Hello MMD'ers,  Since the topic of MIDI players with piano roll
displays has come up, I figured I would chime in to say that I've
been writing a player that has many of the characteristics discussed.
It uses Microsoft's Direct-X package for playback, so it has high
system priority.  So far, the display of the holes and any embedded
lyric text scrolling by does not cause any noticeable flickering or
other problems, at least on my PC.

The current version still has lots of bugs.  In particular, the image
of the piano roll is _not_ properly synchronized to the audio, but
that should happen in the next iteration.

For those interested in checking out the development of this player
(and possibly even wishing to contribute to it), I have posted a page
describing the project, and the current development version of the
player at  http://www.trachtman.org/rollscans/midiplayer.htm

The player works reasonably well with the MIDI files made from scans
of piano rolls that I have also posted elsewhere on that same web site.
MIDI files from other sources may not fare so well with the current
development version of the player.

Regards,
Warren Trachtman