Chapter 20: Working with Video

Playing Video Files with Windows Media Player

As described in the previous chapter, the Windows Media Player program that comes with Windows can play many different types of multimedia files, including video files.

To start Windows Media Player, choose Start | All Programs | Windows Media Player, choose Start | Windows Media Player (if the program is on your Start menu), or click the Windows Media Player icon on the Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar (if your taskbar includes this toolbar).

For the details on the new interface for Windows Media Player 8, turn to the section "Playing Sound Files with Windows Media Player" in Chapter 19.

Windows Media Player can't play all types of video files. To play Apple QuickTime files (.qt), you'll need the QuickTime viewer, available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime. Windows Media Player can play the popular MPEG format.

Playing Video Files from Your Hard Disk

You have several options for selecting a file to play. The easiest is for you to have Windows Media Player scan your disk drives for audio and video files of all types. If you have already scanned for files, click the Media Library button, click Video in the list of categories, and click the All Clips subcategory. Windows Media Player displays all available video files. When you double-click a file in the Media Library, Windows Media Player plays the file, followed by the rest of the files on the list. If the file requires a codec to tell Windows Media Player how to read its format, the program connects to the Windows Media Web site (at http://www.windowsmedia.com) and tries to locate the appropriate codec.

If you access the Internet via a dial-up connection, Windows Media Player tries to connect. If you are already connected, Windows Media Player connects to the Windows Media Web site through the existing connection. You may be required to validate the installation of the new codec.

To play a video file that is not in your Media Library, choose File | Open from the Windows Media Player menu bar, or press CTRL-O. In the Open dialog box that appears, navigate to your video file and click Open. You can also drag the video file (or any multimedia file) from the desktop or an Explorer window into the Windows Media Player window.

Make sure to set the Files Of Type box to All Files, so that you see all types of video files.

When you open a file, either by choosing File | Open or by using the Media Library, Windows Media Player loads the video file, switches to the Now Playing view, and displays the video in the video screen part of the Windows Media Player window. If it's not already playing, click the Play button to start the video, which appears in the video screen (middle) section of the Windows Media Player window.

While you are playing a video file, you can also perform these actions:

• Stop the video by clicking the Stop button.
• View the image full-screen by pressing ALT-ENTER or by choosing View | Full Screen from the menu bar. To return from full-screen display, press ESC.
• Move forward or backward in the file by clicking the Skip Forward, Skip Backward, Fast Forward, or Rewind buttons (the VCR-style buttons along the bottom of the window); or by dragging the Position slider.
• Adjust the volume by clicking and dragging the Volume slider or by choosing Play | Volume from the menu bar.

If you are experiencing video problems and suspect your video card, you can change your acceleration setting. Choose Tools | Options from the menu and click the Performance tab, as shown in Figure 20-1. Reduce the Video Acceleration (that is, slide it to the left) to solve some hardware-based video problems.

Figure 20-1: The Performance tab of the Windows Media Player Options dialog box

Playing Streaming Video Files from the Internet

Video files tend to be huge because each frame of a video requires many thousands of bytes of information. Viewing video over the Internet can involve long waits for video files to complete downloading. The advent of streaming video improved matters: you can begin playing a streaming video file after only a portion of the file has arrived. The streaming video player continues to receive parts of the file at the same time that it is playing earlier parts. As long as the program can receive information at least as fast as it can play it, you see uninterrupted video. Streaming audio files and players work the same way.

The most popular streaming video format is RealVideo (with extension .rv). You can download the RealPlayer program for free from the Real Web site at http://www.real.com; this program works with your Web browser to play RealAudio and RealVideo files from the Internet.

Microsoft has its own streaming video format, called Advanced Streaming Format, or ASF. Files in this format have the extension .asf or .asx. ASF files with the .asf extension contain the actual streaming video data. ASX files with the .asx extension contain a single line of text, with the URL of a continuously updating video newsfeed. Windows Media Player can play both ASF and ASX files. Normally, Windows Media Player runs automatically when you start to download an ASF or ASX file from the Internet. You can also run Windows Media Player and then open the streaming file by choosing File | Open URL from the menu.

When you see a link on a Web page for an ASF or ASX file, click the link. Depending on how your Web browser is configured, you may see a message asking whether to open the file or save it; choose to open the file. Your browser downloads the first section of the file, runs Windows Media Player, and begins to play the file. The video may appear in your browser window or in a separate window.

You can use the Stop, Pause, and Play buttons to stop and start the video. When you are done playing the video, close the Windows Media Player window if it remains open. If you started viewing the video by clicking a link in your Web browser, the browser window is probably still open where you left it.

Strangely, if you use the Media Guide button and the Windowsmedia.com Web site to find streaming video, your browser window may pop up to play the video, rather than Windows Media Player displaying the video.

To find video to watch on the Internet, you can use the Media Guide button on the Windows Media Player toolbar, as shown in Figure 20-2.

Figure 20-2: The Media Guide button offers links to online video--some appear in the Windows Media Player window, but most play in your browser.