Customizing the Recording Process

[The feature associated with this page, MCIWnd Window Class, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer. MediaPlayer has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer instead of MCIWnd Window Class, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

You can customize the recording process, taking complete control of most everything — from creating the MCIWnd window to saving the recorded information in a file. The following example queries the MCI device for recording and saving capabilities, and includes menu commands to record at the beginning or end of the content.

The following example uses the MCIWndCreate function to create a new window and allows you to specify an existing file to store the recorded data and the MCIWndNew macro to associate a new file with the window. Alternatively, you can use the MCIWndOpen or MCIWndOpenDialog macro to specify a file.

The example uses the MCIWndCanRecord macro to verify that the device can record and the MCIWndCanSave macro to verify that the device save information. The example sets the current playback position by using the MCIWndHome and MCIWndEnd macros. The example starts recording by using the MCIWndRecord macro. After the information is recorded, the example saves it by using the MCIWndSaveDialog macro.

case WM_COMMAND: 
    switch (wParam) 
    { 
        case IDM_CREATEMCIWND: 
            g_hwndMCIWnd = MCIWndCreate( hwnd, g_hinst, 
                WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD | 
                MCIWNDF_RECORD,                   // add Record button
                NULL ); 
 
            MCIWndNew(g_hwndMCIWnd, "waveaudio"); // new file 
 
            if( MCIWndCanRecord(g_hwndMCIWnd) ) 
            { 
                MessageBox( hwnd, 
                "Press the red button on the toolbar to record.", 
                "MCIWnd Record", 
                MB_OK ); 
            } 
            else 
            { 
                MessageBox( hwnd, 
                    "This device doesn't record.", 
                    "MCIWnd Record", 
                    MB_OK ); 
            } 
            break; 
        case IDM_RECORDATSTART: 
            if( MCIWndCanRecord(g_hwndMCIWnd) ) 
            { 
                MCIWndHome(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
                MCIWndRecord(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
            } 
            else 
            { 
                MessageBox( hwnd, 
                    "This device doesn't record.", 
                    "MCIWnd Record", 
                    MB_OK); 
            } 
            break; 
        case IDM_RECORDATEND: 
            if( MCIWndCanRecord(g_hwndMCIWnd) ) 
            { 
                MCIWndEnd(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
                MCIWndRecord(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
            } 
            else 
            { 
                MessageBox( hwnd, 
                    "This device doesn't record.", 
                    "MCIWnd Record", 
                    MB_OK); 
            } 
            break; 
        case IDM_SAVEMCIWND: 
            if( MCIWndCanSave(g_hwndMCIWnd) ) 
                MCIWndSaveDialog(g_hwndMCIWnd); 
    } 
    break; 
 
    // Handle other messages here.