The Media Control Interface — MCI for short — is a high-level

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

developed by

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and IBM for controlling

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

peripheral A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the ...

s connected to a

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computer, such as

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

players and audio controllers. MCI makes it very simple to write a program which can play a wide variety of media files and even to record sound by just passing commands as

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

s. It uses relations described in Windows registries or in the CIsection of the file . One advantage of this API is that MCI commands can be transmitted both from the programming language and from the scripting language (open script, lingo aso). Example of such commands are or . , the MCI interface has been phased out in favor of the

DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", ...

APIs first released in 1995.

MCI Devices

The Media Control Interface consists of 7 parts: *cdaudio *digitalvideo *overlay *sequencer *vcr *videodisc *waveaudio Each of these so-called MCI devices (e.g.

or VCD player) can play a certain type of files, e.g. plays files, plays

CD-DA Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named fo ...

tracks among others. Other MCI devices have also been made available over time.

Playing media through the MCI interface

To play a type of media, it needs to be initialized correctly using MCI commands. These commands are subdivided into categories: *System Commands *Required Commands *Basic Commands *Extended Commands A full list of MCI commands can be found a
Microsoft's MSDN Library

References

External links

Microsoft MCI Reference
- MSDN Library Microsoft application programming interfaces {{windows-stub