Simple video player UserControl/ActiveX Control
This is a simple video player UserControl for VB6, twinBASIC, and VBA, supporting both 32bit and 64bit. It's just a thin wrapper over the IMFPMediaPlayer media player control that's part of Windows Media Foundation. While MS recommends using IMFEngine, that doesn't support Windows 7.
All the basic features are covered:
- Play
- Pause
- Stop
- Volume
- Mute
- Balance
- Seek
- Playback rate
- Duration
- Fullscreen
- Loop
- Choose audio/video track
ucSimplePlayerDemo.twinproj - Basic player implementing the control and its functions using the control as a UserControl, no OCX. This is the recommended version for twinBASIC.
ucSimplePlayer.twinproj - To compile an OCX which you could then use in VB6/tB plus other hosts like VBA 32bit/64bit.
ucSimplePlayerDemo.twinproj - Basic player hosting the OCX. Can run both the 32bit and 64bit OCX.
ucSimplePlayerDemoOCX.vbp - Basic player hosting the OCX for VB6.
The player in ucSimplePlayerDemo.twinproj is nicer with more features than the OCX host versions.
Note
The VB6 in-project version of the latest update is delayed to unresolved issues with displaying album art. If you need VB6 support, the 32bit OCX has been tested to work in it, or use the old v2.2.5 version.
UPDATE - v2.4.12 (19 May 2025) (Source only update; precompiled binaries need no updates)
'Version 2.4.12 (19 May 2025)
'-Changes to make VB6 version finally work. (Thanks again to VanGoghGaming
' for help with this; graphics not my forté.)
UPDATE - v2.4.11 (19 May 2025)
'Version 2.4.11 (19 May 2025)
'-Now using AlphaBlend instead of ImageList_Draw to render album art, as
' a partial workaround to the VB6 issue. (Thanks to VanGoghGaming for tip)
'-Now using SHCreateMemStream instead of CreateStreamOnHGlobal to satisfy
' VanGoghGaming.
'-(Bug fix) Double-free bug could cause crash on exit in x64.
UPDATE - v2.3.10 (18 May 2025)
'Version 2.3.10 (18 May 2025)
'-Album cover is now displayed when you play audio files; you can set
' ShowAlbumArt to False to disable this display.
'-A default image will be shown as album art if none could be loaded from
' the file, to disable, set UseDefaultAlbumArt to False, or to customize
' it, use SetDefaultAlbumArt and pass a byte array of an image file that
' is compatible with WIC.
' Tip: You can also use this as an audio only player by setting Visible
' to False
'-Added LoopPlayback property to automatically loop playback of the current
' item. The PlaybackEnded and a new start event are still fired at the end
' of each loop.
'-Added PlayerWheelScroll event. The demo app now shows how to use this
' to adjust the volume.
'-Player now pauses/unpauses on single left click. Set AllowPauseOnClick to
' False to disable this behavior.
'-Properties are now either hidden from the designer (settable at run
' time only), or properly saved/loaded. Ones still visible in the designer
' now have descriptions.
'-Added HasVideo property get.
'-Switched CopyMemory variant hack to more proper PropVariantClear.
'-(Bug fix) Duration and playback position not working when an audio-
' only file was played.
'-(Bug fix) Setting Paused to False did not change the status returned by
' that property.
'-(Demo) Added FLAC to Open Dialog types.
'-(Demo) File text now also has autocomplete.
'-(Demo) Click to pause/unpause.
'-(Demo) Support for mousewheel on volume and position sliders.
UPDATE - v2.2.5 (29 Mar 2025)
'Version 2.2.5
'-Added ability to select different video and audio streams:
' Use GetVideoStreams/GetAudioStreams to get the number and their
' names/languages, then use ActiveVideoStream/ActiveAudioStream
' properties to set the 1-based number of the active stream.
'-Added PreserveAspectRatio property (default True)
'-Added PlayerKeyUp and PlayerClick events
'-The Demo projects show how to use the above by showing a context menu
' when the player is right clicked, allowing you to switch tracks and
' toggle aspect ratio and fullscreen.
'-Added sub GetNativeSize to get original size of video w/o scaling
'-Added PlayTimer event to make it easy for VBA clients to synchronize
' a progress indicator, since there's no native Timer. Control with:
' .EnablePlayTimer
' .PlayTimerInterval (default 500ms)
Requirements
Windows 7 or newer
VB6, twinBASIC, or VBA
Usage in VBA
VBA can only use this project as an OCX. Use twinBASIC (run it as admin or see non-admin section further down) to compile the OCX matching your Office bitness, it will automatically register. (Note: If you don't subscribe to tB, the 64bit build will have a tB splash screen when it's loaded.)
Alternatively, download the OCX matching the bitness of your MS Office version from the Releases section, and register it with regsvr32. (There is no splash screen as I have a subscription.)
Tip
If you don't know whether you have 32bit or 64bit Office, go to File->Account then click 'About Excel/Access/etc'
Once you've done one of the options above, ucSimplePlayer should be available in the Tools->Additional controls dialog under "Simple Video Player Control v1.1", available when you're editing a UserForm in Excel VBA, or 'ActiveX Controls' in the Access form designer-- the menu that pops up from the dropdown button on the righthand side of the built-in controls box.
Tested in MS Office Excel 2021 64bit.
Compiling without admin
Admin is required for the OCX for VB6 since it must install to HKLM. But for VBA/twinBASIC you don't need it: From the Project menu, open Project Settings, find the "Project: Register DLLs to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" option and switch it to No. You'll no longer need admin.
Video or audio not playing?
You may need additional codecs for Windows Media Foundation. These are available through the Microsoft Store or by downloading the installer directly and using PowerShell. See https://www.codecguide.com/media_foundation_codecs.htm for some common ones, or get them now from AdGuard Store, searching the given Product Id (9...)
HEVC 9N4WGH0Z6VHQ
VP9 9n4d0msmp0pt
AV1 9mvzqvxjbq9v
MPEG-2 9n95q1zzpmh4
Web media 9n5tdp8vcmhs
HEIF image 9pmmsr1cgpwg
Webp image 9pg2dk419drg
Raw image 9nctdw2w1bh8
AC-3/E-AC3 9nvjqjbdkn97
AC-4 9p7646qph1q0
at https://store.rg-adguard.net/ which generates direct links to Microsoft Store server files. Download the .AppxBundle then install with PowerShell using add-appxpackage –path "c:\path\to\file.appxbundle"
The first time you use some of these codecs, if you get error 0x80070426, the "Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant" service must be enabled (though there's no sign in or need for Store to be installed or to have a MS account/logon). You can disable it again after that first use.