The parameters and flags for this message vary according to the selected device. The units of the MCI_FROM and MCI_TO parameters must be supplied in the currently selected time format. See the MCI_SET message and the MCI_SET_TIME_FORMAT flag for more information.

The following example illustrates how the MCI_FROM and MCI_TO parameters are interpreted. If a multimedia element is composed of samples; in a file with 100 samples, the samples are numbered from 0 to 99. If MCI_FROM is specified as 10 and MCI_TO is specified as 80, MCI_PLAY will play samples 10 through 79. Following the play operation, the current position of the media would be 80.

If the length of a file cannot be determined, MCIERR_SUCCESS might be returned even if the MCI_TO parameter is out of range.

Digital Video Specific

If you are using an application-defined window and your application is running on a system without direct-access device driver support for motion video, do not issue MCI_PLAY with the MCI_WAIT flag specified unless the thread issuing the message is separate from the thread reading the message queue.