IMFPMediaPlayer (Microsoft Media Foundation)

Question

Dear All,

I am currently involved with the application of a video playback application using the Microsoft Media Foundation.

The Media Foundation API requires the usage of the header mfplay.h.
More info can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/_mf/

The mfplay.h has 3 interfaces:

1. IMFPMediaItem Represents a media item. (Deprecated.).
2. IMFPMediaPlayer Contains methods to play media files. (Deprecated.).
3. IMFPMediaPlayerCallback Callback interface for the IMFPMediaPlayer interface.
   More info can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/mfplay/

Microsoft Provides 2 playback examples based on IMFPMediaPlayerCallback:

1. MFPlayer2 (from 07/02/2020)
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/samples/microsoft/windows-classic-samples/mfplayer2/
2. SimplePlay (from 06/11/2020)
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/samples/microsoft/windows-classic-samples/simpleplay-sample/

However, in the IMFPMediaPlayerCallback appears to be deprecated (according to following link) and MediaSession should be used instead (from 12/05/2018):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/mfplay/nn-mfplay-imfpmediaplayercallback

A whole description of how to implement video playback using MediaSession is described here (from 05/31/2018):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/medfound/how-to-play-unprotected-media-files

My question is:
Should I develop my application based on the use of IMFPMediaPlayerCallback or Media Session?

Kind Regards,

Marcelo

Answer 1

Hello @MChulek ,

From official sample repo in GitHub: MFPlayer2 Sample and SimplePlay sample, both published 5 years ago. You can ignore the time difference between these two samples.

Since the document states that IMFPMediaPlayerCallback is deprecated and may be removed from future releases of Windows. It is suggested to use the Media Session for playback instead.

Thank you!

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Answer 2

A more recent interface is IMFMediaEngine

Answer 3

Should I develop my application based on the use of IMFPMediaPlayerCallback or Media Session?

IMFPMediaPlayer is deprecated, I would rather you not use it, it's clearly unreliable.

IMFMediaSession Media Session API is okay and is the primary Media Foundation API to control pipelines. Good choice unless you need UWP support (where you don't have Media Session part of Media Foundation API).

IMFMediaEngine mentioned above is a wrapper over Media Session API. Makes things easier at the cost of flexibility. Good for simple straightforward things.