Media Control Interface

The Media Control Interface, often called MCI, is a special set of tools created by Microsoft and IBM to help control devices like music players and sound systems connected to a Microsoft Windows or OS/2 computer. These devices include things like CD-ROM players and audio controllers.

MCI makes it easy for programmers to create software that can play many types of music and sound files. It works by sending simple commands, which are like instructions written as words, to control these devices. These commands can come from different parts of a computer program, making it simpler to add multimedia features.

Over time, MCI was replaced by newer tools called DirectX APIs, which were introduced in 1995. These newer tools offered more advanced ways to handle music, video, and other types of media on computers.

MCI Devices

The Media Control Interface has 7 main parts, called MCI devices. These include cdaudio, digitalvideo, overlay, sequencer, vcr, videodisc, and waveaudio. Each of these devices can play different types of files. For example, a CD-ROM can play CD-DA tracks, and other devices can handle different kinds of media files. Over time, more MCI devices have been created to support various media types.

Playing media through the MCI interface

To play different kinds of media, like music or videos, you use special commands with the MCI interface. These commands help set up and control the media player correctly.

There are different types of commands, such as system commands, required commands, basic commands, and extended commands. You can find a full list of these commands at [Microsoft's MSDN Library](