Specifications

Windows Embedded Automotive 7 Deep Dive: Phone Core and Media Core 63
Playback
You can use the following control functions to automate stop, resume or fast forward for your
media application:
• MediaPlayControl: Pass commands to this function.
• MediaGetCurrentStatus: Retrieves the structure that has the current status and the
position of the current track. If you want to display the artist and title, use this function
to display metadata.
• Media Core Messages: You can use the following to get current play status (same as
Playback Update):
o WM_TRACK_STARTED: Passed when each track is started.
o WM_TRACK_COMPLETE: Passed when each track in a playlist is finished.
For information about other Windows messages, see Media Core Windows Messages.
Album Art
The album art functionality lets OEMs create interfaces that present album art to users. Album
art metadata groups and displays tracks by album, such that a media player application can
display album art for tracks from the current connected device.
The following steps provide an example of how to display album art:
1. Call the MediaBrowseGetAlbumArtCount or MediaNowPlayingGetAlbumArtCount
function to get the count, if album art is available. If album art is available, then go to
Step 2.
2. Call the following functions to get information about the image, such as the type of
image:
• MediaBrowseGetAlbumArtInfo
• MediaNowPlayingGetAlbumArtInfo
3. Call either the path or data functions, depending on the type of device:
• If the device is an MSD device, use the path functions
MediaBrowseGetAlbumArtPath or MediaNowPlayingGetAlbumArtPath.
• If the device is an iPod, use data functions MediaBrowseGetAlbumArtData or
MediaNowPlayingGetAlbumArtData.
Note: For iPod devices, you can only retrieve art from the currently playing track.
Device Tips
When Media Core requests a file to be played, the request is directed to a connected device.
Each connected device has unique behavior.
Consider the following when you are working with devices:
• Indexing starts when a user plugs in the device.
• Use the same set of APIs for all devices.
• Use Browse API commands.
• iPod devices have a category-based hierarchy model (genre/artist/album/track);
therefore, browse API commands work as soon as the device is connected.