Supported Media Types

Supported Encoding Types

Encoding	Type	Description
AAC	Audio	Advanced Audio Coding audio compression
MP3	Audio	Raw MPEG-1, 2, and 2.5 audio; layers I, II, and III; all supported combinations of sampling frequencies and bit rates. Note: File must contain at least 3 MP3 frames.
PCM	Audio	Uncompressed, raw audio samples
H.264/AVC	Video	H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 / AVC (Advanced Video Coding) video compression
VP6	Video	On2 VP6 video compression

Supported Container Types

Container	Description	Video Encoding	Audio Encoding	MIME Type	File Extension
AIFF	Audio Interchange File Format	N/A	PCM	audio/x-aiff	.aif, .aiff
FXM, FLV	FX Media, Flash Video	VP6	MP3	video/x-javafx, video/x-flv	.fxm, .flv
HLS (*)	MP2T HTTP Live Streaming (audiovisual)	H.264/AVC	AAC	application/vnd.apple.mpegurl, audio/mpegurl	.m3u8
HLS (*)	MP3 HTTP Live Streaming (audio-only)	N/A	MP3	application/vnd.apple.mpegurl, audio/mpegurl	.m3u8
MP3	MPEG-1, 2, 2.5 raw audio stream possibly with ID3 metadata v2.3 or v2.4	N/A	MP3	audio/mpeg	.mp3
MP4	MPEG-4 Part 14	H.264/AVC	AAC	video/mp4, audio/x-m4a, video/x-m4v	.mp4, .m4a, .m4v
WAV	Waveform Audio Format	N/A	PCM	audio/x-wav	.wav

(*) HLS is a protocol rather than a container type but is included here to aggregate similar attributes.

Supported Protocols

Protocol	Description	Reference
FILE	Protocol for URI representation of local files	java.net.URI
HTTP	Hypertext transfer protocol for representation of remote files	java.net.URI
HTTPS	Hypertext transfer protocol secure for representation of remote files	java.net.URI
JAR	Representation of media entries in files accessible via the FILE, HTTP or HTTPS protocols	java.net.JarURLConnection
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)	Playlist-based media streaming via HTTP or HTTPS	Internet-Draft: HTTP Live Streaming

MPEG-4 Playback via HTTP

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)

• On-demand and live playlists.
• Elementary MP3 audio streams (audio/mpegurl) and multiplexed MP2T streams (application/vnd.apple.mpegurl) with one AAC audio and one H.264/AVC video track.
• Playlists with integer or float duration.

Supported Metadata Tags

Container	Tag (type String)	Type	Description
FXM, FLV	audio codec	java.lang.String	The encoder used for the audio track.
FXM, FLV	duration	javafx.util.Duration	The duration of the media.
FXM, FLV	video codec	java.lang.String	The encoder used for the video track.
FXM, FLV	width	java.lang.Integer	The width in pixels of the video track.
FXM, FLV	height	java.lang.Integer	The height in pixels of the video track.
FXM, FLV	framerate	java.lang.Double	The video frame rate in frames per second.
FXM, FLV	creationdate	java.lang.String	The date when the video was created.
FXM, FLV, MP3	raw metadata	Map<String,ByteBuffer>	The raw metadata according to the appropriate media specification. The key "ID3" maps to MP3 ID3v2 metadata and "FLV" to the FLV onMetadata marker content.
MP3	album artist	java.lang.String	The artist for the overall album, possibly "Various Artists" for compilations.
MP3	album	java.lang.String	The name of the album.
MP3	artist	java.lang.String	The artist of the track.
MP3	comment-N	java.lang.String	A comment where N is a 0-relative index. Comment format: ContentDescription[lng]=Comment
MP3	composer	java.lang.String	The composer of the track.
MP3	year	java.lang.Integer	The year the track was recorded.
MP3	disc count	java.lang.Integer	The number of discs in the album.
MP3	disc number	java.lang.Integer	The 1-relative index of the disc on which this track appears.
MP3	duration	javafx.util.Duration	The duration of the track.
MP3	genre	java.lang.String	The genre of the track, for example, "Classical," "Darkwave," or "Jazz."
MP3	image	javafx.scene.image.Image	The album cover.
MP3	title	java.lang.String	The name of the track.
MP3	track count	java.lang.Integer	The number of tracks on the album.
MP3	track number	java.lang.Integer	The 1-relative index of this track on the disc.

Basic Playback

The basic steps required to play media in Java FX are:

1. Create a {@link javafx.scene.media.Media} object for the desired media source.
2. Create a {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer} object from the Media object.
3. Create a {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaView} object.
4. Add the MediaPlayer to the MediaView.
5. Add the MediaView to the scene graph.
6. Invoke {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#play()}.

• One Media object may be shared among multiple MediaPlayers.
• One MediaPlayer may be shared amoung multiple MediaViews.
• Media may be played directly by a MediaPlayer without creating a MediaView although a view is required for display.
• Instead of MediaPlayer.play(), {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#setAutoPlay MediaPlayer.setAutoPlay(true)} may be used to request that playing start as soon as possible.
• MediaPlayer has several operational states defined by {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer.Status}.
• Audio-only media may instead be played using {@link javafx.scene.media.AudioClip} (recommended for low latency playback of short clips).

Error Handling

Errors using Java FX Media may be either synchronous or asynchronous. In general synchronous errors will manifest themselves as a Java Exception and asynchronous errors will cause a Java FX property to be set. In the latter case either the error property may be observed directly, an onError callback registered, or possibly both.

The main sources of synchronous errors are {@link javafx.scene.media.Media#Media Media()} and {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#MediaPlayer MediaPlayer()}. The asynchronous error properties are {@link javafx.scene.media.Media#errorProperty Media.error} and {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#errorProperty MediaPlayer.error}, and the asynchronous error callbacks {@link javafx.scene.media.Media#onErrorProperty Media.onError}, {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer#onErrorProperty MediaPlayer.onError}, and {@link javafx.scene.media.MediaView#onErrorProperty MediaView.onError}.

Some errors might be duplicated. For example, a MediaPlayer will propagate an error that it encounters to its associated Media, and a MediaPlayer to all its associated MediaViews. As a consequence, it is possible to receive multiple notifications of the occurrence of a given error, depending on which properties are monitored.

The following code snippet illustrates error handling with media:

    String source;
    Media media;
    MediaPlayer mediaPlayer;
    MediaView mediaView;
    try {
        media = new Media(source);
        if (media.getError() == null) {
            media.setOnError(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                    // Handle asynchronous error in Media object.
                }
            });
            try {
                mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer(media);
                if (mediaPlayer.getError() == null) {
                    mediaPlayer.setOnError(new Runnable() {
                        public void run() {
                            // Handle asynchronous error in MediaPlayer object.
                        }
                    });
                    mediaView = new MediaView(mediaPlayer);
                    mediaView.setOnError(new EventHandler() {
                        public void handle(MediaErrorEvent t) {
                            // Handle asynchronous error in MediaView.
                        }
                    });
                } else {
                    // Handle synchronous error creating MediaPlayer.
                }
            } catch (Exception mediaPlayerException) {
                // Handle exception in MediaPlayer constructor.
            }
        } else {
            // Handle synchronous error creating Media.
        }
    } catch (Exception mediaException) {
        // Handle exception in Media constructor.
    }