Develop Reference

C# axWindowsMediaPlayer Change Video Position with Custom Trackbar

I have a axWindowsMediaPlayer on WinForm with uiMode=none. I am using my custom controls to handle playback. I am using this method to associate a trackBar with axWindowsMediaPlayer.
I want to change the video position (jump to specific time) when the user scrolls the trackBar, just like windows media player.
private void trackBar_Scroll(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (axWindowsMediaPlayer.playState == WMPLib.WMPPlayState.wmppsPlaying)
{
axWindowsMediaPlayer.Ctlcontrols.currentPosition = trackBar.Value;
}
}
This is not working. I have checked many Stackoverflow answers including this, this, and the Microsoft documentation but none is working.
I have two objectives:
When playing media, the trackBar should show the current position of the media file being played. This is working fine.
When the user scrolls the trackBar, the media player should change the video current position based on the trackBar value. This is not working.
Any help will be highly appreciated.

I solved the issue. The problem was not with the media player, the problem was with the media files being played with the axWindowsMediaPlayer.
axWindowsMediaPlayer plays the files such as MKV fine, but if the proper codecs are not installed, the Ctlcontrols mainly the Trackbar does not work from code or UI. With natively supported formats, this code works perfectly fine.
private void trackBar_Scroll(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (axWindowsMediaPlayer.playState == WMPLib.WMPPlayState.wmppsPlaying)
axWindowsMediaPlayer.Ctlcontrols.currentPosition = trackBar.Value;
}
For media files not natively supported, their codecs need to be installed. For details of supported file formats, see this KB article File types supported by Windows Media Player

How to play songs in repeat mode in an UWP app

I have created a UWP app to play certain tracks in the background. Basically by following this link: https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/01/13/the-basics-of-background-audio/ .
I want to set the repeat count for certain songs, so if a song has repeat count 10, that song is meant to be repeated 10 times before moving on to the next song in the playlist.
On the Windows phone 8.0 platform, the AudioPlayerAgent had the following event which indicated that the play state has changed. It was easy to override that event and add custom logic to repeat songs.
protected override void OnPlayStateChanged(BackgroundAudioPlayer player, AudioTrack track, PlayState playState)
{
switch (playState)
{
case PlayState.TrackEnded:
// keep repeating the same track
player.Position = new TimeSpan(0, 0, (int)0);
// add custom logic here..
break;
}
NotifyComplete();
}
What would be an equivalent event in the UWP platform?
So far I have tried the following events on the UWP platform, but to no avail..
BackgroundMediaPlayer.Current.CurrentStateChanged += Current_CurrentStateChanged;
BackgroundMediaPlayer.Current.MediaEnded += Current_MediaEnded;
BackgroundMediaPlayer.Current.MediaOpened += Current_MediaOpened;

With Windows 10, version 1607, a new single-process model has been introduced that greatly simplifies the process of enabling background audio.
Media continues to play when your app moves from the foreground to the background. This means that even after the user has minimized your app, returned to the home screen, or has navigated away from your app in some other way, your app can continue to play audio.
Starting with Windows 10, version 1607,the recommended best practice for playing media is to use the MediaPlayer class instead of MediaElement
Play a media file with MediaPlayer
_mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
_mediaPlayer.Source = MediaSource.CreateFromUri(new Uri("ms-appx:///Assets/example_video.mkv"));
_mediaPlayer.Play();
MSDN: Play media in the background
Now your app can manage the playlist or loop settings and use the media player instance to call Play method again.

MediaElement & DispatcherTimer in strictly timing application

I'm currently developing a WPF application which requires strictly timing, says, being late 2 seconds matters.
I have a MediaElement mediaPlayer which seeks to a new position and play every time a Dispatcher timer is fired. But I notice that the mediaPlayer.Position is not very synced with the timer. In the example below, I set the dispatcherTimer fired after 55 seconds, but the value received from MessageBox in timer_Tick is 108.276746, which is late 2 seconds (55 + 55 = 110).
private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
DispatcherTimer timer = new DispatcherTimer();
timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(55);
timer.Tick += new EventHandler(timer_Tick);
mediaPlayer.Source = new Uri("test.wma", UriKind.Relative);
_currentPosition = 55;
mediaPlayer.Position = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(_currentPosition);
timer.Start();
}
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show("Position" + mediaPlayer.Position.TotalSeconds);// print around 108 seconds
}
This is the problem because I need the mediaPlayer position is perfectly synced with the dispatcher timer.
For more information, the root problem here is: the dispatcher timer to strictly follow the mediaElement progress, because I need to sync other controls with the position that mediaPlayer. Being late 2 seconds is unacceptable. Does anyone know how to achieve this effect?
UPDATE PURPOSE: I'm trying to "switch illustration image" according to the playing position from an audio. For example, when the narrator read to "... We have a beautiful house" in the audio, the program will show pictures of a beautiful building. But now since the position is late, it will show the picture long before the audio mentions it.

As pointed out, it takes time for the media elements to load, therefore it is not wise to use a countdown timer. You should do the the other way round: the DispatchTimer fires say like 1 or 2 times every second, and when it's fired you check the position of the media element. If it's at a certain position then show the picture.
This approach also limits the maximum error do the time interval of your DispatchTimer events, assuming that the system fires them accurately.

I've used the media element a lot.
My suspicion is that the timer is fine ( give or take a few ms )
but the mediaplayer position is definitely guaranteed not to be where you expect it to be.
The 2 seconds could well be accounted for in loading the video file and loading the video/audio codecs. further more, if there is any lag at all ( cpu or ram spike or other ) the mediaplayer will also lag while the timer will not.
perhaps setup a scenario where the video is guaranteed to be loaded ( for example pausing it somewhere in the middle of the video ) then start the timer and play the video from there to check.

If you want a video player that doesn't have the MediaElement's slow initialization time for videos, try Jeremiah Morrill's MediaKit project. He has made some great improvements including load times. It is also open source so if you need more or information on where you're at in the video, you can add that to the source.

Double click timer event

I am developing an application that maps users eye movements with the cursor movements, hence developing ahands free cursor control system.
I am using Open CV library's .NET Wrapper for C# i.e. Emgu CV for development.
I am stuck at a point where I want to open a file/folder such that when a cursor is placed over a file/folder for say 3 to 5 seconds, the file/folder should open up or just perform a double-click event of a conventional mouse.
What could I use so as to solve this problem?

Timer timer = new System.Timers.Timer(5000);//5 seconds
timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(timer_Elapsed);
private void form_MouseHover(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
timer.Start();
}
private void form_MouseLeave(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
}
void timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
OpenFileOrFolder();//Edit : implement your file / folder opening logic here
}

I guess you need to break it down:
Detect when the mouse moves or hovers
Send a double click
For 1, I'd be looking at: capturing WM_MOUSEMOVE if you want your own definition of 'hovering'. For example, having a greater threshold for how much movement you'll tolerate and still consider it a 'hover'. Or, you could use the OS defined threshold and look for WM_MOUSEHOVER
For 2, SendInput should get you there
I'm assuming here, you don't actually care what's under the mouse per-se. As in, you're not going to do different behavior depending on what's under the mouse. For example, you'd send the double click when hovering over the titlebar, as well as if you were hovering over the file.
This article on project builds up a Spy++ style app, which should help.

Are you mapping eye control to the mouse pointer? The MouseHover event may be useful:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.mousehover.aspx
As well as MouseEnter, MouseLeave, etc.
If you're controlling a separate element (i.e., not the mouse) with the eyes, then I had to do something similar in WPF. It ultimately came down to mapping control coordinates to mouse location, counting the time within the bounds of that control, then calling the mouse click event handler.

WPF: Implementing a MediaPlayer Audio / Video Seeker

I am currently working on an MP3 player (in a WPF application) with a WPF MediaPlayer and basically, I want to implement a Song Seeker which moves along with the current playing song.
I already implemented a song slider (from Sacha Barber's application) and it works when the user drags the seeker manually (as in, the song continues from that position) but I cannot figure out how to make the seeker move according to the current position in the song.
Trouble is I don't think there is a way to check when the Position property of the MediaPlayer has changed, so I'm stumped as to how I should implement this feature.
Any ideas on how to go about such an issue?
[Update]
As regards incrementing the seeker with a timer, I actually thought of using the reason I didn't try it yet is because I think there is a better way to implement this using the MediaTimeline...but I'm yet to figure out how.

ARISE answer! and serve your master
OK, I've figured out how to work this. I'm sure I'm not doing it the completely correct way but it does work.
Here is the code-behind of a WPF application, with a Pause/Play button.
public partial class Main : Window
{
MediaPlayer MPlayer;
MediaTimeline MTimeline;
public Main()
{
InitializeComponent();
var uri = new Uri("C:\\Test.mp3");
MPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
MTimeline = new MediaTimeline(uri);
MTimeline.CurrentTimeInvalidated += new EventHandler(MTimeline_CurrentTimeInvalidated);
MPlayer.Clock = MTimeline.CreateClock(true) as MediaClock;
MPlayer.Clock.Controller.Stop();
}
void MTimeline_CurrentTimeInvalidated(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine(MPlayer.Clock.CurrentTime.Value.TotalSeconds);
}
private void btnPlayPause_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
//Is Active
if (MPlayer.Clock.CurrentState == ClockState.Active)
{
//Is Paused
if (MPlayer.Clock.CurrentGlobalSpeed == 0.0)
MPlayer.Clock.Controller.Resume();
else //Is Playing
MPlayer.Clock.Controller.Pause();
}
else if (MPlayer.Clock.CurrentState == ClockState.Stopped) //Is Stopped
MPlayer.Clock.Controller.Begin();
}
}
The trick is that once you set the clock of a MediaPlayer, it becomes clock controlled, thus the use of MPlayer.Clock.Controller to do all of the controlling :)

Never played with media player but assuming you know the length of song could you not setup a timer that ticks every second while the song is playing. Therefore for every tick just increment the seeker in relation to how long the song is in total.
Song is 100 seconds long. Therefore every second/tick is worth 1 percent of total progress.
You'd have to stop the timer when pausing song etc...

MediaElement has a position property which you could use for this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.mediaelement.position.aspx

Have you checked out the WPF MediaKit yet?