Media position and time information are required as input and also returned as output by many multimedia commands. Time formats vary, depending on the device being used and the format of the data being operated on. The default time base for both the procedural and string interfaces is MMTIME. See MMTIME Format.
Other time formats, such as milliseconds, are also supported.
Time formats used by media control interface devices for measuring time are listed in the following table. The flags shown in the table are set with the MCI_SET command.
┌───────────────┬─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐ │Device │Formats │Flags │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤ │CD-DA │milliseconds │MCI_FORMAT_MILLISECONDS │ │ │mmtime │MCI_FORMAT_MMTIME │ │ │minutes-seconds-frames │MCI_FORMAT_MSF │ │ │tracks-min-sec-frame │MCI_FORMAT_TMSF │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤ │CD-XA │milliseconds │MCI_FORMAT_MILLISECONDS │ │ │mmtime │MCI_FORMAT_MMTIME │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤ │digital video │milliseconds │MCI_FORMAT_MILLISECONDS │ │ │mmtime │MCI_FORMAT_MMTIME │ │ │frames │MCI_FORMAT_FRAMES │ │ │hours-minutes-seconds │MCI_FORMAT_HMS │ │ │hours-min-sec-frames │MCI_FORMAT_HMSF │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤ │waveform audio │milliseconds │MCI_FORMAT_MILLISECONDS │ │ │mmtime │MCI_FORMAT_MMTIME │ │ │bytes │MCI_FORMAT_BYTES │ │ │samples │MCI_FORMAT_SAMPLES │ ├───────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤ │MIDI sequencer │milliseconds │MCI_FORMAT_MILLISECONDS │ │ │mmtime │MCI_FORMAT_MMTIME │ │ │SMPTE 24 │MCI_SEQ_SET_SMPTE_24 │ │ │SMPTE 25 │MCI_SEQ_SET_SMPTE_25 │ │ │SMPTE 30 │MCI_SEQ_SET_SMPTE_30 │ │ │SMPTE 30 │MCI_SEQ_SET_SMPTE_30DROP │ │ │song pointer │MCI_SEQ_SET_SONGPTR │ └───────────────┴─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘