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Stream media to a channel

Playing media files during online business presentations, educational sessions, or casual meetups heightens user engagement. Video SDK enables you to add media playing functionality to your app.

This page shows you how to use media player-related APIs to play local or online media resources with remote users in Interactive Live Streaming channels.

Understand the tech​

To play a media file in a channel, you open the file using a media player instance. When the file is ready to be played, you set up the local video container to display the media player output. You update channel media options to start publishing the media player stream, and stop publishing the camera and microphone streams. The remote user sees the camera and microphone streams of the media publishing user replaced by media streams.

Media player

Prerequisites​

Ensure that you have implemented the SDK quickstart in your project.

Implement the logic​

To implement a media player in your app, follow these steps:

  1. After initializing an instance of IRtcEngine, create an IMediaPlayer object.

    void CAgoraMediaPlayer::InitMediaPlayerKit() {
    // Create Agora media player
    m_mediaPlayer = m_rtcEngine->createMediaPlayer().get();
    m_lstInfo.InsertString(m_lstInfo.GetCount(), _T("createAgoraMediaPlayer"));
    m_lstInfo.InsertString(m_lstInfo.GetCount(), _T("Media player initialization"));

    // Set the player rendering view
    RECT rc = {0};
    m_localVideoWnd.GetWindowRect(&rc);
    int ret = m_mediaPlayer->setView(
    (agora::media::base::view_t)m_localVideoWnd.GetSafeHwnd());

    // Set the window to receive player events
    m_mediaPlayerEvent.SetMsgReceiver(m_hWnd);
    }
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  2. To register the playback observer, call registerPlayerSourceObserverthe before you join the channel. To unregister the playback observer, call unregisterPlayerSourceObserver before you leave the channel.

    void CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnBnClickedButtonJoinchannel() {
    // ...
    // Register the player observer
    ret = m_mediaPlayer->registerPlayerSourceObserver(&m_mediaPlayerEvent);
    m_lstInfo.InsertString(m_lstInfo.GetCount(),
    _T("registerPlayerSourceObserver"));

    if (0 ==
    m_rtcEngine->joinChannel(APP_TOKEN, szChannelId.c_str(), 0, options)) {
    strInfo.Format(_T("Join channel %s, use ChannelMediaOptions"),
    getCurrentTime());
    }
    else {
    // Unregister the player observer
    ret = m_mediaPlayer->unregisterPlayerSourceObserver(&m_mediaPlayerEvent);
    m_lstInfo.InsertString(m_lstInfo.GetCount(),
    _T("unregisterPlayerSourceObserver"));

    // Leave the channel in the engine.
    if (0 == m_rtcEngine->leaveChannel()) {
    strInfo.Format(_T("Leave channel %s"), getCurrentTime());
    }
    }

    m_lstInfo.InsertString(m_lstInfo.GetCount(), strInfo);
    }
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  3. Implement callbacks for the observer.

    // Observe player state changes
    LRESULT CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnmediaPlayerStateChanged(WPARAM wParam,
    LPARAM lParam) {
    CString strState;
    CString strError;
    switch ((agora::media::base::MEDIA_PLAYER_STATE)wParam) {
    case agora::media::base::PLAYER_STATE_OPEN_COMPLETED:
    strState = _T("PLAYER_STATE_OPEN_COMPLETED");
    m_mediaPlayerState = mediaPLAYER_OPEN;
    int64_t duration;
    m_mediaPlayer->getDuration(duration);
    m_sldVideo.SetRangeMax((int)duration);

    break;
    // Additional cases for other player states...
    }

    switch ((agora::media::base::MEDIA_PLAYER_ERROR)lParam) {
    case agora::media::base::PLAYER_ERROR_URL_NOT_FOUND:
    strError = _T("PLAYER_ERROR_URL_NOT_FOUND");
    // Additional cases for other player errors...
    break;
    }
    CString strInfo;
    strInfo.Format(_T("State:%s,\nError:%s"), strState, strError);
    m_lstInfo.InsertString(m_lstInfo.GetCount(), strInfo);
    return TRUE;
    }

    // Observe current playback progress
    LRESULT CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnmediaPlayerPositionChanged(WPARAM wParam,
    LPARAM lParam) {
    int64_t *p = (int64_t *)wParam;
    m_sldVideo.SetPos((int)*p);
    delete p;
    return TRUE;
    }
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  4. When joining a channel use ChannelMediaOptions to set the media player ID, publish media player's audio and video, and share media resources with remote users in the channel.

    void CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnBnClickedButtonPublishVideo() {
    if (m_publishMeidaplayer) {
    ChannelMediaOptions op;
    op.clientRoleType = CLIENT_ROLE_BROADCASTER;
    op.publishMediaPlayerVideoTrack = false;
    op.publishMediaPlayerAudioTrack = false;
    op.publishMediaPlayerId = m_mediaPlayer->getMediaPlayerId();
    int ret = m_rtcEngine->updateChannelMediaOptions(op);
    ChannelMediaOptions op2;
    op2.clientRoleType = CLIENT_ROLE_BROADCASTER;
    op2.publishCameraTrack = true;
    ret = m_rtcEngine->updateChannelMediaOptions(op2);
    m_publishMeidaplayer = false;
    } else {
    ChannelMediaOptions options;
    options.clientRoleType = CLIENT_ROLE_BROADCASTER;
    options.publishMediaPlayerVideoTrack = true;
    options.publishMediaPlayerAudioTrack = true;
    options.publishMediaPlayerId = m_mediaPlayer->getMediaPlayerId();
    options.publishCameraTrack = false;
    options.publishAudioTrack = false;
    options.autoSubscribeAudio = false;
    options.autoSubscribeVideo = false;
    m_rtcEngine->updateChannelMediaOptions(options);
    m_publishMeidaplayer = true;
    }
    }
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  5. Use the open method to open a local or online media file.

    void CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnBnClickedButtonOpen() {
    CString strUrl;
    CString strInfo;
    m_edtVideoSource.GetWindowText(strUrl);
    std::string tmp = cs2utf8(strUrl);
    switch (m_mediaPlayerState) {
    case mediaPLAYER_READY:
    case mediaPLAYER_STOP:
    if (tmp.empty()) {
    AfxMessageBox(_T("you can fill video source."));
    return;
    }
    m_mediaPlayer->open(tmp.c_str(), 0);
    break;
    default:
    m_lstInfo.InsertString(m_lstInfo.GetCount(),
    _T("can not open player."));
    break;
    }
    }
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  6. Call the play method to play the media file.

    void CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnBnClickedButtonPlay() {
    int ret;
    switch (m_mediaPlayerState) {
    case mediaPLAYER_PAUSE:
    case mediaPLAYER_OPEN:
    // Play media file
    ret = m_mediaPlayer->play();
    if (ret == 0) {
    m_mediaPlayerState = mediaPLAYER_PLAYING;
    }
    break;
    case mediaPLAYER_PLAYING:
    // Pause playback
    ret = m_mediaPlayer->pause();
    if (ret == 0) {
    m_mediaPlayerState = mediaPLAYER_PAUSE;
    }
    break;
    default:
    break;
    }
    }
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    Caution

    Call the play method to play the media file only after receiving the onPlayerSourceStateChanged callback reporting the player state as PLAYER_STATE_OPEN_COMPLETED.

  7. When a user stops playback or leaves the channel, call stop to stop playback, and destroyMediaPlayer to release resources.

    void CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnBnClickedButtonStop() {
    if (m_mediaPlayerState == mediaPLAYER_OPEN ||
    m_mediaPlayerState == mediaPLAYER_PLAYING ||
    m_mediaPlayerState == mediaPLAYER_PAUSE) {
    // Stop playback
    m_mediaPlayer->stop();
    m_mediaPlayerState = mediaPLAYER_STOP;
    }
    }

    void CAgoraMediaPlayer::OnDestroy() {
    // Destroy the media player
    CDialogEx::OnDestroy();
    m_mediaPlayer->destroy();
    }
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Reference​

This section contains content that completes the information on this page, or points you to documentation that explains other aspects to this product.

Supported formats and protocols​

The media player supports the following media formats and protocols:

Video encoding formats​

  • H.263, H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, RMVB, Theora, VP3, VP8, AVS, WMV

Audio coding formats​

  • WAV, MP2, MP3, AAC, OPUS, FLAC, Vorbis, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA v1, WMA v2

Container formats​

  • WAV, FLAC, OGG, MOV, ASF, FLV, MP3, MP4, MPEG-TS, Matroska (MKV), AVI, ASS, CONCAT, DTS, AVS

Supported protocols​

  • HTTP, HTTPS, RTMP, HLS, RTP, RTSP

Sample project​

Agora provides an open source MediaPlayer sample project on GitHub. Download it or view the source code for a more detailed example.

API reference​

Page Content

Interactive Live Streaming