WPF sample

[mfkl]

Will use this to set the drawable surface.
https://github.com/mfkl/LibVLCSharp/blob/783e104b485931de978eee48d6d22a067d220cab/LibVlcSharp/MediaPlayer.cs#L773
May be of interest:
https://github.com/prasannavl/WinApi
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms618134
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/wpf/advanced/wpf-and-win32-interoperation

We probably should do something very similar to https://github.com/kakone/VLC.MediaElement/blob/master/VLCMediaElement/MediaElement.cs, but move all crossplatform-capable code in a MediaElementBase abstract class. Each platform would inherit from that and perform platform-specific initialization (set drawable surface etc).

/cc @jeremyVignelles

[mfkl]

(very) early API draft:
Crossplatform https://github.com/mfkl/LibVLCSharp/blob/wpf/LibVLCSharp/MediaElementCore.cs
WPF https://github.com/mfkl/LibVLCSharp/blob/wpf/LibVLCSharp.WPF.Sample/MediaElement.cs

Regarding potential HWND issues, this project seems to have done some interesting stuff we maybe could use: https://github.com/dzimchuk/power-video-player

[mfkl]

Maybe also do a crossplatform MediaTransportControls class? https://github.com/kakone/VLC.MediaElement/blob/ab45f9287e6cf927476a6c652f4fc5e573983122/VLCMediaElement/MediaTransportControls.cs

[mfkl]

For reference https://github.com/unosquare/ffmediaelement Also.

[jeremyVignelles]

Of the few options that are listed on this page, none seems to be "awesome":

• WinApi seems to require a DxWindow so that's not very convenient
• VLCMediaElement uses SwapChainPanel, which is a UWP-only thing
• https://github.com/dzimchuk/power-video-player uses HwndHost, I think we will have the same issues as with Vlc.DotNet's WinFormsHost.
• ffmediaelement Writes to a bitmap (like Meta.Vlc)

I'm currently looking if this is possible with SharpDX

[mfkl]

how about this https://github.com/Microsoft/WPFDXInterop/blob/master/samples/D3D11Image/WpfD3D11Interop/MainWindow.xaml.cs ?

[mfkl]

ffmediaelement Writes to a bitmap (like Meta.Vlc)

Anything wrong with that?

[jeremyVignelles]

https://github.com/Microsoft/WPFDXInterop/blob/master/samples/D3D11Image/WpfD3D11Interop/MainWindow.xaml.cs seems interesting, but I still don't undestand how it is supposed to work, and it links to an inexistant documentation. Specifically, I don't see the difference with the built-in D3DImage.

Anything wrong with that?

Performance is the main reason I'd like to avoid that : That would require vlc to write the pictures in the memory, converting them in a C# buffer, writing them to the bitmap that would then be finally rendered on the screen. It feels like there are too many copies involved.

[jeremyVignelles]

Using directX in WPF "natively" seems to cause a lot of issues. See: sharpdx/SharpDX#599 (comment)

We need performance, and currently, I think the only reasonable way we have is to wrap the WinForms component at the cost of not being able to write above the video and some other event issues.
Thus, I don't think this is necessary to have a Wpf component since it would add another layer and can be achieved with a few lines.