javafx.scene.media

Provides the set of classes for integrating audio and video into Java FX Applications. The primary use for this package is media playback. There are three principal classes in the media package: {@link javafx.scene.media.Media Media}, {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer MediaPlayer}, and {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaView MediaView}.

## Contents

1. Supported Media Types
2. Supported Protocols
3. Supported Metadata Tags
4. Playing Media in Java FX

### Supported Media Types

Java FX supports a number of different media types. A media type is considered to be the combination of a container format and one or more encodings. In some cases the container format might simply be an elementary stream containing the encoded data.

#### Supported Encoding Types

An encoding type specifies how sampled audio or video data are stored. Usually the encoding type implies a particular compression algorithm. The following table indicates the encoding types supported by Java FX Media.

Encoding | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
AAC | Audio | Advanced Audio Coding audio compression
MP3 | Audio | Raw MPEG-1, 2, and 2.5 audio; layers I, II, and III; all supported combinations of sampling frequencies and bit rates. Note: File must contain at least 3 MP3 frames.
PCM | Audio | Uncompressed, raw audio samples
H.264/AVC | Video | H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 / AVC (Advanced Video Coding) video compression
VP6 | Video | On2 VP6 video compression

#### Supported Container Types

A container type specifies the file format used to store the encoded audio, video, and other media data. Each container type is associated with one or more MIME types, file extensions, and file signatures (the initial bytes in the file). The following table indicates the combination of container and encoding types supported by Java FX Media.

Container | Description | Video Encoding | Audio Encoding | MIME Type | File Extension
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
AIFF | Audio Interchange File Format | N/A | PCM | audio/x-aiff | .aif, .aiff
FXM, FLV | FX Media, Flash Video | VP6 | MP3 | video/x-javafx, video/x-flv | .fxm, .flv
HLS (*) | MP2T HTTP Live Streaming (audiovisual) | H.264/AVC | AAC | application/vnd.apple.mpegurl, audio/mpegurl | .m3u8
HLS (*) | MP3 HTTP Live Streaming (audio-only) | N/A | MP3 | application/vnd.apple.mpegurl, audio/mpegurl | .m3u8
MP3 | MPEG-1, 2, 2.5 raw audio stream possibly with ID3 metadata v2.3 or v2.4 | N/A | MP3 | audio/mpeg | .mp3
MP4 | MPEG-4 Part 14 | H.264/AVC | AAC | video/mp4, audio/x-m4a, video/x-m4v | .mp4, .m4a, .m4v
WAV | Waveform Audio Format | N/A | PCM | audio/x-wav | .wav

(*) HLS is a protocol rather than a container type but is included here to aggregate similar attributes.

### Supported Protocols

Protocol | Description | Reference
--- | --- | ---
FILE | Protocol for URI representation of local files | java.net.URI
HTTP | Hypertext transfer protocol for representation of remote files | java.net.URI
| HTTPS | Hypertext transfer protocol secure for representation of remote files | java.net.URI
JAR | Representation of media entries in files accessible via the FILE, HTTP or HTTPS protocols | java.net.JarURLConnection
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) | Playlist-based media streaming via HTTP or HTTPS | Internet-Draft: HTTP Live Streaming

#### MPEG-4 Playback via HTTP

It is recommended that MPEG-4 media to be played over HTTP or HTTPS be formatted such that the headers required to decode the stream appear at the beginning of the file. Otherwise, playback might stall until the entire file is downloaded.

#### HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)

HLS playback handles sources with these characteristics:

- On-demand and live playlists.
- Elementary MP3 audio streams (audio/mpegurl) and multiplexed MP2T streams (application/vnd.apple.mpegurl) with one AAC audio and one H.264/AVC video track.
- Playlists with integer or float duration.

Sources which do not conform to this basic profile are not guaranteed to be handled. The playlist contains information about the streams comprising the source and is downloaded at the start of playback. Switching between alternate streams, bit rates, and video resolutions is handled automatically as a function of network conditions.

### Supported Metadata Tags

A media container may also include certain metadata which describe the media in the file. The Java FX Media API makes the metadata available via the {@link javafx.scene.media.Media#getMetadata()} method. The keys in this mapping are referred to as tags with the tags supported by Java FX Media listed in the following table. Note that which tags are available for a given media source depend on the metadata actually stored in that source, i.e., not all tags are guaranteed to be available.

Container | Tag (type String) | Type | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
FXM, FLV | audio codec | java.lang.String | The encoder used for the audio track.
FXM, FLV | duration | javafx.util.Duration | The duration of the media.
FXM, FLV | video codec | java.lang.String | The encoder used for the video track.
FXM, FLV | width | java.lang.Integer | The width in pixels of the video track.
FXM, FLV | height | java.lang.Integer | The height in pixels of the video track.
FXM, FLV | framerate | java.lang.Double | The video frame rate in frames per second.
FXM, FLV | creationdate | java.lang.String | The date when the video was created.
FXM, FLV, MP3 | raw metadata | Map<String,ByteBuffer> | The raw metadata according to the appropriate media specification. The key "ID3" maps to MP3 ID3v2 metadata and "FLV" to the FLV onMetadata marker content.
MP3 | album artist | java.lang.String | The artist for the overall album, possibly "Various Artists" for compilations.
MP3 | album | java.lang.String | The name of the album.
MP3 | artist | java.lang.String | The artist of the track.
MP3 | comment-N | java.lang.String | A comment where N is a 0-relative index. Comment format: ContentDescription[lng]=Comment
MP3 | composer | java.lang.String | The composer of the track.
MP3 | year | java.lang.Integer | The year the track was recorded.
MP3 | disc count | java.lang.Integer | The number of discs in the album.
MP3 | disc number | java.lang.Integer | The 1-relative index of the disc on which this track appears.
MP3 | duration | javafx.util.Duration | The duration of the track.
MP3 | genre | java.lang.String | The genre of the track, for example, "Classical," "Darkwave," or "Jazz."
MP3 | image | javafx.scene.image.Image | The album cover.
MP3 | title | java.lang.String | The name of the track.
MP3 | track count | java.lang.Integer | The number of tracks on the album.
MP3 | track number | java.lang.Integer | The 1-relative index of this track on the disc.

### Playing Media in Java FX

#### Basic Playback

The basic steps required to play media in Java FX are:

1. Create a {@link javafx.scene.media.Media} object for the desired media source.
2. Create a {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer} object from the `Media` object.
3. Create a {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaView} object.
4. Add the `MediaPlayer` to the `MediaView`.
5. Add the `MediaView` to the scene graph.
6. Invoke {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#play()}.

The foregoing steps are illustrated by the sample code in the `MediaView` class documentation. Some things which should be noted are:

- One `Media` object may be shared among multiple `MediaPlayer`s.
- One `MediaPlayer` may be shared amoung multiple `MediaView`s.
- Media may be played directly by a `MediaPlayer` without creating a `MediaView` although a view is required for display.
- Instead of `MediaPlayer.play()`, {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#setAutoPlay MediaPlayer.setAutoPlay(true)} may be used to request that playing start as soon as possible.
- `MediaPlayer` has several operational states defined by {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer.Status}.
- Audio-only media may instead be played using {@link javafx.scene.media.AudioClip} (recommended for low latency playback of short clips).

#### Error Handling

Errors using Java FX Media may be either synchronous or asynchronous. In general synchronous errors will manifest themselves as a Java `Exception` and asynchronous errors will cause a Java FX property to be set. In the latter case either the `error` property may be observed directly, an `onError` callback registered, or possibly both.

The main sources of synchronous errors are {@link javafx.scene.media.Media#Media Media()} and {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#MediaPlayer MediaPlayer()}. The asynchronous error properties are {@link javafx.scene.media.Media#errorProperty Media.error} and {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#errorProperty MediaPlayer.error}, and the asynchronous error callbacks {@link javafx.scene.media.Media#onErrorProperty Media.onError}, {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#onErrorProperty MediaPlayer.onError}, and {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaView#onErrorProperty MediaView.onError}.

Some errors might be duplicated. For example, a `MediaPlayer` will propagate an error that it encounters to its associated `Media`, and a `MediaPlayer` to all its associated `MediaView`s. As a consequence, it is possible to receive multiple notifications of the occurrence of a given error, depending on which properties are monitored.

The following code snippet illustrates error handling with media: ``

        String source;
        Media media;
        MediaPlayer mediaPlayer;
        MediaView mediaView;
        try {
            media = new Media(source);
            if (media.getError() == null) {
                media.setOnError(new Runnable() {
                    public void run() {
                        // Handle asynchronous error in Media object.
                    }
                });
                try {
                    mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer(media);
                    if (mediaPlayer.getError() == null) {
                        mediaPlayer.setOnError(new Runnable() {
                            public void run() {
                                // Handle asynchronous error in MediaPlayer object.
                            }
                        });
                        mediaView = new MediaView(mediaPlayer);
                        mediaView.setOnError(new EventHandler() {
                            public void handle(MediaErrorEvent t) {
                                // Handle asynchronous error in MediaView.
                            }
                        });
                    } else {
                        // Handle synchronous error creating MediaPlayer.
                    }
                } catch (Exception mediaPlayerException) {
                    // Handle exception in MediaPlayer constructor.
                }
            } else {
                // Handle synchronous error creating Media.
            }
        } catch (Exception mediaException) {
            // Handle exception in Media constructor.
        }