scheduled task-media player

[medford]

I'm trying to figure out how to launch media player in winxp to have it play .wav or cds for church bells at predetermined times & days. Scheduled Tasks will launch Media Player but how can I get it to start playing automatically? Maybe there are some other ways to do this, any ideas? thanks

[PBBPaul]

[quote]Originally posted by medford: [b]I'm trying to figure out how to launch media player in winxp to have it play .wav or cds for church bells at predetermined times & days. Scheduled Tasks will launch Media Player but how can I get it to start playing automatically? Maybe there are some other ways to do this, any ideas? thanks[/b][/quote]Medford, This can be done through your phone system believe it or not. Ultimate software developed an application for just this type of situation. It's a new variation of their school bell program. They don't have it posted on their website yet (www.uspnet.com) but you can call Roy at 262-789-9654 and he can direct you to your nearest dealer and answer any questions for you.

[not Cereal]

i have one that works! it's this really fancy thing, hangs on the wall, and has a bird in it.... sorry i am no help. how could you do any work on that thing? or is it a second computer

[medford]

Coaster, This is a pc in the a/v room at a church that is basically only used for running power point for projector display. I'm thinking this could run in the background and the pc would be left running 24/7. I have an old version of Cakewalk (3.0) that is supposed to do this but I really didn't want to use it. medford

[not Cereal]

so its for a "real purpose" and not just for fun? like actually ringing the church bells?

[medford]

Right, but there are no "real" bells but some horn type speakers in the steeple. I want to play wave files of recorded bells. They need to play at certain times every week. Like maybe noon each day, 11:00am & noon on Sundays etc. This is a job for hire (I'm getting paid!)and it needs to be right. thanks medford

[not Cereal]

i did a search on google and it came up with a lot of hardware solution, timers, distro's, etc. but i couldnt find any software. its gotta be out there though, its such a simple thing your trying to do, its just "has anyone tried to do it before"? and that i dont know

[Dwarf]

Anything with an alarm function that can use assignable sounds should do the trick. Maybe you should look at some clock and alarm programs? -- Rob

[Dak Lander]

Hey Medford, You can use Microsoft Office's Outlook Calendar to do that. There is an option to set up recurring events. Basically, you are just setting up a reminder and setting the notification sound as the sound file you want to play. The program apparently just uses the soundcard to play. My system lags about 30 seconds after the set time to start playing but it does work. Granted, this is a work-a-round but it does work. I believe there's a way to launch a program too but you need to be able to write a command funtion to launch the application. (I've forgotten how to write that script) Once you have a com function written to launch the program you go into tools, options, & advanced options. There you'll see com addins. I've tried to just add an exe file but that didn't work so you'll need the command script to launch the exe file with the name of the bell sound file in the exe. That'll start your media player and should launch the bells.

[medford]

Thanks Dak, That's an interesting idea. I'll experiment with Outlook and see what happens. Anybody else got any ideas? medford

[noneverstuck]

I haven't tried this, but instead of setting up Scheduler to launch the Media Player, just set it up to launch the .WAV file. Shouldn't Media Player launch automatically to play the .WAV file if your extensions are set up correctly? Deef

[Dak Lander]

[quote]Originally posted by Deef: [b]I haven't tried this, but instead of setting up Scheduler to launch the Media Player, just set it up to launch the .WAV file. Shouldn't Media Player launch automatically to play the .WAV file if your extensions are set up correctly? Deef[/b][/quote]Medford, This idea from Deef works. The test I did was an aiff file. The time set launched my default player (winamp) and played the file.

[Mats Olsson.]

Sounds like a typical hypercard or apple events kind of task (if you're using a mac that is). /Mats

[medford]

Yep, Deef is right. I overlooked the browse button. After I specified the file, mp3 or wav, it launched Media Player and all is well. Thanks everybody, I knew someone here would have the answer. You guys ROCK. medford

[Dak Lander]

Hey Medford, You can insure your computer's clock is on time by running a time correction application peridically. The clock always seems to drift, at least on my computers. I use [url=http://www.gregorybraun.com/]WEB TIME[/url] to corect mine to the standard time in Boulder, CO. You can set the program to run automatically each time windows is run.