Overview of UWP Media APIs

The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) provides a rich set of APIs for developers to integrate media playback, capture, and processing capabilities into their applications. These APIs are designed to be cross-device compatible, allowing your media experiences to work seamlessly across Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices, including PCs, tablets, Xbox, and HoloLens.

This section provides an overview of the key namespaces and classes related to media development in UWP.

Media Playback

Handle audio and video playback within your UWP applications. The primary classes for this purpose are found within the Windows.Media.Core and Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls namespaces.

MediaPlayer

Represents a media player instance that can play audio and video. It provides controls for playback, volume, seeking, and more.

Key Properties:

  • Source: MediaSource - Gets or sets the media source to play.
  • PlaybackSession: MediaPlaybackSession - Provides access to playback controls and state.
  • IsLooping: Boolean - Gets or sets a value indicating whether the media should loop.

Example Usage (C#):


using Windows.Media.Core;
using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls;

// Assuming you have a MediaElement named 'myMediaElement' in your XAML
var mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
mediaPlayer.Source = MediaSource.CreateFromUri(new Uri("ms-appx:///Assets/sample.mp4"));
myMediaElement.SetMediaPlayer(mediaPlayer);
mediaPlayer.Play();

MediaElement

A XAML control that hosts a MediaPlayer. It allows for easy integration of media playback into the visual tree of your UWP application.

Key Properties:

  • Source: Uri - Gets or sets the URI of the media to play.
  • AutoPlay: Boolean - Gets or sets a value indicating whether media playback starts automatically.
  • AreTransportControlsEnabled: Boolean - Gets or sets a value indicating whether transport controls are displayed.
Media Capture

Capture audio and video from device hardware like microphones and cameras. The Windows.Media.Capture namespace is your primary entry point.

MediaCapture

Provides functionality to capture media from devices. You can use it to take photos, record videos, and capture audio.

Key Methods:

  • InitializeAsync: Task - Initializes the media capture object.
  • StartRecordToStorageFileAsync: Task - Starts recording media to a file.
  • CapturePhotoToStorageFileAsync: Task - Captures a single photo to a file.

Example Usage (C#):


using Windows.Media.Capture;
using Windows.Storage;

var mediaCapture = new MediaCapture();
await mediaCapture.InitializeAsync();

var photoFile = await ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.CreateFileAsync("photo.jpg", CreationCollisionOption.GenerateUniqueName);
await mediaCapture.CapturePhotoToStorageFileAsync(Windows.Media.MediaProperties.ImageEncodingProperties.Jpeg(), photoFile);
Audio & Video Effects

Apply real-time audio and video effects to media streams. This is managed through the Windows.Media.Effects namespace.

Explore interfaces like IAudioEffectDefinition and IVideoEffectDefinition to create custom effects or utilize built-in ones.

Media Transcoding

Convert media files from one format to another using the Windows.Media.Transcoding namespace. This is useful for ensuring compatibility or optimizing file sizes.

MediaTranscoder

A class that facilitates media transcoding operations.

Key Methods:

  • PrepareFileTranscodeAsync: Task - Prepares a transcoding operation for a file.
  • AddAudioStream: void - Adds an audio stream to the transcoding profile.
  • AddVideoTrack: void - Adds a video track to the transcoding profile.
Media Storage & Access

Manage media files and access them from various storage locations. The Windows.Storage and Windows.Storage.Streams namespaces are crucial here.

Use StorageFile and IRandomAccessStream to read, write, and manipulate media data.