MediaPlayer - !!! Preview !!!

Cross platform media player lib
based on ideas and code of martijn00 ( https://github.com/martijn00/XamarinMediaManager )

You’ll find the story behind this MediaPlayer lib here …

Xmarin.Forms samples for the MediaPlayer …
Simple Xamarin, UWP & WPF samples for the MediaPlayer …
and for those interested some links about the tricks of this library and examples in the wiki section...

Notes and warnings

This is only a preview, so there are missing features. If you are kind and ask for them, perhaps we'll implement them. Otherwise, as is is opensource contribute. PR (pull requests) are wellcome.

Android emulator

12/01/2019 - The mediaplayer control isn't working well in Android emulator, whereas same features work on a physical device.

Current platform support

platform	sample	build	state
UWP	XF.UWP		90 % audio
iOS	XF.iOS		60 % audio
Android	XF.Android		90 % audio
MacOS	XF.Mac		60 % audio
WPF	XF.WPF		70 % audio

Setup

• Available on NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/ZPFMediaPlayer
• For Xamarin.Forms install into your Main and Client projects.

How to use

A Xamarin.Forms sample showing how to use MediaPlayer is in this Git, but here are the basics ...

authorizations

iOS and MacOS - Info.plist

If you wish to access to streamning sites you should add folowing lines to your Info.plist.

	<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
	<dict>
		<key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
		<true/>
		<key> NSAllowsArbitraryLoadsInWebContent</key>
		<true/>
	</dict>

Initialization

Before using the MediaPlayer you should initialize it in the platform dependent project.

Start by adding the using at the header of each concerned file ...

using ZPF.Media;

for an Android project: MainActivity.cs: OnCreate:

...
MediaPlayer.Current.Init();  
LoadApplication(new App());

for a UWP project: App.xaml.cs: OnLaunched:

...
MediaPlayer.Current.Init();  
Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(e);
...

for a WPF project: MainWindow.xaml.cs: MainWindow():

...
ZPF.Media.MediaPlayer.Current.Init(this);
Forms.Init();
...

MediaPlayer.Current.Init()	UWP	iOS	Android	Mac	WPF
Mandatory	no	no	no	no	yes

Play

MediaPlayer.Current.Play("http://freesound.org/data/previews/273/273629_4068345-lq.mp3");  

On WPF you should try .. catch the Play method for the moment:
[WPF] Fatal exception when playing special song

Native player

platform	nativ player
Android	Android.Media.MediaPlayer
iOS	AVKit.AVPlayerViewController
MacOS	AVKit.AVPlayerView
UWP	Windows.Media.Playback.MediaPlayer
WPF	System.Windows.Controls.MediaElement

Android

Android.Media.MediaPlayer Player = (Android.Media.MediaPlayer)MediaPlayer.Current.Player;  

// Set the low-level power management behavior for the MediaPlayer on Android:
Player.SetWakeMode(Application.Context, Android.OS.WakeLockFlags.Partial);

WakeLockFlags Enum

Remark: The Android Player type will probably change in the future to the ExoPlayer. So check the doc on each release.

UWP

Windows.Media.Playback.MediaPlayer Player = (Windows.Media.Playback.MediaPlayer)MediaPlayer.Current.Player;  

WPF

System.Windows.Controls.MediaElement Player = (System.Windows.Controls.MediaElement)ZPF.Media.MediaPlayer.Current.Player; 

Code Sample

Main page source code from sample program ...

API

Methods

MediaPlayer.Current.Pause();  
MediaPlayer.Current.Play("http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4");  
MediaPlayer.Current.Play("http://freesound.org/data/previews/273/273629_4068345-lq.mp3");  
MediaPlayer.Current.Play(mi);  
MediaPlayer.Current.Play();  

MediaPlayer.Current.Playlist.Current   
MediaPlayer.Current.Playlist.PlayNext();  
MediaPlayer.Current.Playlist.PlayPrevious();  
MediaPlayer.Current.Playlist.Add( MediaItem.GetNew("http://www.zpf.fr/podcast/02.mp3", MediaType.Audio, MediaLocation.Remote) );   

MediaPlayer.Current.StepBackward(); 
MediaPlayer.Current.StepForward();  
MediaPlayer.Current.Stop();  

MediaPlayer.Current.MediaExtractor.CreateMediaItem(mediaItem);  

Properties

Property	Description
Duration	TimeSpan
Position	TimeSpan
State	Playing, Paused, Stopped, Loading, Buffering, Failed

MediaPlayer.Current.Playlist  
MediaPlayer.Current.Playlist.RepeatMode = RepeatMode.Off;  
MediaPlayer.Current.Playlist.ShuffleMode = ShuffleMode.Off;  
MediaPlayer.Current.Play(NextItem);  
MediaPlayer.Current.Play(PreviousItem);  

Volume properties

Property	Description
Balance	From -1 (Left) to +1 (right). 0 = center.
Volume	From 0 to 1.
Muted	True or False

Events

event	UWP	iOS	Android	Mac	WPF
MediaItemChanged	X		X
MediaItemFailed	X	X		X	X
MediaItemFinished	X	X	X	X	X
PositionChanged	X	X	X	X	X
StateChanged	X				X

X = implemented, blank = not yet implemented

Next steps

• code review
• iOS, Mac, WPF, ...
• MediaExtractor (WPF)**
• sync native playlist with internal playlist (UWP, ...)
• check ExoPlayer on Android
• video
• enhance/(re)design sample application

How to build

EDI

!!! It seam that since update to VS2019 16.1.0/16.1.1 the build doesn't function anymore. It's still fine with VS2017. !!!

On Windows you can build the solution with Visual Studio 2019 with the latest Xamarin, .NET Core and UWP installed.

For the moment the solution doesn't build with VS2019 on MacOS: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/536913/vsfm-2019-doesnt-work-with-project-file-sdks-like.html .

Nor on Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2019 Version 16.1.1 novotnyllc/MSBuildSdkExtras#168 https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/536913/vsfm-2019-doesnt-work-with-project-file-sdks-like.html

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2017 Version 15.9.12 OK - Nuget - Android, iOS, MacOS, UWP, WPF

it doesn't build on Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2019 (Preview) for Mac Version 8.1 Preview (8.1 build 2460)

Visual Studio 2017 Developer Command Prompt

It builds on 'Visual Studio 2017 Developer Command Prompt'

Build WPF debug

msbuild zpfmediaplayer.csproj /p:TargetsToBuild=Wpf /t:Rebuild  

Build all platformes debug

msbuild zpfmediaplayer.csproj /p:TargetsToBuild=All /t:Rebuild  

Build WPF release

msbuild zpfmediaplayer.csproj /p:TargetsToBuild=Wpf;Configuration=Release /t:Rebuild  

Build all platformes release (--> Nuget)

msbuild zpfmediaplayer.csproj /p:TargetsToBuild=All;Configuration=Release /t:Rebuild  

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