Package 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:
Media
,
MediaPlayer
, and
MediaView
.
Contents
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 |
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 |
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 theMedia.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 |
---|---|---|---|
MP3 | raw metadata | Map<String,ByteBuffer> | The raw metadata according to the appropriate media specification. The key "ID3" maps to MP3 ID3v2 metadata. |
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:
- Create a
Media
object for the desired media source. - Create a
MediaPlayer
object from theMedia
object. - Create a
MediaView
object. - Add the
MediaPlayer
to theMediaView
. - Add the
MediaView
to the scene graph. - Invoke
MediaPlayer.play()
.
MediaView
class documentation. Some things which should be noted are:
- One
Media
object may be shared among multipleMediaPlayer
s. - One
MediaPlayer
may be shared amoung multipleMediaView
s. - Media may be played directly by a
MediaPlayer
without creating aMediaView
although a view is required for display. - Instead of
MediaPlayer.play()
,MediaPlayer.setAutoPlay(true)
may be used to request that playing start as soon as possible. MediaPlayer
has several operational states defined byMediaPlayer.Status
.- Audio-only media may instead be played using
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
Media()
and
MediaPlayer()
.
The asynchronous error properties are
Media.error
and
MediaPlayer.error
, and the
asynchronous error callbacks
Media.onError
,
MediaPlayer.onError
, and
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<MediaErrorEvent>() {
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.
}
-
Interface Summary Interface Description AudioSpectrumListener Audio spectrum callback interface. -
Class Summary Class Description AudioClip AnAudioClip
represents a segment of audio that can be played with minimal latency.AudioEqualizer TheAudioEqualizer
class provides audio equalization control for a media player.AudioTrack ATrack
that describes an audio track.EqualizerBand TheEqualizerBand
class provides control for each band in theAudioEqualizer
.Media TheMedia
class represents a media resource.MediaErrorEvent AnEvent
representing the occurrence of an error in handling media.MediaMarkerEvent AnActionEvent
representing a media marker.MediaPlayer TheMediaPlayer
class provides the controls for playing media.MediaView SubtitleTrack ATrack
that contains subtitle or captioning data to be rendered overlaying a video track.Track A class representing a track contained in a media resource.VideoTrack ATrack
that describes a video track. -
Enum Summary Enum Description MediaException.Type Enumeration describing categories of errors.MediaPlayer.Status Enumeration describing the different status values of aMediaPlayer
. -
Exception Summary Exception Description MediaException