Ok, I've been investigating the whole web for that one and couldn't find a simple answer.

What I want to do is play a simple AVI file in a dialog to illustrate some actions pending while the user waits. The exact same way as when you copy files from a folder to another in your explorer.

Now, it seems that there is no easy way to do so in .Net 2.0. From the samples I've seen, I need to use interop to use the ActiveControl found in the Microsoft Common Controls 6.

Not to mention that I need this video to support transparency.

Does anyone has a better solution than this?

Thanks,

Maybe not what you're looking for, but if you look into c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\VS2005ImageLibrary\animations folder, you'll find some animated gifs you can use on your forms. VS2005 Image Library is packed in the VS2005ImageLibrary.zip file, so you'll have to unzip it first...

Andrej

Even though there are animated .gif files included in the studio, I am still curious as to how one could play an .avi file in a Windows Form. If anyone has the solution to this it would be great if it were posted.

The only thing I want to do is being able to play some simple avi files: doesn't seem like something extraodinary but I would like to avoid coding this feature myself as it is part of the shell itself!

Can't find a single reason why this is not present as a standard feature in Windows Forms. I'm not talking about advanced features which would explain to use either DirectX or Windows Media Player but just a simple AVI (no sound) player the same way we used to do when using ActiveX.

I already saw this one but this is exactly as I said: no other way than implementing myself the P-invoke code required...

Unless someone proves me the opposite...

Moreover, with Vista coming, would that be also supported? not sure...