Project 1 : Making a Multimedia CD player using Visual Basic

Hi friends, this is our First Project : Making a Multimedia CD player using Visual Basic


Things Needed :


A computer (of course)
visual basic 6.0


Description:


Multimedia refers to devices other than the screen or the printer to play sounds, watch videos or record music. This is done through the use of the Multimedia control. Don't look for it in the toolbox, it's not there. It is an additional control that you must load.

First, create a new form in Project Lesson7 and call it "multimed.frm". Then, in the menu, at Project --> Components, find the item "Microsoft Multimedia Control 6.0" and check the box next to it. Hit OK and that's it. The Multimedia control should now appear in your toolbox.

If you select the multimedia control and put it down on the form, you will have a button bar like all the ones you've seen on CD players, recorders, etc. In the DeviceType property you specify what type of device this control controls:

DeviceType	Device
CDAudio	CD Audio player
DAT	Digital audio tape player
Overlay	Overlay
Scanner	Scanner
Vcr	Videotape player and recorder
Example: a simple CD player We create a new form in Lesson7 and call it multimed.frm. After adding the Multimedia control to the toolbox, we put a MM control on the form. Since we will only be using the one MM control, we'll leave its name as MMControl1. The only property we have to change at this time is the DeviceType, to tell it that we are using the CD player, so we write CDAudio in DeviceType. We add a few labels to complete the form and we get:

Now we have to write the code to operate the CD player.

Before we start to write the code there are a few things to know about the MM control. There is a Track property which contains the number of the current track. But its most important property is called the Command property and it can take on several values that, in fact, operate the device.

Command value	Meaning
Open	Opens the device
Close	Closes the device
Eject	Ejects the CD
Play	Plays the device
Pause	Pauses the device
Next	Goes to next track
Prev	Goes to beginning of current track. If used within 3 seconds of most recent Prev, goes to beginning of previous track
Record	Initializes recording
Save	Saves the open device file
Seek	Step backward or forward a track
Stop	Stops the device
Step	Step forward through tracks

Understand that both Track and Command are run-time properties because they are meaningless at design time. For example, to open the CD player:
MMControl1.Command = "Open"      'we assign the value "Open" to the Command property
To pause:
MMControl1.Command = "Pause"     'we assign the value "Pause" to the Command property

Now, as you have seen, the trick is to know with which events to associate the code that has to be written. The first one is fairly obvious: when we load the form, the Form_Load event, we will open the device. Now, one we haven't used before. When we unload the form, we will close the device. The reason is that, once launched, the device will keep on playing, even if the form is closed. So, just click on the Form_Unload event and write the code there. Finally, just to see that things are running smoothly, we will use the StatusUpdate event for the MM control to display the track being played every time the status of MMControl1 changes (change track, pause, play are all status changes).
As you will see, once the CD starts playing, you can use the buttons in the MM toolbar to control what it does.

You may notice that some of the buttons for the CD Player are not used during play. If you want you can hide these buttons from the control by using the (Custom) property. This will open an editor window that will allow you to customize the MMControl.

	And thats all !! you have created your own cd player..   Please leave your comments too !!