Retrieving the Current Playback Position

You can monitor the current playback position within the file while waveform audio is playing by using the waveOutGetPosition function.

For waveform-audio devices, samples are the preferred time format in which to represent the current position. Thus, the current position of a waveform-audio device is specified as the number of samples for one channel from the beginning of the waveform-audio file. To query the current position of a waveform-audio device, set the wType member of the MMTIME structure to TIME_SAMPLES and pass this structure to waveOutGetPosition.

The MMTIME structure can represent time in one or more different formats, including milliseconds, samples, SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers), and MIDI song pointer formats. The wType member specifies the format used to represent time. Before calling a function that uses the MMTIME structure, you must set wType to indicate your requested time format. Be sure to check wType after the call to see whether the requested time format is supported. If the requested time format is not supported, the device driver specifies the time in an alternate time format and changes the wType member to the selected time format.

For more information about the MMTIME structure, see Multimedia Timers.