OS/2 multimedia represents audio adapters, CD-ROM drives, videodiscs and other real hardware devices as logical media devices that are managed by the Media Device Manager (MDM). Media devices are a logical representation of the function available from either a real hardware device, software emulation in combination with real hardware, or pure software emulation. The actual implementation is not relevant to an application, because the multimedia system provides device independence with the mciSendCommand and mciSendString interfaces.
The following logical devices are currently supported in this release of OS/2. Additional media devices may be available from IBM or from other companies as OS/2 multimedia is completely extensible at all levels.
Frequently there is a one-to-one correspondence between a real hardware device, such as a CD-ROM drive and its associated media device. Other hardware may be represented as multiple logical devices. For example, a multi-function audio adapter can be represented as waveform audio, MIDI sequencer, and amplifier-mixer media devices.
The following sections describe the function and typical use of each media device, plus the software model presented to the application developer.