Using the Now Playing and Video View Items

The Now Playing and Video view items are windows for media content.

• The Now Playing inset is the small media window sometimes visible at the lower left of the screen. It can contain video or TV content, or it can contain metadata for audio or radio content such as cover art and song titles.
• The Video inset is an optional video window with customizable dimensions and placement on your page. It can contain video content, but no metadata for video or audio.

The following image shows the Now Playing inset, in the lower left corner of the Windows Media Center window:

To include audio or video as part of the user interface, use the appropriate inset as follows.

Now Playing

• Is a non-customizable media window.
• Is always located at the lower-left corner of the page.
• Displays video or audio (the song title and cover art) content.
• Can take and lose focus.
• Can be hidden while media playback continues.
• Dimensions and aspect ratio cannot be changed.
• Can be selected by the user to be displayed in full screen.
• Is always displayed when the user leaves an extensibility application and returns to Windows Media Center with a media experience playing.

Use the Now Playing inset when the current media experience is secondary in nature to the other content on the page.

Video

• Is a fully-customizable media window.
• Contains video content only (you can display the view port for audio content, but a black square or rectangle is displayed).
• Can take or lose focus.
• Can be hidden while media playback continues.
• Dimensions (height and width) and aspect ratio can be changed.
• Can be positioned anywhere on the screen.

Use a Video inset when the content is highly relevant to other metadata or action items on the page.

Programming Elements

To include audio or video as part of the user interface, use the Video or NowPlaying elements in MCML combined with the AddInHost.MediaCenterEnvironment property and MediaCenterEnvironment.PlayMedia method.

With the Video element, the current video playing in Windows Media Center will be displayed within the bounds of the Video view item, but this doesn't affect the video size. The item must be given a MinimumSize or a full set of anchor points if it is displayed within a form or anchor layout. As with any other view item, the Video view item can be animated. The result of the Video element is a rectangle with no other visible UI to denote focus—this UI must be added with additional MCML code.

The NowPlaying element is a Windows Media Center object that contains the behaviors and UI of Windows Media Center (the chrome, the full-screen behavior when selecting an item with the remote, keyboard, and mouse). The NowPlaying view item is essentially a separate item from the rest of the third-party user interface (for example, you cannot rotate it with the other items on the page). You do not need to manage focus between the NowPlaying view item and other focusable objects in MCML because this functionality is implemented automatically.

The NowPlaying element is used only for positioning purposes. So unlike all other view items, NowPlaying does not respond to animations and other transforms (such as scaling and rotation). The Windows Media Center Now Playing inset is placed wherever the NowPlaying view item is placed, and supports some configuration (such as what information to display about the currently playing media).

Sample Explorer

• View Items – NowPlaying > all samples
• View Items – Video > Video
• MediaCenterEnvironment > PlayMedia - Audio
• MediaCenterEnvironment > PlayMedia - Video

See Also

• Playing Media
• Working with Audio and Video