VB-AMP PRO (VisualBasic - ActiveMovie Player)
==========
Version: 1.02, Jan 13/1999
(C)1999 Steve J. Gray  

E-mail: sgray@acs.ryerson.ca
WWW:	www.ryerson.ca/~sgray


Requirements
------------

* VB5 Runtimes (including: MCI, Common Dialog, SSTab controls)
  (Available by downloading SJGPlay complete release for VB5)
* ActiveMovie 2 or Microsoft Media Player 5.2 or higher (recommended)
  Needed for MCI driver to play MP3 (and other) files. If you can't
  play MP3 files in Media Player it won't work with VB-AMP either!
* May require editing of system files to enable ActiveMovie.
  If you know for sure that ActiveMovie is installed and you get the
  message "not a registered MCI device" do the following:

  << Windows 95 >>
     Edit the SYSTEM.INI file.
     In the [MCI] section add the line: ActiveMovie=mciqtz.drv
  << Windows NT >>
     Use REGEDIT to add the following key:
     
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI32\ActiveMovie

     Set the value to: mciqtz32.dll


Introduction
------------

  Welcome to VB-Amp Pro! VB-Amp pro is a continuation of my VB-Amp
project. VB-Amp Pro has all the features of VB-Amp plus the following:

	* Fully definable skins with buttons of any size
	* Non-rectangular region for main form
	* Visual Playlist Selector


About MCI
---------

  For those not familiar with MCI (Media Control Interface), it is
the mechanism that the Microsoft Media Player (and others) uses to
play various media files that are out there. This means that you need
an MCI driver to play specific file types. MCI drivers for some of the
common types of files such as WAV, MIDI, AVI etc come standard with
Windows, whereas other types such as MPEG Video, Quicktime etc need
to be installed separately. This is where ActiveMovie comes in.
ActiveMovie is the engine behind Microsoft's DirectShow, Netshow, and
the new Media Player. ActiveMovie attempts to combine all the various
formats into one player.

  VB-Amp Pro requires ActiveMovie2 or MediaPlayer 5.2 (or higher).


Supported Media Formats
-----------------------

  VB-Amp Pro is mainly an MP3 player, however because it uses the
ActiveMovie engine it can also play any file that ActiveMovie supports,
which is almost everything! When adding a file to the playlist simply
use the bottom drop-down menu to select other filetypes. The following
file types are supported (using DirectX 5.2 media runtimes):

	MP2, MP3
	WAV, AU, SND, AIF, AIFC, AIFF
	MID, RMI
	RA, RM, RAM, RMM
	AVI, MOV, QT, M1V, MPA, MPE, MPEG, DAT
	ASF, ASX

Additionally I have added support for the following formats using
other MCI drivers:

1) Modules: MOD, MTM, FAR, 669, OKT, STM, S3M, NST, WOW, XM
   (requires Mod 4Win MCI driver available from www.mod4win.com)
2) AutoDesk Animator: FLI, FLC
   (MCI driver available with Autodesk Animator)
3) Golddisk Animation: AWA, AWM
   (MCI driver source unknown)
4) Multimedia Movie: MMM
   (MCI driver source unknown)


Using the program
=================

  More instructions to follow once features become stable. Here are
quick instructions for using some of the new features:

Skins
-----
  Skins are loaded by selecting a ".skin" file. Skins can be in the
same directory as the program or you can define the skins path in the
preferences. Some skins (like the default) use skin linking. Linked
skins should all be in the same directory since they sometimes must
share bitmap files.

  If you create a unique skin please e-mail it to me so I can add it
to the skin download page.

Visual Playlist Selector (VPS)
------------------------------
 The main purpose of this feature is for CD compilation discs where
many CD's have been MP3'd and put on a single disc. The idea is to
scan each album cover and create a playlist for the album, then the
program will display thumbnails of all the albums on the disc so you
can choose which to load and play. Up to 16 covers can be displayed on
a page. You can page up/down through an unlimited amount of playlists.

 What you need to do is:
	1) Convert the CD tracks to MP3 format
	2) Place them in a folder (optional, but recommended)
	3) Load the MP3 files and create a playlist
	4) Scan the album cover (BMP, GIF, or JPG format)
	5) Save the album cover with the same name as the playlist.

 Example:
	Playlist: "Phil Collins - Hits.m3u"
	Cover...: "Phil Collins - Hits.jpg"


 Now, in the preferences "Paths" tab. Enter the path to your files or
your cd-rom drive (ie: D:\). When you insert the compilation CD click
on the "Visual Playlist Selector" button and watch all your virtual
cd's appear on the screen!

 Categorizing Playlists:

 You can also categorize your playlists in the VPS. Say you want to
split your playlists into genres like "Pop", "Rock", "Country" etc.
Create a folder for each category then create a ".DIR" file with the
same name and (optionally) a bitmap with the same name. Now, when the
VPS sees those ".DIR" files it will only display those entries and NOT
playlists in those subdirectories until they are selected. The ".DIR"
file can be any file (like a text file) as only the name is important.

  Example:
	Folder : Rock
	Dirfile: Rock.dir
	Bitmap : Rock.jpg  (optional)

  Bitmap files should be SQUARE and can be any size (ie: 64x64 pixels).
They will be scaled to fit, so if they are not square they will be
distorted. Be warned, that the bigger the file the longer it will take
to load each into the VPS screen. Also be careful; JPG files can expand
to very large files! Large bitmaps can cause an out of memory error
when 16 are loaded in at once!!!

Continuous Playback (Mixing)
----------------------------

  This allows you to play two MP3's (or other media) at the same time
by overlapping playback. You can specify up to 10 seconds
(9999 milliseconds) of overlap. You will need a fast machine and hard
drive and most likely the latest drivers...

Note: This feature has been tested and works on my machine:
	Pentium2, 266MHz, 64MB, Awe64, Win98, and MSMediaPlayer 6.

 Your milage may vary:-) Please let me know if it works or not, and
your system configuration. I would appreciate the feedback!

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