In this chapter:
Your personal computer might wear a gray flannel suit most of the time, but it can do more than crunch numbers and fiddle with fonts...
If your computer has the right hardware, it can handle just about anything your eyes and ears can recognize--from simple sound bytes to CD-quality songs, from full-size, symphony-style orchestrations to full-motion, Hollywood-style video.
Multimedia isn't just for game players, either. Even the most boring business task can benefit from the judicious use of sound and video. For example, you can record a brief message to your coworkers and plop it into an e-mail to add a personal touch to the latest budget numbers. It's not difficult to record or play back multimedia files, either; in fact, if your PC is relatively new, your most pressing multimedia challenge will be figuring out how to turn down the volume.
That's a good question... The funny thing about multimedia is that no two people can agree on exactly what it is. But most of us know it when we see or hear it. Generally, here's what you can expect to find when talk turns to multimedia:
TIP: Data files for some of these multimedia types are huge. A 10-second sound clip, for example, might take up 100K of disk space, while a single four-minute video file could consume more than 40 megabytes of disk space! That's why CD-ROMs (which can hold more than 600M) are so popular for multimedia software.
If you're lucky, your PC left the factory with its own sound card and speakers, and it was ready for multimedia the first time you turned it on. If not, you'll need to add some pieces inside and outside your PC.
CAUTION: Upgrading a PC is a job best left to experts. There's enough voltage inside your PC to knock you out cold (or worse), and even if you follow all the precautions to ensure your own safety, you could damage the hardware itself with an accidental static discharge. Besides, you won't be able to install new drivers and finish the upgrade unless you have administrator privileges.
Squeezing speech and melodies out of your PC requires a few pieces of specialized hardware; if you want to be able to record your own sounds and store them on your PC, you'll need an additional gizmo.
There's a volume control on the taskbar; otherwise there are very few options. Double-click the Multimedia icon in the Windows Control Panel to pop up the full set of controls, as shown in Figure 17.1. For example, this is the place to tell Windows how you prefer to record sounds. Radio Quality doesn't sound as good as CD Quality, but the files are much smaller. You'll have to balance the sensitivity of your ears against the free space on your hard disk to decide which setting is right for you.
Fig. 17.1
If your coworkers sometimes plead with you to turn down that racket, use the volume control on your taskbar for quick access.
With a sound card and a pair of speakers, you can make a mighty racket. You'll find sample sounds and videos in the Media folder. Many of them are associated with particular sets of system sounds, but there are a few surprises (including a small collection of Beethoven and Mozart tunes) if you look deeply enough.
Before you start clicking, though, let's explain the difference between the two different types of sound files that Windows can handle:
Plain English, please!MIDI? WAV? Excuse me? MIDI is an acronym that stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. (Pronounce it mid-ee.) The name comes from the way these sounds are created and played back, by combining digital definitions of different "instruments" in a computerized orchestra. Wave-form audio (WAV), on the other hand, is simply a descriptive name for the file format.
MIDI files are much more compact than wave files, typically compressing down by as much as 30 times. But wave files are the only way to capture voices and other real-world sounds. In most applications, you'll find MIDI used for background music, while wave files are used for speech and vocal music. And as you probably guessed, you can find a wealth of extra information about audio files by right-clicking and poking around in the Properties sheets, as in Figure 17.2.
Fig. 17.2
What's in that MIDI file? Just right-click to see all the details. The properties sheet even contains a Preview tab from which you can play a media file without running Media Player.
You can embed sound clips in mail and in reports, but the most common use of sound
clips today is to make your computer beep and tweet in clever, distinctive ways.
Windows lets you control this process by associating specific sound files with things
that happen when you use Windows (it calls these events). There are dozens of Windows
events that you can embellish with sounds. Here are some suggestions:
| System Event | Sound |
| Start Windows | Jim Carrey bellowing "All righty, then!!!!" |
| Empty Recycle Bin | Star Trek transporter room noises |
| Program Error | HAL (the psycho computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey) saying, "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that." |
| Exit Windows | Arnold Schwarzenegger snarling, "I'll be ba-a-a-a-ck!" |
TIP: A sound clip is just another data file, so it's easy to send it to someone else. Just open a folder window containing the sound file, and drag it into a document or a mail message. As long as the recipient has a sound card, he can simply double-click the embedded sound icon to hear your message.
Using the Sounds icon in Control Panel, you can tell Windows you want it to play your favorite Star Trek sound every time a window opens. If you can find the clip, Windows can make the association. Here's how it works:
Fig. 17.3
Match the sound with the Windows event to personalize your working environment.
CAUTION: Sounds can drive you crazy! It may seem hip right now to have Homer Simpson saying "Doh!" every time you see a dialog box, but how funny will it sound the 1,000th time? Really, a few sounds go a long way.
In the bottom of the Sounds dialog box, you might have noticed a section called Schemes. Windows NT includes a handful of ready-made sound schemes, loosely organized around themes like Robotz and the Jungle. But you can make your own just as easily. Let's say you've finished tinkering with the sounds. Maybe you've downloaded a few megabytes of clips from your favorite movies. You've matched the sounds you want to hear with your favorite system events. How do you save it?
Simple. Just open the Sounds dialog box, click Save As, then type the name under which you want to save your killer sounds.
TIP: You can remove or change sounds for a single event in a scheme you like... I've done that with the Utopia theme, in which I like almost all the system sounds except the whoosh that blasts out of the speakers every time a menu pulls down. After attaching No Sound to the menu pull-down event, I like the results much more.
When the guy in the next cubicle begins to complain, it's time to adjust the volume control. On most PCs, you'll have a Volume Control icon (a tiny speaker) on the right side of the taskbar, in the notification area next to the clock. To use this volume control, point at the icon and click.
In fact, this simple volume control offers one of Windows' best multimedia features--an instant mute button. To shut off all sounds in a flash, click the taskbar volume control, then check the Mute button, as shown in Figure 17.4.
Fig. 17.4
Just like the mute button on your TV, this option lets you answer the telephone and actually hear what the caller is saying.
Windows also has a more sophisticated volume control that you can access by simply double-clicking the taskbar icon for the volume control. With the help of this audio control panel, you can adjust the volume and other settings for every different type of incoming and outgoing sound! (See Fig. 17.5 for this small wonder.)
Fig. 17.5
I Like my CD's and wave files to be just right: not too loud, not too soft. If
your tastes run differently, adjust the volume controls accordingly.
You might already have an entire folder full of sound and video files. Look in the Winnt folder for another folder called Media, and use the Start menu Find, Files or Folders command to search for Wave Sounds, Video Clips, and other multimedia files. (If the Media folder isn't there, it's because whoever installed Windows NT on your system chose not to put it there.) By default, Windows associates those files with its own all-purpose playback device called Media Player. To find it, follow the cascading menus from the Start menu through Programs and Accessories, ending up in the Multimedia folder. This simple applet may look like a 98-pound weakling, but it can kick sand in the face of multimedia applications twice its size and weight.
It provides a common interface for all sorts of media files, including sound and video.
Properties and options change to match the type of file. For example, you can tell Windows to let video clips take over the entire screen when they play, or you can specify that they run in a small window instead.
It lets you cut and paste data to and from any application that supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). Is that important? Mark my words: Before you know it you'll be storing voice clips inside mail messages on your computer, and you won't be able to tell where voice mail ends and e-mail begins!
The Media Player uses controls that are remarkably like those found on your CD player or VCR at home. Table 17.1 shows the buttons in the Media Player window; see Figure 17.6 and follow along.
Fig. 17.6
Want to play a snippet of sound or a video clip? Use Windows' built-in Media Player, which changes personality to match the data you feed it.
| What the button looks like | What it does |
|
|
Play starts a clip. (If you double-click a media file, however, it begins playing instantly.) |
|
|
Pause temporarily stops playing. (When you click the Play button, it changes to Pause. When you click Pause, it changes back to Play.) |
|
|
Stop instantly shuts down the media file you're playing. |
|
|
Previous Mark skips back to a spot you marked previously. |
|
|
Rewind lets you move backward through a video or sound clip. |
|
|
Click the Fast Forward button to jump ahead a few seconds. You can also drag the slider to rewind or fast forward the clip visually. |
|
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Next Mark jumps ahead to the next spot you've selected. |
|
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Start Selection puts a "begin here" mark in the current file. |
|
|
End Selection tells Windows where your selection ends. Once you've marked a beginning and an end, you can copy the selected area to the Windows Clipboard and paste it into a new file. |
|
|
The scale lets you quickly move around in a lengthy media clip by simply dragging the slider control. |
You want to reuse a media file? No problem. Choose Edit, Options and you can automatically rewind a clip when it reaches the end; that way, all you have to do is push the Play button. Or, in the same Options dialog box (shown in Fig. 17.7), check the Auto Repeat box to make sure the background music continues to play until you say, "Enough already!"
Fig. 17.7
Want to have a continuous sound or video background for your next electronic slide show? Open a MIDI sequence file or video clip and check the Auto Repeat box.
TIP: You can shrink Media Player to practically nothing. Just double-click the title bar to make all its menus, toolbars, and other distractions vanish completely. Double-click the title bar again to bring the player back.
Most modern multimedia PCs include a microphone and a jack on the back of the card, so that you can record your own voice memos or interesting sounds. To take advantage of this technology, follow the Start menu through Programs and Accessories to the Multimedia folder; you'll find the Sound Recorder applet there (it's illustrated in Fig. 17.8).
Fig. 17.8
Record your own sounds and use them in other documents. All you need is a sound card and a microphone, plus this mini-program.
Recording a sound couldn't be simpler:
Q&A: My sounds don't sound right. Most are tinny, and some won't play at all. What 's wrong?
You might have an old sound card that simply isn't capable of handling high-fidelity sound files. Or it might be configured incorrectly. Ask your system administrator to look at the driver settings and adjust them if necessary. If the problem only occurs with sounds you've recorded, you might have inadvertently told windows to use Telephone Quality instead of Radio or CD Quality. To adjust this setting, open Control Panel and double-click the Multimedia icon, then look at the drop-down list labeled Preferred quality.
A lot of video clips get played automatically as part of a program. Microsoft's nifty Encarta encyclopedia, for example (shown in Fig. 17.9), has dozens of video clips and sound files. You don't need to use Media Player in those cases. Instead, the program does the work.
Fig. 17.9
Most of the video clips you'll find will be on CD-ROMs like this one, Microsoft's award-winning Encarta encyclopedia.
But what do you do when you just want to look at a video file? For Microsoft Video for Windows files (they have the extension .AVI) Media Player is perfect. For starters, choose Device, Properties to tell Windows whether you want the video to stretch to fit the entire screen, or whether you can settle for a small window (see Fig. 17.10). You'll get a sharper picture in a smaller window, but you might choose to settle for some fuzziness so that people standing a few feet away can see the clip more easily.
There's an amazing amount of techno-babble associated with multimedia. Behind the scenes, Windows has to deal with codecs, for example, which are compression-decompression routines that take those enormous video files and make them a little less huge. There are frame rates and sampling rates and audio formats and...well, you get the idea.
Fig. 17.10
You probably won't be happy viewing most video clips at full-screen resolution. To make the image larger, try moving up a little at a time.
Most of the time, you'll find video clips on CD-ROMs (try browsing through the Windows NT CD, for example, to see which videos are included). You might find that some CD-ROMs don't use Media Player; instead, they depend on a different application to play back video. The most popular is Apple's QuickTime for Windows. You won't find it listed in the Windows Help files, but the basic principles for this player (and others like it) are the same.
Q&A: Why does this video look so jerky?
You don't have enough hardware. Video is incredibly demanding, hardware-wise. If you don't have a fast CD-ROM and a Pentium, you can expect to see some problems with your video. What kind? Dropped frames, jerky motion, sound that doesn't keep up with the picture. There's no real cure, unfortunately, short of getting a new PC.
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