Hello out there, all.  I have 2 quick questions.
First off, Does anyone out there know of any spiffy
routines that work with AVI files; be it a
freeware/shareware VBX or whatever.  And  second, is there
a constant or anything that points to the  "windows"
directory...anything to let my Application know what the
windows directory is. --Thanks :-)

use the windows api function GetWindowsDirectory

Declare Function GetWindowsDirectory% Lib "Kernel" (ByVal) lpbuffer$,
byval nsize%)

where lpbuffer$ is a predefined string at least nsize+1 in length.
Return value is the length of the string copied into lpbuffer by the
function. Return=0 if error.

Write your using MCI (if you must).  As for windows dir check the
earlier postings before asking questions, as it is quite often there
somewhere (not meant as a telling off).

I recommend you get your hands on the book "Visual Basic Power Toolkit"
published by Ventana Press.  This book covers MCI API functions standard
in Windows DLLs for playing AVI files and how to call them from VB.  I
would explain it all here, but I haven't dealt with it yet.  But, get the
book.  It is well worth the money.  Believe me.  It covers alot of
different things to include graphics and palettes.

-Dan Swaney "The Swaynster"
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1. with MCI.VBX
    MC1.Notify = True
    MC1.Shareable = False
    MC1.DeviceType = "WaveAudio"
    MC1.FileName = voice + "O.WAV"
    MC1.Command = "Open"
    MC1.Wait = True
    MC1.Command = "Play"
    MC1.Command = "Close"

2. Declare Function GetWindowsDirectory Lib "Kernel" (ByVal lpBuffer As
String, ByVal nSize As Integer) As Integer

dim windows_path as STRING

windows_path = String$(144, Chr$(0)): res% =
    GetWindowsDirectory(windows_path, 144)
windows_path = Trim$(UCase$(Left$(windows_path,
    InStr(windows_path, Chr$(0)) - 1)))
If Right$(windows_path, 1) <> "\" Then windows_path = windows_path + "\"

------------------------------------------------------------
  Revised VB Site:  http://www.ionet.net/~robinson/vb.html
  ShareWare Site: http://www.ionet.net/~robinson/home.html
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Hi Dave!
Have you tried the GetSystemDirectory API call? You can look it up in the
Windows 3.1 SDK help file. Here's the declaration:

Declare Function GetSystemDirectory Lib "Kernel" (ByVal lpBuffer As
String, ByVal nSize As Integer) As Integer

Hope this helps. - dmc