Windows legacy audio components: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:58, 28 May 2018

Revision as of 10:40, 27 July 2018

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The Multimedia Extensions (WaveIn/WaveOut interfaces) were released in autumn 1991 to support [[sound card]]s, as well as [[CD-ROM]] drives, which were then becoming increasingly available. The Multimedia Extensions were released to [[Original equipment manufacturer|Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)]], mainly CD-ROM drive and sound card manufacturers, and added basic [[multimedia]] support for audio input and output and a [[Compact disc|CD]] audio player application to Windows 3.0. The Multimedia Extensions' new features were not available in Windows 3.0 real mode, only in standard and 386 enhanced mode. [[Windows 3.1x]] would later incorporate many of its features. Microsoft developed the [[Windows Sound System]] sound card specification to complement these extensions.

In Windows 95/ME, MME lacks mixing multiple audio streams during playback and device sharing, so only one audio stream can be rendered at a time. But some sound card drivers can emulate more than one MME device (or support more than a single streaming client) so it could work with MME too. MMEStarting supportsfrom upWindows to2000, twoMME channelssupports ofplayback recording,device sharing 16(multi-bitclient [[audio bit depth]]access) and [[samplingcan rate]]smix ofplayback upstreams to 44together.1 kHz withStarting allfrom theWindows audioXP, beingMME mixed and sampledstarted to 44.1 kHz.{{citationsupport needed|date=Januaryrecording 2013}}device sharing.

In earlier Windows version, MME supported up to two channels of recording, 16-bit [[audio bit depth]] and [[sampling rate]]s of up to 44100 samples per second with all the audio being mixed and sampled to 44100 samples per second.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} Starting from Windows 2000, MME supports up to 384000 samples per second, up to 8 channels, and up to 32 bits per sample.

Prior to Windows XP, the number of MME/WinMM device interfaces (waveIn, waveOut, midiIn, midiOut, mixer, and aux) is restricted to 10. This limit is raised from 10 to 32 in Windows XP.<ref>[http://www.staudio.de/kb/english/drivers/ Windows audio driver API basics]</ref><ref>[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff538956(v=VS.85).aspx Windows 2000 Device Interface Limits]</ref>

Device name length in MME is restricted to 31 characters so long device names may appear only partially.

===Issues===