WAV without QT

[Richard Gaskin]

Scott Rossi wrote:

> Recently, Jim Bufalini wrote:
> 
>>> That MIGHT work, but the client would prefer an
>>> out-of-the-box-with-nothing-else-required-for-the-user-to-do solution.
>> 
>> WAV stands for "Windows" Audio, so by default, Windows Media Player is
>> configured to play WAV files. If it's not, it means they already messed
>> around and installed some other player on the machine which "stole" the WAV
>> format and assigned it to itself and then they deleted the player and so now
>> there is no player associated with WAV.
> 
> Actually, I don't believe this is the case.  My version of Windows Media
> Player on Vista (which says is version 11.x) is fine playing WAV files, but
> with dontUseQT enabled in Rev, a player whose filename is set to an external
> WAV file refuses to play (error: could not open video player).  This is on a
> machine that does have QT installed, but I believe the behavior is the same
> on machines without QT: even though WAVs might play directly from WMP, they
> don't in Rev.  I was quite surprised to discover this and just goes to show
> how desperately in need of updating are Rev's audio facilities.
> 
> As far as Richard's question goes, the only way I know of to play a WAV file
> reliably on Windows without QT is to import the WAV into Rev as an
> audioClip.  But then I don't believe you can control the start/stop time or
> similar properties.
> 
> I can't think of a workaround to the problem other than to control an
> external playback mechanism using sockets, COM, MCI, or whatever facilities
> are available for the player.

Hopefully it won't come to that.  The client is evaluating the tradeoffs 
  of requiring their customers to install QT, and maybe that evaluation 
will be favorable for this project.

It seems the reason Rev stumbles with native Win playback is that it's 
using The API That Time Forgot - here's Trevor's comment from a year and 
a half ago in
<http://quality.runrev.com/qacenter/show_bug.cgi?id=6342>:

    Just a note that movie files that play in Windows Media Player
    won't necessarily play in Rev because Rev uses MCI, not the
    modern media APIs.

MCI?  Ah yes, from the days of OS/2...

I hate having to tell a client that Rev can't do something so basic that 
affects some 80% of computer users.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
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