player result codes?

[Ben Rubinstein]

On 19/7/06 23:22, Phil Davis wrote:
> In my experience, 'start player' used to return empty until something 
> changed, and now I get a 2-digit number most of the time. And I often 
> get the same number a couple of times in a row, even if I change the 
> player filename. Go figger.
> 
> FWIW, I decided my client's software doesn't need to do that test after 
> all. :o)  It's almost impossible to buy an off-the-shelf machine that 
> doesn't do sound. Plus, I'm not really sure what the returned value 
> tells you - my original assumption was that the player would return a 
> non-empty value if the 'start player' command didn't finish 
> successfully. I guess I'll prove/disprove that one and call it good.

I'd also like to know what that result means - in general I think it would be 
great if the dictionary had a standard callout "result" to describe the result 
of all commands and messages, just like it has "parameters".  It's one of the 
few tricks that I think were missed in the original TD.

Anyway, back to your question - while I don't know what that number signifies 
either - I can say that from experience recently working with machines that 
didn't do sound (custom made units with Windows XP Embedded), in this instance 
you get an error before using "start player", at the point that you set the 
filename - ie even if the file exists, when you set the filename of the player 
Rev doesn't just store that but starts pre-rolling the file, setting the 
properties of the player that you might want to interrogate like duration etc. 
    Certainly if you've got the sound hardware, but the software 
infrastructure to play the sound isn't right, you get an error at that stage. 
  My guess is that if you don't have the audio hardware, the software would 
either not be installed or report an error back to Rev also.

If the machine doesn't do sound, you'll get an error when you set the filename 
of the player.  If you didn't get an error at that stage, I think you can be 
confident that start player will work.

HTH,

   Ben Rubinstein               |  Email: benr_mc at cogapp.com
   Cognitive Applications Ltd   |  Phone: +44 (0)1273-821600
   http://www.cogapp.com        |  Fax  : +44 (0)1273-728866