c# multiple sounds and threading [duplicate] - c#

I'm making a sampler program where each key from 1 to 9 will make a different sound.
Everything works fine, but when I press two (or more) sounds at the same time, the second one "kills" the first one.
I'm playing the sounds from .WAV files, using SoundPlayer. How can I solve this?

You'll need to use DirectX (DirectSound) or some similar API that is designed to allow the playing of multiple sounds at the same time.

There is one simple way to play multiple sounds at once in C# or VB.Net. You will have to call the mciSendString() API Function to play each .wav file. You won't even have to do multi-threading, unless you are loop-playing. Here is a complete working example of a MusicPlayer class created using mciSendString().
// Sound api functions
[DllImport("winmm.dll")]
static extern Int32 mciSendString(string command, StringBuilder buffer, int bufferSize, IntPtr hwndCallback);
In the above function, the key is first parameter command. As long as you call two functions with a separate command name, they will play separately/simultaneously. This is what I did in one of my C# programs:
private void PlayWorker()
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
mciSendString("open \"" + FileName + "\" alias " + this.TrackName, sb, 0, IntPtr.Zero);
mciSendString("play " + this.TrackName, sb, 0, IntPtr.Zero);
IsBeingPlayed = true;
}
EDIT: Added link to a working example.

You could do this:
SoundPlayer supports WAV Stream. You could
MIX samples you play 'by-hand' and,
Fake (get the WAV header from somewhere, it's not complicated).
And provide such stream as a parameter to the SoundPlayer constructor.
That way you won't have to use somehow complicated DirectSound libraries, and still have mixing (multiple sounds at once).

using System.Windows.Media
Function void Play(string audioPath)
{
MediaPlayer myPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
myPlayer.Open(new System.Uri(audioPath));
myPlayer.Play();
}
Play(Application.StartupPath + "\\Track1.wav");
Play(Application.StartupPath + "\\Track2.wav");
This code could play two audio files simultaneously, the call in second audio track2.wav will not disturb the play of track1.wav .

I'm guessing that in your KeyPress event (or whatever you're using) you're creating a new instance of SoundPlayer using the constructor that takes a path to the WAV file, and then calling its Play method. In theory this shouldn't cause the "mono" effect that you're encountering, since Windows has been capable of playing multiple WAV files simultaneously since Windows 98. What I think you're hearing (based on my own use of this class) is not a cutoff of the first sound when the second starts, but actually a glitch that results from overall playback pausing as the WAV file is loaded from disk.
Instead of loading up a new instance of SoundPlayer on each key press, try creating an array of class-scoped SoundPlayer objects and pre-loading them from disk in your form's Load event. Then just call each SoundPlayer's Play method when the key is pressed. This may fix your problem, although I think you will still get occasional glitches this way.

you need to use xAudio2 via SharpDX , it is a directX component dedicated for game development , you can find a full working sample here:
https://github.com/sharpdx/SharpDX-Samples/tree/master/Desktop/XAudio2/PlaySound

Related

(c#) Playing and controlling multiple sound files using DirectShow

I have very little experience with DirectShow, so far I have managed paly a .wav file over a particular output device while being able to control its volume and get/set its track-position. Basically I’m able to create a very simple sound player application.
Here is the code I’m currently using:
//select an output device
DsDevice[] devices = DsDevice.GetDevicesOfCat(FilterCategory.AudioRendererCategory
DsDevice device = (DsDevice)devices[xxx];
//define a source
Guid iid = typeof(IBaseFilter).GUID;
object source = null;
device.Mon.BindToObject(null, null, ref iid, out source);
//build a basic graph to play the sound
IGraphBuilder player_gra = (IGraphBuilder)new FilterGraph();
player_gra.AddFilter((IBaseFilter)source, "Audio Render");
player_gra.RenderFile(#"test.wav", "");
//start the sound
(player_gra as IMediaControl).Run();
//control the volume
(player_gra as IBasicAudio).put_Volume(volume);
//get/set position on the track
(player_gra as IMediaPosition).get_Duration(out out1);//how long the track is
(player_gra as IMediaPosition).get_CurrentPosition(out out2);
(player_gra as IMediaPosition).put_CurrentPosition(yyy);
What I would like to do now is to play several .wav files simultaneously while being able to control the volume and track-position of each file at runtime.
My first attempt was to create several IGraphBuilder instances and run them at the same time but it seem that only one can play at the same time while the others wait until the currently playing one is terminated via:
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(player_gra);
My second attempt was to give the IGraphBuilder several Files to render before starting it.
…
player_gra.RenderFile(#"testA.wav", "");
player_gra.RenderFile(#"testB.wav", "");
player_gra.RenderFile(#"testC.wav", "");
…
This way the files are played simultaneously but I see no way to control the volume of each individual sound, much less its position on the audio track.
Thank you in advance ;-)
In these lines
DsDevice[] devices = DsDevice.GetDevicesOfCat(FilterCategory.AudioRendererCategory);
DsDevice device = (DsDevice)devices[0];
you enumerate audio output devices and pick the first "random" device which appears to be Default WaveOut Device or one of its instances.
It has a legacy behavior that only one active instance is actually sending data to playback. There is no fundamental limitation in the system to prevent from simultaneous plyback, it is just legacy behavior.
That is, you have both graph playing but audio from the second is muted.
Audio mixing is disabled in the waveOut Audio Renderer, so if you need to mix multiple audio streams during playback, use the DirectSound renderer.
If you use Default DirectSound Device instead (which you can quickly pick up by using different index in device[NNN] in code) you'll hear what you expect to hear.
DirectShow.NET does the enumeration somehow confusingly, Default DirectSound Device normally has highest merit and is listed first and you seem to be given devices in different order.

Modify the duration of a video in Windows Media Player

for a new project, I used the Windows Media Player component. It should play a Livestream and this works fine for me, but after 10s the stream loads again and begins at 0 seconds (just like a 10s video clip).
There are two solutions I can see, but I don't know a way for them. The code itself is pretty simple.
private void tbutton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tvplayer.currentPlaylist.name = "TV-Stream";
tvplayer.URL = (stream-url);
}
The first would be to "let the player know" that the video source is a stream and not a video, but I don't know how I should do that.
The second solution would be to modify the duration of the "video", the Media Player plays to... maybe two hours or 24 hours. I know this is somehow possible as I read about it in the Metafile Elements Reference (https://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/windows/desktop/dd564668(v=vs.85).aspx), anyway, I don't see how.
Can someone give me a hint how I could do that?
I tried both HLS and HDS versions of the livestream, there is no difference. The problem is the same. The stream itself has a H.264 MP4-format.
I guess the problem is that the livestream is loaded in 10s-segments.

Launching a stream in VLC from C# program

Maybe it is just late, but I ran into a dead end, hoping someone can help me out.
I have a very simple program which is supposed to work like this: The user can see a list of available streams. The user picks a stream to watch. After picking a stream I then want to launch VLC media player for them and play it.
I have everything in order except from one last thing - I don't know how to make the player play the stream. I assumed it would just be something like this:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(pathVLC, streams[choice]);
where
PathVLC is the path to the users player, for example C:\Programs\VLC\vlc.exe
streams is an array of strings, all on the form "http://somerandomstream.m3u8"
choice is the stream the user wanted to see.
While VLC opens successfully, nothing else happens, and I am completely lost on how to actually tell VLC to play the stream. What am I missing?
Edit: Looking at Vaughan Hilts answer I figured it out!
System.Diagnostics.Process VLC = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
VLC.StartInfo.FileName = pathVLC;
VLC.StartInfo.Arguments = "-vvv " + streams[choice];
VLC.Start();
You'll be required to start it up from the command line like so:
vlc -vvv http://www.example.org/your_file.mpg
This means you will need to pass in the -vvv flags as well in your array to succesfully start the stream.
I would start from inspecting supported command-line arguments e.g. here

C# Duration or Length of a media file (Metro)

I'm trying to create a media player for the Windows Store. I am using MediaElement to play the file, but I would also like to be able to load multiple songs/videos in a playlist and to display the title of the media file and the length of the file in seconds.
Something like that:
TimeSpan duration = GetFileDuration(mFile.PathToFile);
or
int durationOfFileInSeconds = GetFileDuration(mFile.PathToFile);
How can I do that ? I tried a lot of methods but they don't work because I'm trying do develop for Windows Store. I tried:
System.Windows.Media.MediaPlayer
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodecPack
Shell() and GetDetailsOf()
many other solutions that I find online
I've also tried to create a new page with a MediaElement just to load files in the MediaElement but the MediaElement.MediaOpened or the MediaElement.MediaFailed events are never fired and while ((mPlayer.NaturalDuration.TimeSpan == new TimeSpan())) ; would run indefinitely.
Really need some help with this. I've seen media players on the Windows Store that can display the duration of the file, so it's possible. I just don't know how.

How do I display an MJPEG stream in a Windows Form application?

I have a video stream which comes as an MJPEG over HTTP.
Is there a way to display such stream in a Windows Form application?
I already have a set of routines for displaying simple JPEGs from a webserver, but not continuous MJPEGs. Maybe the two problems are related.
I have found a library which works rather nicely: http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/articles/MJPEG-Decoder
You can use it as follows in a C# solution
// class attribute
MjpegDecoder m_mjpeg;
// In the constructor
m_mjpeg = new MjpegDecoder();
m_mjpeg.FrameReady += mjpeg_FrameReady;
// Private method
private void mjpeg_FrameReady(object sender, FrameReadyEventArgs e)
{
yourPictureBox.Image = e.Bitmap;
}
Source is also available for debugging.
I know it's pretty late, but I found this solution that fits perfectly my needs and may be also yours.
here it is: Motion JPEG Streaming Server

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