Module javafx.media

Package javafx.scene.media

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

  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.

Media Encoding Table
EncodingTypeDescription
AACAudioAdvanced Audio Coding audio compression
MP3Audio 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.
PCMAudioUncompressed, raw audio samples
H.264/AVCVideoH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 / AVC (Advanced Video Coding) video compression
H.265/HEVCVideoH.265/MPEG-H Part 2 / HEVC (High Efficiency 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.

Media Container / Encoding Types Table
ContainerDescriptionVideo Encoding Audio EncodingMIME TypeFile Extension
AIFFAudio Interchange File FormatN/A PCMaudio/x-aiff.aif, .aiff
HLS (*)MP2T HTTP Live Streaming (audiovisual)H.264/AVC AACapplication/vnd.apple.mpegurl, audio/mpegurl.m3u8
HLS (*)MP3 HTTP Live Streaming (audio-only)N/A MP3application/vnd.apple.mpegurl, audio/mpegurl.m3u8
MP3MPEG-1, 2, 2.5 raw audio stream possibly with ID3 metadata v2.3 or v2.4 N/AMP3audio/mpeg.mp3
MP4MPEG-4 Part 14H.264/AVC AACvideo/mp4, audio/x-m4a, video/x-m4v.mp4, .m4a, .m4v
MP4MPEG-4 Part 14H.265/HEVC AACvideo/mp4, audio/x-m4a, video/x-m4v.mp4, .m4a, .m4v
WAVWaveform Audio FormatN/A PCMaudio/x-wav.wav

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

Supported Protocols

Supported Protocols Table
ProtocolDescriptionReference
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 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.
"Metadata Keys and Tags Table
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:

  1. Create a Media object for the desired media source.
  2. Create a MediaPlayer object from the Media object.
  3. Create a MediaView object.
  4. Add the MediaPlayer to the MediaView.
  5. Add the MediaView to the scene graph.
  6. Invoke 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 MediaPlayers.
  • One MediaPlayer may be shared amoung multiple MediaViews.
  • Media may be played directly by a MediaPlayer without creating a MediaView 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 by MediaPlayer.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 MediaViews. 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.
    }