The Ultimedia Services object library provides facilities for working with digital audio, video, and image media at three levels. The first is the ability to play the digital media and the second is the capability to edit that media. The third level is for programmers writing their own applications, which include software service objects. The service objects provide the ability to play the digital media at the command of the application program, file access, video compression and decompression, filtering of audio data, and device access. These objects can be used to write more powerful applications.
The audio player can play audio files of various formats. The movie player is used for presenting synchronized audio/video when these files are present, such as when they have been electronically mailed to the system. An alternative to using the simple players is to use the audio editor and movie editor. These editors allow for modification of the digital media, such as combining or reducing files.
Much of the functionality of Ultimedia Services is made available to programmers as a set of object-oriented services. Media handler objects are used to play the media within an application. Applications with the need to edit or translate digital media can use the file access and media conversion objects, such as video codec objects and audio filter objects. Programmers can use this set of services to develop applications with audiovisual functions that are synchronized and integrated on the user interface.
The list of objects included in the Ultimedia Services library is detailed in "Ultimedia Services Objects Library" .
To learn more about Ultimedia Services objects, see: