The Media Control Interface (MCI) provides applications created for Windows 95 with device-independent capabilities for controlling media devices such as audio hardware, videodisc players, and animation players. This interface works with MCI device drivers to interpret and run MCI commands such as pause, play, and stop.
MCI provides a set of core commands for a broad range of media devices. For example, MCI uses the same command to begin playback of a waveform-audio file, a videodisc track, and an animation sequence. MCI also provides extended commands for using particular device types with unique capabilities, such as using a frame-based time format for animation. For more information about MCI drivers and commands, see the Microsoft Windows 95 Device Development Kit.
A device type identifies a class of MCI devices that respond to a common set of commands. The following table lists the currently defined MCI device types.
Device type | Description |
animation | Animation device |
cdaudio | Compact disc (CD) audio player |
dat | Digital audiotape player |
digitalvideo | Digital video in a window (not GDI based) |
other | Undefined MCI device |
overlay | Overlay device (analog video in a window) |
scanner | Image scanner |
sequencer | MIDI sequencer |
vcr | Videocassette recorder or player |
videodisc | Videodisc player |
waveaudio | Audio device that plays digitized waveform-audio files |