Messages
int
Arguments
location
[int]
Sets the current time location of the movie. If the movie is playing, it will play from the newly set location. 0 is always the beginning. The end time varies from one movie to another. (The length message reports the end time location out the left outlet.)
(drag)
When a QuickTIme movie file is dragged from the Max File Browser to a
movie object, the file will be loaded.
active
Arguments
flag
[int]
The word active, followed by a non-zero number, makes the movie active (the default). Followed by a 0, active makes the movie inactive. An inactive movie will not play or change location.
clear
Has the same effect as dispose with no arguments.
(mouse)
Double-clicking on the
movie object will make the movie window active.
dispose
Arguments
filename
[symbol]
Closes the movie window if it is open, and removes all movies from the
movie object's memory. If the word
dispose is followed by the name of a loaded movie, only the named movie will be removed.
duration
Reports the duration of the movie (in time units) out the left-most outlet.
ff
The word ff fast-forwards the movie.
getduration
Reports the end time position of the movie (in QuickTime Time Units) from the left outlet.
getrate
Reports the current rate multiplied by 65536 out the right outlet. Thus, normal speed is reported as 65536, half speed is reported as 32768, double speed backward is reported as -131072, etc. If the movie is not playing, the rate is reported as 0, and if no movie has yet been loaded nothing is sent out.
gettime
Reports the current time location of the movie.
length
The length message's functionality is equivalent to the getduration message.
loadintoram
Arguments
flag
[int]
The word loadintoram, followed by a non-zero number, attempts to load the entire movie into memory, if possible. The default is 0.
loop
Arguments
flag
[int]
The word loop, followed by a number in the range 0-2, controls looping for the current film on. The options are:
0: looping off (default) 1: looping on 2: palindrome mode (forward and then backward)
loopend
Arguments
end
[int]
The word loopend, followed by a number, sets the end point of a loop. The default value is corresponds to the end of the film.
looppoints
Arguments
beginning
[int]
end
[int]
The word looppoints, followed by two numbers, sets the beginning and end points of a loop. the default values are 0 (i.e., the start of the film) for the start point and the end of the film for the endpoint.
loopset
Arguments
beginning
[int]
end
[int]
The loopset message's functionality is equivalent to the looppoints message.
loopstart
Arguments
beginning
[int]
The word loopstart, followed by a number, sets the beginning point of a loop. The default value is 0 (i.e., the start of the film).
matrix
Arguments
matrix
[list]
The word matrix, followed by nine floating point numbers, reloads the current movie into RAM after performing a transformation matrix operation on the image. This transformation is the same one used for the mapping in QuickTime of points from one coordinate space (i.e, the original image) into another coordinate space (a scaled, rotated, or translated version of the original image).
The transform matrix operation consists of nine matrix elements
mute
Arguments
flag
[int]
The word mute, followed by a non-zero number, turns off the movie's sound (if it has any). Followed by a 0, mute turns on the movie's sound (the default).
next
Arguments
time-units
[int]
The word next, followed by a number, moves the time location ahead by that amount. If no number is supplied, next moves the time ahead by 5. (The actual time meaning of these units varies from movie to movie.)
nextmovie
Stops the movie if it is playing, and switches to the movie that was loaded just prior to the current movie. (The movies are stored in reverse order from the order in which they were loaded.) If there is no prior movie, nextmovie wraps around back to the most recently loaded movie. Note that the title of the movie window is not automatically changed, even though the "current movie" has been changed by nextmovie.
open
Brings the movie window to the foreground (applies only to
movie, not
imovie).
palindrome
Arguments
flag
[int]
The word palindrome, followed by a non-zero number, sets the movie to play in palindrome mode (forward and then backward). Looping must be turned on. palindrome 0 (the default) disables palindrome mode.
passive
Arguments
mode
[int]
The word passive, followed by a non-zero number, sets the passive mode. In passive mode, starting a movie will not cause the frame to change unless a bang message is received. passive 0 (the default) sets the movie object to respond to normal start messages.
pos
Arguments
index
[float]
The word pos followed by a floating-point number which denotes a position-index within the movie will cause the playback-position to jump to the specified position in the movie.
prev
Arguments
time-units
[int]
The word prev, followed by a number, moves the time location backward by that amount. If no number is supplied, prev moves the time backward by 5.
quality
Arguments
interval
[int]
The word quality, followed by a number, sets the minimum interval, in milliseconds, between movie redraws. The default is 0 (i.e., no minimum).
rate
Arguments
input
[list]
The word rate, followed by one or more integers or floats, sets the playing speed of the movie. If rate is followed by one integer, that number is taken to be a whole number playing speed. If rate is followed by two numbers, the first number is taken to be the numerator and the second the denominator of a fractional speed. 1 is the normal playing speed, 0 means the movie is stopped, and a negative rate plays backwards. rate 1 2 would play the movie at half speed. Immediately after you send a non-zero rate message, the movie will begin playing, so you may wish to precede any rate messages with an integer to locate to the desired starting position.
rd
Arguments
filename
[symbol]
Same as read.
read
Arguments
filename
[symbol]
The word read, followed by a symbol, looks for a movie file with that name in Max's file search path, and opens it if it exists, displaying the movie's first frame in a movie window. If the filename contains any spaces or special characters, the name should be enclosed in double quotes or each special character should be preceded by a backslash (\). The word read by itself puts up a standard Open Document dialog box and reads in any movie file you select. The read message will open at least 26 different types of files that can be opened by QuickTime, these include movie files such as MPEG, audio files including AIFF and MP3, and graphics files including GIF and JPEG.
readany
Arguments
filename
[symbol]
The readany message opens any type of file, using QuickTime routines to try to interpret it as a movie or other supported media file.
rect
Arguments
x-position-coordinate
[int]
y-position-coordinate
[int]
width (pixels)
[int]
height (pixels)
[int]
The word rect, followed by four numbers, specifies the size of the rectangle in which the movie is displayed within the movie window. The first two numbers specify the position of the rectangle within the movie window, in relative coordinates, and the second two numbers specify the width and height, in pixels, of the rectangle.
reload
The word reload will reload the current movie into memory (can be used to refresh; for example, if a movie is playing and the stop message is sent followed by reload, the movie will reload into memory and be set to play from the beginning as a newly loaded movie).
resume
Begins playing the movie from its current location, at the most recently specified rate.
rw
The word rw rewinds the movie.
start
Arguments
filename
[symbol]
Sets the movie's rate to 1 and begins playing from the beginning. If the word start is followed by the name of a specific loaded movie, that movie becomes the current movie before starting.
startat
Arguments
location
[list]
The word startat, followed by a number, set the current time location of the movie and begins playing from that point.
switch
Arguments
filename
[symbol]
The word switch, followed by a symbol, makes the named movie the active one without changing the transport state (See the start message).
time
Arguments
frame
[list]
The word time, followed by a number that specifies a QuickTime frame number, goes to the time location specified by the number. When no argument is present, the time message's functionality is equivalent to the gettime message.
timescale
Reports the timescale of the movie out the left-most outlet.
toggleplay
The word toggleplay activates or pauses playback of the movie.
vol
Arguments
volume
[int]
The word vol, followed by a number in the range 1-255, sets the movie's sound volume. Optionally, the volume can be set by using the word vol, followed by a floating-point value in the range 0. - 1.0.
wclose
Closes the movie window.
windowpos
Arguments
left-coordinate
[int]
top-coordinate
[int]
right-coordinate
[int]
bottom-coordinate
[int]
The word
windowpos, followed by four numbers, specifies the location and size of the movie window on the screen. The four numbers specify the left, top, right, and bottom of the movie window in global coordinates. This message is only supported by the
movie object, not the
imovie object.