FFmpegInterop is an open-source project that aims to provide an easy way to use FFmpeg in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 applications for playback of a variety of media contents. FFmpegInterop implements a MediaStreamSource which leverages FFmpeg to process media and uses the Windows media pipeline for playback.

One of the advantages of this approach is that audio and video synchronization is handled by the Windows media pipeline. You can also use the Windows built-in audio and video decoders which allows for better power consumption mobile devices.

Getting a compatible build of FFmpeg is required for this to work.

You can simply use the embedded git submodule that points to the latest tested release of FFmpeg.

git clone --recursive git:https://github.com/microsoft/FFmpegInterop.git

Alternatively, you can get the code for FFmpeg on Github yourself by cloning git:https://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git and replace existing default ffmpeg folder with it.

git clone git:https://github.com/microsoft/FFmpegInterop.git
cd FFmpegInterop
git clone git:https://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git

Your FFmpegInterop folder should look as follows

FFmpegInterop\
    ffmpeg\              - ffmpeg source code from the latest release in git:https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg.git
    FFmpegInterop\       - FFmpegInterop WinRT component
    Samples\             - Sample Media Player applications in C++ and C#
    Tests\               - Unit tests for FFmpegInterop
    BuildFFmpeg.bat      - Helper script to build FFmpeg libraries as described in https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/WinRT
    FFmpegConfig.sh      - Internal script that contains FFmpeg configure options
    FFmpegInterop.sln    - Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 solution file for Windows 10 apps development
    LICENSE
    README.md

Now that you have the FFmpeg source code, you can follow the instructions on how to build FFmpeg for WinRT apps. Follow the setup instruction carefuly to avoid build issues. After completing the setup as instructed, you can invoke BuildFFmpeg.bat script to build or do it manually using the instructions in the compilation guide.

BuildFFmpeg.bat                    - Build all architectures
BuildFFmpeg.bat x64                - Build x64 only
BuildFFmpeg.bat x86 x64            - Build x64 and x86 only

If you use the build script or follow the Wiki instructions as is you should find the appropriate builds of FFmpeg libraries in the ffmpeg/Build/<platform\>/<architecture\> folders.

Simply open FFmpegInterop.sln, set one of the MediaPlayer as StartUp project, and run. FFmpegInterop should build cleanly giving you the interop object as well as the selected sample MediaPlayer (C++ or C#) that show how to connect the MediaStreamSource to a MediaElement or Video tag for playback.

Using the FFmpegInterop object is fairly straightforward and can be observed from the sample applications provided.

1. Get a stream for the media you want to playback.

2. Create a new FFmpegInteropObject using FFmpegInteropMSS.CreateFFmpegInteropMSSFromStream() passing it the stream and whether you want to force the decoding of the media (if you don't force decoding of the media, the MediaStreamSource will try to pass the compressed data for playback, this is currently enabled for mp3, aac and h.264 media).

3. Get the MediaStreamSource from the Interop object by invoking GetMediaStreamSource()

4. Assign the MediaStreamSource to your MediaElement or VideoTag for playback.

   You can try to use the method FFmepgInteropMSS.CreateFFmpegInteropMSSFromUri to create a MediaStreamSource on a streaming source (shoutcast for example).

This project is in an early stage and we look forward to engaging with the community and hearing your feedback to figure out where we can take this project.