play vs. start

[Phil Davis]

Thanks Jackie. Actually I'm using .WAV and .AIF files, ranging in size from 
200KB to maybe 5MB. I'll set up some all-night automated tests using both 
methods on both target platforms and see what happens. As they used to say in 
old-media days, "film at 11". I'll report back.

Thanks -
Phil


J. Landman Gay wrote:
> Phil Davis wrote:
>> I still need the info, so...
>>
>> I maintain an application that sometimes plays 100's of external 
>> digital audio
>> files during a single usage session. Currently the app uses 'start 
>> player'
>> method of playing them. Sometimes the app will freeze up, and I think 
>> it's
>> related to audio processing.
>>
>> I want to improve the app's stability. Has anyone found the 'play 
>> [filepath]'
>> form to be more stable or less stable than 'start player'?
> 
> I haven't had problems with either one, so I can't really say.
> 
>>
>> Also, does anyone have extra info about the two approaches to audio 
>> playing that
>> shed light on differences between the two? Are they doing the exact 
>> same thing
>> under the hood?
>>
> 
> They are different under the hood. Player objects use QuickTime or, if 
> it isn't available, WMP on Windows. The "play" command uses internal 
> libraries that are, I think, fairly dated now. The MC docs say that 
> "play" is deprecated and all new stacks should use player objects 
> instead -- however, as I said, I haven't had any problems with the play 
> command. I don't usually ask much of it though.
> 
> The play command is far more limited than a player object. Basically you 
> can start, stop, and pause an audio file. It will only play a subset of 
> audio file formats, basically only those that are not compressed in any 
> way, and which are saved at only a few specific sample rates. You can't 
> start playback at an arbitrary point, only at the beginning.
> 
> I've used "play" for short sound segments, especially those I want to 
> embed in a stack (like sound effects) but I don't use it for anything 
> elaborate. I think you said you were using mp3 files, right? If so, 
> "play" probably isn't an option as I don't believe it will work with 
> that file format anyway.
>