With the media player component, you can add audio and/or video clips to your application. It opens a media device and plays, stops, pauses, records, etc., the audio and/or video clips used by the media device. The media device may be hardware or software.

1. Double-click the media player icon on the System category of the Tool palette. This automatically put a media player control on the form window in which you want the media feature.
2. Using the Object Inspector, select the Nameproperty and enter a new name for your media player control. You will use this when you call the media player control. (Follow the standard rules for naming Delphi identifiers.) Always work directly with the Object Inspector when setting design time properties and creating event handlers.
3. Select the DeviceType property and choose the appropriate device type to open using the AutoOpen property or the Open method. (If DeviceType is dtAutoSelect the device type is selected based on the file extension of the media file specified by the FileName property.) For more information on device types and their functions, see the table below.
4. If the device stores its media in a file, specify the name of the media file using the FileName property. Select the FileName property, click the ellipsis (...) button, and choose a media file from any available local or network directories and click Open in the Open dialog. Otherwise, insert the hardware the media is stored in (disk, cassette, and so on) for the selected media device, at runtime.
5. Set the AutoOpen property to True. This way the media player automatically opens the specified device when the form containing the media player control is created at runtime. If AutoOpen is False, the device must be opened with a call to the Open method.
6. Set the AutoEnable property to True to automatically enable or disable the media player buttons as required at runtime; or, double-click the EnabledButtons property to set each button to True or False depending on which ones you want to enable or disable. The multimedia device is played, paused, stopped, and so on when the user clicks the corresponding button on the media player component. The device can also be controlled by the methods that correspond to the buttons (Play, Pause, Stop, Next, Previous, and so on).
7. Position the media player control bar on the form by either clicking and dragging it to the appropriate place on the form or by selecting the Align property and choosing the appropriate align position from the drop down list. If you want the media player to be invisible at runtime, set the Visible property to False and control the device by calling the appropriate methods ( Play, Pause, Stop, Next, Previous, Step, Back, StartRecording, Eject).
8. Make any other changes to the TMediaPlayer control settings. For example, if the media requires a display window, set the Display property to the control that displays the media. If the device uses multiple tracks, set the Tracks property to the desired track.

Multimedia device types and their functions

For more information on using the media player control, see the topic called Example of Adding Audio and/or Video Clips.