ActiveX control though I would still be
curious to know your thoughts.
> 
> Thanks again.

TMediaPlayer uses the Media Control Interface (MCI) whereas WMP uses the 
it's successor DirectShow. MCI is really only good for supporting codecs 
that come bundled with Windows. DirectShow is much more extensible 
sophisticated architecture and can be configured to support pretty much 
every codec available - though not always legitimately as there a number 
of free "codec packs" that contain hacked commercial and reverse 
engineered codecs.

The WMP ActiveX component is very good but it really depends on what you 

harrie <hpearce@magian[dot]com> wrote:
>William Boyd wrote:
>> harrie <hpearce@magian[dot]com> wrote:
>>> William Boyd wrote:
>>>> Any ideas why my TMediaPlayer won't play AVI Sound for me? I'm
using Delphi 7 in Windows XP.
>>>>
>>>> To be precise when I open an AVI file I get a few seconds of
sound then it goes dead.
>>>>
>>>> Help really appreciated.
>>> what's the format of the audio stream?
>>> do other avi's with the same audio format work correctly?
>>> does it work correctly with other media players like Windows Media

>>> Player, Media Player Classic etc ?
>> 
>> Hi Harrie, thanks for responding. Appreciated.
>> 
>> In the first place since posting I've figured out how to import the
Windows Media Player ActiveX control and use the generated WMPLib_TLB unit to
access the interfaces and that's definitely the way I'm going to go since it
gives me everything I need and loads more: it's brilliant! Actually I'm posting
a couple of quick questions about that in a fresh thread.
>> 
>> Regarding your queries I'm afraid I'm not expert enought to answer the
first sensibly but in the properties when I play it Windows Media Player it
lists the audio codec as AC3Filter.
>> 
>> The avi worked fine with Windows Media Player and Media Player Classic.
Something I did notice with some other avi files using TMediaPlayer was that the
sound came out fine but the video was played too fast ... bizarre.
>> 
>> But as I say I'm going to use the ActiveX control though I would still
be curious to know your thoughts.
>> 
>> Thanks again.
>
>TMediaPlayer uses the Media Control Interface (MCI) whereas WMP uses the 
>it's successor DirectShow. MCI is really only good for supporting codecs 
>that come bundled with Windows. DirectShow is much more extensible 
>sophisticated architecture and can be configured to support pretty much 
>every codec available - though not always legitimately as there a number 
>of free "codec packs" that contain hacked commercial and reverse 
>engineered codecs.
>
>The WMP ActiveX component is very good but it really depends on what you 
>are wanting to achieve.

Thanks Harrie. I can get access to the time position property with the ActiveX
control which is what I mainly want so I'll go with that plus it doesn't have
any problems with my avis. I did download a free codec pack calle 'K-lite' and
it may be that TMediaPlayer has problems with some of them.