CDPLAYER.EXE (Version 1.0) Copyright (c) 1992 Jeff Prosise
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First Published in PC Magazine November 24, 1992 (Utilities)
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CDPLAYER:

This multimedia Windows utility lets you play audio disks
in a CD-ROM drive and control track selections as you would on a
conventional CD player. Requires Windows 3.1 (or 3.0 with Multimedia
Extensions) and an audio-capable CD-ROM drive.

USING CDPLAYER

In order to assign a device letter to a CD-ROM drive, DOS requires
MSCDEX (Microsoft's CD-ROM extensions), whichif you use your drive to
read data disks is probably already loaded. If not, add it to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file or run it from the command line prior to starting
Windows.

If you don't have the latest MSCDEX release (which is Version 2.21
as of this writing), you can download it from the Microsoft Software
Library on CompuServe. Type GO CIS:MSL to get there, then download
CDEXT.EXE (a self-extracting archive).

You must also install Windows' CD Audio driver, MCICDA.DRV, before
using CDPLAYER. To find out if it's already in place, start the Control
Panel, open the Drivers applet and look through the Installed Drivers
list box. If ``[MCI] CD Audio'' doesn't appear, install it by pressing
the Add button and selecting ``[MCI] CD Audio.'' Click OK, then
follow the on-screen instructions. Windows may request one of its
distribution disks, so have the originals handy. When you're done,
restart Windows.

The easiest way to make CDPLAYER accessible is by setting up a
program item for it in a Program Manager group. You may prefer, though,
to add the item to the Startup group so CDPLAYER will load every time
Windows does.

When the utility runs you'll see a window with numbered buttons in
the upper-left corner function just like those on a real CD player
whichever you press causes play to begin at that track. CDPLAYER only
enables buttons that correspond to existing tracks. If a CD
contains 14 tracks, for example, buttons 1 through 14 will be valid.
The rest will be grayed out. With no CD in the drive, all 20 buttons
will be disabled.

The 20+ button in the lower-left quadrant of the window lets you
select track numbers higher than 20. Press it once and the track-button
numbers change from their usual 1 through 20 to 21 through 40. Select
it again and the numbers return to 1 through 20 if the CD contains 40
or fewer tracks; they turn into 41 through 60 for CDs containing more
than 40 tracks. CDPLAYER supports up to 99 tracks per CD, the maximum
that the MCICDA driver allows. The 20+ button will only be enabled if
a CD in the drive contains more than 20 tracks.

The buttons in the upper-right corner of the window also work like
those on a real CD player. The Play button begins playback at track 1,
Stop halts it, Pause suspends it, and Eject ejects the CD (provided your
CD-ROM drive supports a software eject command; not all of them do).
The button labeled ``|<<'' goes to the previous track, while ``>>|''
advances to the next, furnishing a quick way to replay or skip a track.
Once started, play proceeds unless interrupted by a press of the Stop,
Pause, or Eject keys. The Continuous Play check box, if marked, causes
CDPLAYER to repeat the entire CD (from the first track) every time it
reaches the end, until the box is no longer checked or the program
terminates. If the box is unchecked, play ceases after the final track.

The controls in the lower-right corner of the window show the status
of the current track: Track displays the track's number, Length gives its
duration (in minutes and seconds), and Time shows how long the track has
played (again, in minutes and seconds). The scroll-bar thumb also
reflects progress through the track being played by moving to the right.
Likewise, you can select a new position in the current track by either
sliding the scroll-bar thumb directly or pressing the left or right
arrows appearing at opposite ends of the bar. The utility updates both
the Time indicator and scroll bar every second.

The Close button terminates CDPLAYER, but a currently playing CD
will finish. If you want play to halt when you close the application,
press Stop first.

The window's appearance always tells you the status of the CD-ROM
drive. If all track buttons are grayed out (disabled), there is no CD
in the drive. If one or more buttons are enabled but Track, Length,
and Time are blank, then there is a CD in the drive but it's not playing.
Pressing Play or a numbered button will start the audio. When the Track,
Length, and Time indicators are lit but Time and the scroll bar are
frozen, the CD is paused. Press Pause again to resume. Finally, a
changing Time indicator and moving scroll-bar thumb mean that a CD is
currently playing.
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Jeff Prosise is a Contributing Editor to PC Magazine.