Playing ASX (playlist) files without a streaming server in MCE

[Treason]

I stumbled on this while writing MCEBrowser located here:
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...e-browser.html

An ASX file is just a text file pointing to different media. ASX file are supposed to be formatted like this:

<ASX version="3">
<Entry>
<ref href="videofilename.asf">
</Entry>
</ASX>

In my first attempt, I created a text file like the one above and MCE kept complaing it is an unsopported format. So then in the MCEBroswer thread someone suggested to try a m3u file. An m3u file is supposed to look like this:

  
   #EXTM3U 
   #EXTINF:199,Pink Floyd - In The Flesh
   R:\Music\Pink Floyd\1979---The_Wall_CD1\1.In_The_Flesh.mp3
   #EXTINF:217,Pink Floyd - One Of My Turns
   R:\Music\Pink Floyd\1979---The_Wall_CD1\10.One_Of_My_Turns.mp3

The m3u file is also not supported by MCE. So now what?!?

This is what I did and it worked. I created a file with the asx extension, but used the m3u file format.

Filename: playlist.asx (for example)

  
   #EXTM3U 
   #EXTINF:99,Foobar
   R:\Music\Pink Floyd\1979---The_Wall_CD1\1.In_The_Flesh.mp3
   #EXTINF:99,Foobar
   R:\Music\Pink Floyd\1979---The_Wall_CD1\10.One_Of_My_Turns.mp3

Viola, Media center will play these files back to back. The #EXTINF line is meaningless but I think it has to be there.

Hopefully this will help someone else down the road in developing MCE applications. Remember to support people who write MCE applications, they typically don't do it for money... and no feedback or comments can make a new programmer not even want to attempt and continue delevoping for us.

Cheers and Beers!