Creating Simple Video Player using VLC Active X Control in WPF

In this post I will demonstrate how to create VLC media player in WPF using VLC player library.

To use VLC player API, VLC player must be install in machine. VLC Player can be freely download at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html.

Follow below steps to create VLC player in WPF

1. Install VLC player. (To download VLC player use above link)

2. Create simple WPF Application in VS 2010.

3. Add reference to VLC Active X Plugin

4. Add reference to WindowsFormsIntegration Library

5. Add new custom control.

6. Drag and Drop VLC Player control from toolbar to newly created custom control

7. Write blow code to your Mainwindow.xaml file

<Window x:Class="VLCPlayerWPF.MainWindow"

        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

        Title="MainWindow" Height="300" Width="300">

    <Grid>

        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

            <ColumnDefinition />

            <ColumnDefinition />

            <ColumnDefinition />

        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>

            <RowDefinition />

            <RowDefinition  Height="0.31*"/>

        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <WindowsFormsHost Name="windowsFormsHost1"

                          Height="199" Grid.Row="0"

                          Grid.ColumnSpan="3"

                          HorizontalAlignment="Left"

                          VerticalAlignment="Top"

                          Width="278" />

        <Button Name="OpenButton" Content="Open"

                Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0"

                Width="80" Height="40"

                Click="OpenButton_Click" />

        <Button Name="PlayButton" Content="Play"

                Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1"

                Width="80" Height="40"

                Click="PlayButton_Click" />

        <Button Name="PauseButton" Content="Pause"

                Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="2"

                Width="80" Height="40"

                Click="PauseButton_Click" />

    </Grid>

</Window>

8. Write below code to MainWindow.xaml.cs file

public partial class MainWindow : Window

{

    AxVLCPlugin vlc;

    public MainWindow()

    {

        InitializeComponent();

        Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(VLCPlayer_Loaded);

    }

    void VLCPlayer_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

    {

        vlc = new AxVLCPlugin();

        windowsFormsHost1.Child = vlc;

    }

    private void OpenButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

    {

        OpenFileDialog dlg = new OpenFileDialog();

        dlg.DefaultExt = ".avi";

        Nullable<bool> dialogResult = dlg.ShowDialog();

        if (dialogResult == true)

        {

            vlc.addTarget(dlg.FileName, null, 
                AXVLC.VLCPlaylistMode.VLCPlayListReplaceAndGo, 0);

            vlc.play();

        }

    }

    private void PlayButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

    {

        vlc.play();

    }

    private void PauseButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

    {

        if (vlc.Playing)

            vlc.pause();

    }

}

9. Run the application and see output

As demonstrated in above example, VLC ActiveX is used to created VLC player in WPF Application. WindowsFormsIntigration used to host custom control. I have created one custom contol and added VLC Active X library to it. In MainWindow, i have added WindowsFormsHost and also set VLC Player instance as child of WindowsFormsHost.

XAML

<WindowsFormsHost Name="windowsFormsHost1"

                          Height="199" Grid.Row="0"

                          Grid.ColumnSpan="3"

                          HorizontalAlignment="Left"

                          VerticalAlignment="Top"

                          Width="278" />

C#

vlc = new AxVLCPlugin();

windowsFormsHost1.Child = vlc;

I have also used Win32 FileOpenDialog box on Open button click event to open and select media file from local drive.

OpenFileDialog dlg = new OpenFileDialog();

dlg.DefaultExt = ".avi";

Nullable<bool> dialogResult = dlg.ShowDialog();

if (dialogResult == true)

{

     vlc.addTarget(dlg.FileName, null, AXVLC.VLCPlaylistMode.VLCPlayListReplaceAndGo, 0);

     vlc.play();

}

For more information about VLC ActiveX, refer to wiki.videolan.org.

Hope you liked this article. Please leave your comments/feedback in comments section of this post.

See Also - 

Binding WPF DataGrid with XML Data

Working with ThreadPool in C#

Styles in WPF

Triggers in WPF