Displaying a video in Excel

[TotalBeginner201]

Hello,

Here is my problem. I want to display a video file with *.avi or *.mp4 extension using mciSendString.The file is located on my hard drive. I've already found two methods posted on mrexcel:

• Open an AVI file from an Userform
• Viewing aninmaton files in a WorkBook

I used both of them, changing the api declarations by adding ptrsafe. I also put my file's full path.

First approach modificated with ptrsafe in code module:

Public Declare PtrSafe Function sndPlaySound32 _
    Lib "winmm.dll" _
    Alias "sndPlaySoundA" ( _
        ByVal lpszSoundName As String, _
        ByVal uFlags As Long) As Long

Public Declare PtrSafe Function mciSendString Lib "winmm.dll" Alias _
"mciSendStringA" (ByVal lpstrCommand As String _
, ByVal lpstrReturnString As String, ByVal uReturnLength As Long _
, ByVal hwndCallback As Long) As Long


Declare PtrSafe Function GetActiveWindow Lib "USER32" () As Integer

Const WS_CHILD = &H40000000

Sub PlayAVIFile()

'Dimension variables.
Dim CmdStr As String, FileSpec As String
Dim Ret As Integer, XLSHwnd As Integer

'The name and location of the AVI file to play.
FileSpec = "C:AVIFilesE-MailScanemail.avi" 'C:AVIFilesCommconnectmodemld.avi"

'Get the active sheet's window handle.
XLSHwnd = GetActiveWindow()

'Opens the AVIVideo and creates a child window on the sheet
'where the video will display. "Animation" is the device_id.
CmdStr = ("open " & FileSpec & _
" type AVIVideo alias animation parent " & _
LTrim$(Str$(XLSHwnd)) & " style " & LTrim$(Str$(WS_CHILD)))

Ret = mciSendString(CmdStr, 0&, 0, 0)

'Put the AVI window at location 25, 120 relative to the
'parent window (Microsoft Excel) with a size of 160 x 160.
Ret = mciSendString("put animation window at 50 240 160 160", _
0&, 0, 0)

'The wait tells the MCI command to complete before returning
'control to the application.
Ret = mciSendString("play animation wait", 0&, 0, 0)

'Close windows so they don't crash when you exit the application.
Ret = mciSendString("close animation", 0&, 0, 0)


End Sub

The code executes. I am not getting any errors. However nothing happens.
Everything runs fine when I try to play an mp3. I can hear the mp3 file being played:

Sub PlaympFile()


Dim CmdStr As String, FileSpec As String
Dim Ret As Integer, XLSHwnd As Integer

FileSpec = "C:AVIFilesE-MailScanemail.avi"


XLSHwnd = GetActiveWindow()

CmdStr = "open " & FileSpec & " alias animation"

Ret = mciSendString(CmdStr, 0&, 0, 0)


Ret = mciSendString("play animation wait", 0&, 0, 0)

Ret = mciSendString("close animation", 0&, 0, 0)


End Sub

The second approach involves using an userform. I tried it with userform_click event. In userform module i put the following:

Private Declare PtrSafe Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As LongPtr

Private Sub UserForm_Click()
Dim FrmHwnd As String
Dim Ret, L, T, W, H  As Long

With Me.Image1
    L = .Left
    T = .Top
    W = .Width
    H = .Height
End With

FrmHwnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, Me.Caption) & " Style " & &H40000000
strCommand = "open C:\MyAVI.avi Type avivideo Alias video1 parent " & FrmHwnd
    
    Ret = mciSendString(strCommand, "", 0, 0)
    Ret = mciSendString("put video1 window at", L & T & W & H, 0, 0)
    Ret = mciSendString("play video1 wait", "", 0, 0)
    Ret = mciSendString("close video1", "", 0, 0)
End Sub

Still nothing happens .

In Multimedia:Playing a Device there is info that:
"
Your application can specify the following options to define the playback window for playing an AVI file:

• Use the MCIAVI driver's default pop-up window.
• Specify a parent window and window style that the MCIAVI driver can use to create the playback window.
• Specify a playback window for the MCIAVI driver to use for playback.
• Play the AVI file on a full-screen display.

"
and

"When the MCIAVI driver creates the playback window or obtains a window handle from your application, it does not display the window until your application either plays the sequence or sends a command to display the window. Your application can use the window command to display the window without playing the sequence. For example, the following command displays the window using mciSendString"

I know that there is a windows media player control. I used it and it works ok. I prefer something like mci because it doesn't require the user of workbook to add reference.

 

[Logit]

This plays an MP4 here :

Option Explicit

Sub playMP4()

Dim WMP As Object
    Set WMP = CreateObject("new:{6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6}")
    WMP.OpenPlayer "C:\Users\jimga\Desktop\Movies\12-Mighty-Orphans-2021-STAGATV-COM.mp4"
End Sub

 

[TotalBeginner201]

Thank you Logit. This solution works and after running this macro a windows media player shows up and the video is being displayed. I'm trying to do something like a splash screen/intro that runs on opening of a workbook or use an userform as a parent for that video. Would it be possible to play a video using Your method with UI disabled or in some kind of windowless mode? In object viewer I can see that WindowsMediaPlayer class has properties like uiMode or windowlessVideo. Seems like i can only read values of those properties. When I use something like:

Sub playMP4()

Dim WMP As Object
    Set WMP = CreateObject("new:{6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6}")
    WMP.windowlessVideo = True
    'Debug.Print WMP.windowlessVideo
    WMP.OpenPlayer "path to file goes here"
    
End Sub

or

Sub playMP4()

Dim WMP As Object
    Set WMP = CreateObject("new:{6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6}")
    WMP.uiMode = "none"
    WMP.OpenPlayer "path to file goes here"
    
End Sub

it still displays the media player with all the controls. Nothing changes.

 

[Logit]

Splash screen with video?

Post #2 in the above URL link contains everything you should need to run a video in a splash screen.
I did not post any code here as it is quite extensive.