Here’s the scenario..

You’re a Clarion developer, and you need a control that can play media files.

The control needs to be stable, it needs to support a wide range of video formats, and ideally it should be reasonably easy to implement.

Deja vu?

Yes, there are similar controls on the market. So what makes this one special?

For starters, it does NOT use the Windows Media Player OCX. Your users don’t have to install another program in order for this control to work. You can ship this control with your EXE! It also won’t display the Media Player logo in your APP!

It’s also a LOT more powerful than anything else that I have seen before. This control can play a HUGE range of file formats, including AVI, MPG, MP3, WMV, FLV (think “YouTube”!), ASF, MOV, OGG, AAC, and many others!

You can even use this control to play DVDs!! Complete with menus, clickable regions, everything! It can also play Audio CDs!

It can play streaming media from a URL, the feed from your webcam, the feed from your video capture card, or you can even use it as a screen capture tool!

It can record audio from your microphone (we’re already incorporated this into J-Skype).

You can apply filers to your videos – distort, invert, or superimpose a logo!

It even includes audio visualization engines!!!

Need I say more..?

If you’re looking for a media control for Clarion, I highly recommend J-Media.  If you’re in any doubt about how good this control really is, why not download and try the demo.

How does it work?

No, I can’t take all the credit. I’m actually basing this on an open-source control called VLC from the VideoLAN project.

I’ve made several improvements to the VLC control, and what took me countless hours of fiddling with undocumented C++ code can now be added to your own Clarion APPs in a matter of minutes.

How do I implement it?

All you need to do is install J-Media, add the “J-Media Global Extension Template” to your Clarion APP, and then drop J-Media controls onto your Clarion windows! Loading a video file takes one line of code. Playing it takes another line of code. It’s really easy to use, and comes with example APPs and documentation.