Background media playback sample

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Shows how to use MediaPlayer and MediaPlaybackList to create a collection of songs or videos that can continue to play even when the app is no longer in the foreground.

Note: This sample is part of a large collection of UWP feature samples. You can download this sample as a standalone ZIP file from docs.microsoft.com, or you can download the entire collection as a single ZIP file, but be sure to unzip everything to access shared dependencies. For more info on working with the ZIP file, the samples collection, and GitHub, see Get the UWP samples from GitHub. For more samples, see the Samples portal on the Windows Dev Center.

Specifically, this sample covers:

• Enabling background media playback through a manifest capability
• Playing audio and video in the background with the MediaPlayer API
• Gapless playback with MediaPlaybackList
• Automatic SystemMediaTransportControl integration
• Update of MediaPlaybackItem DisplayProperties
• MVVM for media player apps
• JSON playlist serialization

Other relevant application model considerations include:

• Background applications have a memory target

• There are lifecycle events to inform apps if over target

• Apps can respond to being over target by unloading resources, including views or view state to get under target

• If an app needs to continue executing in the background when not playing media it must use Extended Execution, background tasks, or other supported mechanism to sponsor execution

• If an app needs to make networking calls in the background when not downloading or streaming media using platform media APIs these must be wrapped in either a foreground initiated Extended Execution session or a background task like ApplicationTrigger, MaintenanceTrigger, or TimerTrigger. Otherwise the network may be unavailable in standby.

See the Background Activity With the Single Process Model blog post for more information.

There are approaches for performing background audio playback for earlier versions of Windows, such as using BackgroundMediaPlayer in a dual-process application or AudioCategory.BackgroundCapableMedia in a single-process desktop application, but this sample demonstrates the recommended single-process technique for background playback on all supported UWP platforms.

Enabling background media playback

To enable background media playback, add the capability to the Package.appxmanifest. Note the uap3 namespace.

<Package
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10"
  xmlns:mp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/2014/phone/manifest"
  xmlns:uap="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10"
  xmlns:uap3="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10/3"
  IgnorableNamespaces="uap uap3 mp">
   ...
  <Capabilities>
    <uap3:Capability Name="backgroundMediaPlayback"/>
  </Capabilities>
</Package>

In a future update it will be possible to enable this through the form-based manifest editor in Visual Studio.

Adding this capability enables the following:

• This changes lifecycle behavior to keep the app process from suspending as long as it plays audio. All streams become background capable so they don't mute.

• All media playback APIs become background enabled. That means you can use any platform audio APIs, such as MediaPlayer, AudioGraph, XAudio2, and the HTML Audio tag.

MediaPlayer provides a default SystemMediaTransportControls implementation. If using another media API or if the MediaPlayer.CommandManager is disabled then an application must also minimally:

1. Enable SystemMediaTransportControls by setting IsEnabled to true
2. Set IsPlayEnabled and IsPauseEnabled to true
3. Handle the corresponding ButtonPressed events

Background logic

To perform background logic when not playing audio, use a foreground initiated Extended Execution session or a background or foreground initiated ApplicationTrigger. Handling triggers and running background tasks inside a single process can be done through the OnBackgroundActivated handler. See the BackgroundActivation sample for details.

Lifecycle

• Over limit policy: Apps must handle OnAppMemoryUsageLimitChanging to reduce memory usage if over the new limit about to be enforced. Instead of terminating the app immediately, apps continue to run on some platforms despite being over target provided that the system doesn't need the memory. Apps can improve their priority by keeping usage low when backgrounded and can maximize the range of devices supported by ensuring the application stays under the limit.

• Apps can use CoreApplication lifecycle events EnteredBackground and LeavingBackground as a trigger to free memory used by a GUI if needed since the GUI is not displayed in the background. If needed, apps can release GUI resources by setting Window.Current.Content to null and unregistering event handlers.

• Apps can use the MemoryManager class to monitor their memory usage after a new limit has been applied. In particular, apps can reduce their memory usage when the AppMemoryUsageLevel reaches High or OverLimit.

• When the app enters the background or receives an over limit notification, platform frameworks will take steps to release unused resources, such as cached textures.

MediaPlayer API

• MediaPlayer works in foreground and background apps, with UI or without. All key media features from MediaElement are available to MediaPlayer. Now you can "new MediaPlayer()" anywhere.

• A lightweight MediaPlayerElement allows binding and unbinding to a player for displaying video. This design enables support for background video since rendering to an element is decoupled from the player. Additionally, background audio apps can leverage its platform MediaTransportControls if desired.

• MediaPlayer has a MediaPlayerSurface that can be used to render video to a Windows.UI.Composition surface. This enables media playback in "framework-less apps". Furthermore, since all XAML elements are backed by these surfaces, apps can render video to any XAML element.

• MediaPlayer connects to SystemMediaTransportControls through a CommandManager. These controls are important because that's how the app responds to hardware button presses and Bluetooth, and they are required for background audio.

• The app can popupate the DisplayProperties of the MediaPlaybackItem with artwork, track title, etc., and the platform will update system controls automatically when the item is playing.

Memory management guidance for background audio apps

Background information

There are three events for controlling your memory usage (but only one is mandatory):

• MemoryManager::AppMemoryLimitChanging – Raised just before the limit of how much total memory the app can use is changed. For example, when the app moves into the background and on Xbox the memory limit changes from 1024MB to 128MB. This is the most important event to handle to keep the platform from suspending or terminating the app.

• MemoryManager::AppMemoryUsageIncreased – Raised when the app's memory consumption has increased to a higher value in the AppMemoryUsageLevel enumeration. For example, from Low to Medium. Handling this event is optional but recommended since the application is still responsible for staying under limit.

• MemoryManager::AppMemoryUsageDecreased – Raised when the app's memory consumption has decreased to a higher lower value in the AppMemoryUsageLevel enumeration. For example, from High to Low. Handling this event is optional but indicates the application may be able to allocate additional memory if needed.

There are two events to take into account when your app is entering and leaving the background:

• WebUIApplication/Application::EnteredBackground – Raised when the app has moved from the foreground to the background.

• WebUIApplication/Application::LeavingBackground – Raised when the is about to move from the background to the foreground.

Managing memory using the AppMemoryLimitChanging event

The AppMemoryLimitChanging event notifies an application that the memory limit is about to change. The NewLimit property on the AppMemoryUsageLimitChangingEventArgs can be used to determine whether the current app memory usage (MemoryManager::AppMemoryUsage) is over the new limit or not. If app memory usage is over the new limit, the app must free resources or risk being suspended or terminated when the new memory limit comes into effect.

Note:

• Some device configurations will allow an application to continue running over the new memory limit until the system is under resource pressure.

• On Xbox in particular, apps will be suspended or terminated if they do not reduce memory to under the new limits within 2 seconds.

• This means that apps can deliver the best experience across the broadest range of devices by using this event to reduce resource usage below the limit within 2 seconds of the event being raised.

Managing memory using the AppMemoryUsageIncreased and AppMemoryUsageDecreased events

When running in the foreground or the background the AppMemoryUsageIncreased and AppMemoryUsageDecreased events can be used control the amount of memory an app uses. For example:

• if an app gets an AppMemoryUsageIncreased event and the MemoryManager::AppMemoryUsageLevel is AppMemoryUsageLevel::High then it should consider freeing resources to stay within the memory constraints of the system.

• if an app gets an AppMemoryUsageIncreased event and the MemoryManager.AppMemoryUsageLevel is AppMemoryUsageLevel.OverLimit then it must free resources to stay within the memory constraints of the system. If it does not the app may be suspended or terminated (see Notes above for more information). On Xbox if the app does not reduce memory within 2 seconds of receiving an OverLimit event it will be suspended or terminated.

• The MemoryManager::AppMemoryUsage and MemoryManager::AppMemoryUsageLimit properties can be used to determine actual memory usage and the current limit. Note: These events are not a replacement handling the AppMemoryLimitChanging event, but rather allow the application to continue to monitor its memory usage after limits have been applied.

Freeing resources

An app may have resources such as cached data that can be released at any point in time and recreated easily. These are ideal to release in AppMemoryLimitChanging or as needed in AppMemoryUsageIncreased.

Some resources cannot be released while the UI is present, such as visible images, 3D models, or the view itself and its backing data. These can be released directly in EnteredBackground but this could result in releasing views unnecessarily. Alternatively, use EnteredBackground/LeavingBackground to track background status and then release UI resources from AppMemoryLimitChanging only if needed.

Be especially careful of references that could prevent resources from being garbage collected, such as strong references or subscribed event handlers.

If your application clears window content on background transitions, be aware of the following.

When the window content is set to be collected, each Frame will begin its disconnection process. If there are Pages in the visual object tree under the window content, these will raise their Unloaded event. Pages cannot be completely cleared from memory unless all references to them are removed. In the Unloaded callback, make sure to do these things to ensure memory is quickly removed:

✓ Do clear and set any large data structures in your Page to null.

✓ Do unregister for all event handlers that have callback methods within the Page. Make sure to Register for those callbacks again during the Loaded event handler for the Page. The Loaded event will be raised when the UI has been reconstituted later and the Page has been added to the visual object tree.

✓ Do call GC.Collect at the end of the Unloaded callback to quickly garbage collect any of the large data structures you have just set to null.

Moving from the foreground to the background

When an app moves from the foreground to the background, the system does work on behalf of the app to free up resources that are not needed in the background. For example, the UI frameworks flush cached textures and the video subsystem frees memory allocated on behalf of the app. However, an app will still need to carefully monitor its memory usage to avoid being suspended or terminated by the system.

When an app moves from the foreground to the background it will first get an EnteredBackground event and then a AppMemoryLimitChanging event.

✓ Do use the EnteredBackground event to free up UI resources that you know your app does not need when running in the background – for example the cover art image for a song.

✘ Do not perform long running operations in the EnteredBackground event as you can cause the system to appear to be slow to transition between applications as a result.

✓ Do use the AppMemoryLimitChanging event to ensure that your app is using less memory than the new background limit. Make sure that you free up resources if this is not the case. If you do not your app may be suspended or terminated according to device specific policy.

✓ Do manually invoke the garbage collector if your app is over the new memory limit when the AppMemoryLimitChanging event is raised.

✓ Consider as a performance optimization, freeing UI resources in the AppMemoryLimitChanging event handler instead of in the EnteredBackground handler. Use a boolean value set in the EnteredBackground/LeavingBackground event handlers to track whether the app is in the background or foreground. Then in the AppMemoryLimitChanging event handler, if AppMemoryUsage is over the limit and the app is in the background (based on the Boolean value) you can free UI resources.

✓ Do use the AppMemoryUsageIncreased event to continue to monitor your app’s memory usage while running in the background if you expect it to change. If the AppMemoryUsageLevel is High or OverLimit make sure that you free up resources.

Moving from the background to the foreground

When an app moves from the background to the foreground, the app will first get an AppMemoryLimitChanging event and then a LeavingBackground event.

✓ Do use the LeavingBackground event to recreate UI resources that your app discarded when moving into the background.

Related topics

Reference

• Background Activity With the Single Process Model
• BackgroundActivation sample
• Old BackgroundAudio sample, no longer recommended but available for reference.

Related samples

• BackgroundMediaPlayback sample for JavaScript (archived)

System requirements

• Windows 10 build 14393 or higher

Build the sample

1. If you download the samples ZIP, be sure to unzip the entire archive, not just the folder with the sample you want to build.
2. Start Microsoft Visual Studio and select File > Open > Project/Solution.
3. Starting in the folder where you unzipped the samples, go to the Samples subfolder, then the subfolder for this specific sample, then the subfolder for your preferred language (C++, C#, or JavaScript). Double-click the Visual Studio Solution (.sln) file.
4. Press Ctrl+Shift+B, or select Build > Build Solution.

Run the sample

The next steps depend on whether you just want to deploy the sample or you want to both deploy and run it.

Deploying the sample

1. Select Build > Deploy Solution.

Deploying and running the sample

1. To debug the sample and then run it, press F5 or select Debug > Start Debugging. To run the sample without debugging, press Ctrl+F5 or selectDebug > Start Without Debugging.