Transcode media files

You can use the Windows.Media.Transcoding APIs to transcode video files from one format to another.

Transcoding is the conversion of a digital media file, such as a video or audio file, from one format to another. This is usually done by decoding and then re-encoding the file. For example, you might convert a Windows Media file to MP4 so that it can be played on a portable device that supports MP4 format. Or, you might convert a high-definition video file to a lower resolution. In that case, the re-encoded file might use the same codec as the original file, but it would have a different encoding profile.

Set up your project for transcoding

In addition to the namespaces referenced by the default project template, you will need to reference these namespaces in order to transcode media files using the code in this article.

using Windows.Storage;
using Windows.Media.MediaProperties;
using Windows.Media.Transcoding;

Select source and destination files

The way that your app determines the source and destination files for transcoding depends on your implementation. This example uses a FileOpenPicker and a FileSavePicker to allow the user to pick a source and a destination file.

var openPicker = new Windows.Storage.Pickers.FileOpenPicker();

openPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = Windows.Storage.Pickers.PickerLocationId.VideosLibrary;
openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".wmv");
openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".mp4");

StorageFile source = await openPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();

var savePicker = new Windows.Storage.Pickers.FileSavePicker();

savePicker.SuggestedStartLocation =
    Windows.Storage.Pickers.PickerLocationId.VideosLibrary;

savePicker.DefaultFileExtension = ".mp4";
savePicker.SuggestedFileName = "New Video";

savePicker.FileTypeChoices.Add("MPEG4", new string[] { ".mp4" });

StorageFile destination = await savePicker.PickSaveFileAsync();

Create a media encoding profile

The encoding profile contains the settings that determine how the destination file will be encoded. This is where you have the greatest number of options when you transcode a file.

The MediaEncodingProfile class provides static methods for creating predefined encoding profiles:

Methods for creating Audio-only encoding profiles

Method	Profile
CreateAlac	Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) audio
CreateFlac	Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) audio.
CreateM4a	AAC audio (M4A)
CreateMp3	MP3 audio
CreateWav	WAV audio
CreateWmv	Windows Media Audio (WMA)

Methods for creating audio / video encoding profiles

Method	Profile
CreateAvi	AVI
CreateHevc	High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video, also known as H.265 video
CreateMp4	MP4 video (H.264 video plus AAC audio)
CreateWmv	Windows Media Video (WMV)

The following code creates a profile for MP4 video.

MediaEncodingProfile profile =
    MediaEncodingProfile.CreateMp4(VideoEncodingQuality.HD720p);

The static CreateMp4 method creates an MP4 encoding profile. The parameter for this method gives the target resolution for the video. In this case, VideoEncodingQuality.hd720p means 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second. ("720p" stands for 720 progressive scan lines per frame.) The other methods for creating predefined profiles all follow this pattern.

Alternatively, you can create a profile that matches an existing media file by using the MediaEncodingProfile.CreateFromFileAsync method. Or, if you know the exact encoding settings that you want, you can create a new MediaEncodingProfile object and fill in the profile details.

Transcode the file

To transcode the file, create a new MediaTranscoder object and call the MediaTranscoder.PrepareFileTranscodeAsync method. Pass in the source file, the destination file, and the encoding profile. Then call the TranscodeAsync method on the PrepareTranscodeResult object that was returned from the async transcode operation.

MediaTranscoder transcoder = new MediaTranscoder();

PrepareTranscodeResult prepareOp = await
    transcoder.PrepareFileTranscodeAsync(source, destination, profile);

if (prepareOp.CanTranscode)
{
    var transcodeOp = prepareOp.TranscodeAsync();

    transcodeOp.Progress +=
        new AsyncActionProgressHandler<double>(TranscodeProgress);
    transcodeOp.Completed +=
        new AsyncActionWithProgressCompletedHandler<double>(TranscodeComplete);
}
else
{
    switch (prepareOp.FailureReason)
    {
        case TranscodeFailureReason.CodecNotFound:
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Codec not found.");
            break;
        case TranscodeFailureReason.InvalidProfile:
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Invalid profile.");
            break;
        default:
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Unknown failure.");
            break;
    }
}

Respond to transcoding progress

You can register events to respond when the progress of the asynchronous TranscodeAsync changes. These events are part of the async programming framework for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps and are not specific to the transcoding API.

void TranscodeProgress(IAsyncActionWithProgress<double> asyncInfo, double percent)
{
    // Display or handle progress info.
}

void TranscodeComplete(IAsyncActionWithProgress<double> asyncInfo, AsyncStatus status)
{
    asyncInfo.GetResults();
    if (asyncInfo.Status == AsyncStatus.Completed)
    {
        // Display or handle complete info.
    }
    else if (asyncInfo.Status == AsyncStatus.Canceled)
    {
        // Display or handle cancel info.
    }
    else
    {
        // Display or handle error info.
    }
}