Status on libvlcnet or any other C# binding

[SteveRicketts]

I'm begging for any information on the libvlcnet project... or any other project that is looking at a C# wrapper. I would really, really like to use VLC in my project.

I've posted a number of questions in various threads on this forum and no one seems to know anything. I found the project on sourceforge with updated source as recent as 22 days ago. So, I wrote to the authors "rzar" (Rinat Zaripov) and "igor-kostromin"... no response. I don't know whether to post here, on sourceforge, someplace else.

There used to be four projects working on this... the libvlcnet, C# Wrapper, VideoLan.interop, Marx wrapper... what's happened to all these? There have been a number of people asking for help with one aspect or the other regarding C# and as far as I have been able to find, none of them have been answered.

So, if anyone has any information on this topic, anything at all, I (and I'm sure others) would sure appreciate hearing something.

Anxious in Ann Arbor

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I wish I knew...

[SteveRicketts]

Not quite the answer I wanted to hear, but very much appreciated. If someone like yourself is in the dark, then I don't feel near as bad. I just don't get why the silence from the libvlcnet authors. I've offered help, donations... don't hear a thing.

Anyway, thanks to much for the reply... really appreciated.

sr

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Someone is working on http://www.swig.org/ for libVLC, which might be an answer.

[Zingaro2002]

I'm also interested in using libvlc v1.1 inside .net environment (I'm developing with vb.net 2005 and/or vb.net 2008... but c# is also welcome!)

Can anyone let us know something (maybe good news) about libvlc wrappers?

Thanks

[phlegma]

Hi im also interested in using the libvlc in c#. I want to integrated the vlc libary in the software vvvv http://vvvv.org/.
Their plugins are written in c#.
I made some tests with the libversion 0.9 and it worked great, but now i want to switch to the version 1.1 because of the improvments.
I started to write a wrapper for the version 1.1, but I'm really new to the libvlc and wrapper stuff. So my work stop at some points and I don't if it
is my fault, a bug in the new version or my lack of knowledge.

So at all how wants to use the new libvlc version, should we try alltogether to writte an new binding?
Who is interested? Who has experience in writting Bindinds in C#?

[XilasZ]

A long time ago, i used VideoLan.interop 0.9.x from kairos for my own program.
Since then, i updated it to libvlc 1.0 and made my own tweaks (so it's not the same as VideoLan.interop 1.0 by kairos).

Two months ago i tried to update it to libvlc 1.1, but there was bugs, events didn't work, so i postponed it.
Now with 1.1RC, i think i'll try again soon.

In the meantime, you can find the current version here : http://fritivi.git.sourceforge.net/git/ ... 41;hb=HEAD

[rzar]

That was ages ago, anyway...

Anyone who want to participate (finding bugs/asking for new features/coding) on the wrapper, please feel free to contact me at zaripov [dot] rinat [at] gmail [dot] com. I don't have much time really for the project. I keep coding for libvlc.net when I have time. Right now it works fine on mac os x.

I use forums very rarely, so it's better to contact me by e-mail.

Best regards,
rz.

[Bradskey]

Not to throw yet another libvlc .NET wrapper out there, but...

I have a couple of applications I wrote that I use to manage and access my digital video library, storing information about all my files and their locations in a SQLite database and using VLC to play the files from a NAS on my TV screen. For a long time I have been using the old .NET wrapper that was written around vlc 0.8.6, because it was easy (enough) and that version of VLC was fast and just worked for my purposes. Now with encodes using newer version of Handbrake/x.264 and some other types of files the underlying version of vlc is showing it's age and can't play back some content.

So I started to write a new wrapper from scratch. I tried writing one around VLC 1.0 at first, because I require the double-click to fullscreen toggle feature. I found 1.0 buggy, poorly performing and some features broken. So I bit the bullet and wrote a .NET wrapper from scratch for VLC 1.1.x. I implemented (on Windows) the fullscreen toggle using hooks and reparenting. It's not fancy, but it's an assembly that consists of some internal interop classes, a simple WinForms control that you can just drag/drop and resize and control VLC playback and features through public methods/properties (Play/Pause/change Audio Track, etc), and a set of classes that wrap most of the vlc modules more directly that could be used for lower level development. I'm not really a brilliant coder and I'm not saying it's wonderful, but I had enough familiarity with Win32 and .NET P/Invoke to get it working pretty well for me and to simplify and replace what I was using before. I developed it in VS2010 using C#, but it's .NET 3.5 and could probably be compiled under .NET 2.0, so a solution could be created in VS2005/2008 easily enough.

I don't mind sharing it if there is any interest, I wrote it over a weekend and there's really not much to it.

[Belgeran]

Hey Bradskey, Would you mind sharing your wrapper? Sounds exactly like what im after. Was planning to use the DX library for playback after not having much luck updating the older 0.8.* wrapper,

Writing a small app to store some data about my media, and I was looking for an easy way to play Video back inside my .net form.
Thanks
James

[Zingaro2002]

You can also have a look here:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/audio-video/nVLC.aspx
(I still haven't tried it)

or you can start from

http://www.helyar.net/2009/libvlc-media-player-in-c/
http://www.helyar.net/2009/libvlc-media ... -c-part-2/
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Bradskey,
what about sharing your work with us?

Thanks!

[Bradskey]

That codeproject article looks pretty interesting, although I only skimmed it. My implementation is a bit simpler and is basically focused on playing video in WinForms on Windows and not being all things to all people. He also does not mention implementing fullscreen and mouse/kb input events, which I have already done. I did also get the vlc events fully working very similar to what he has done, with a single struct that could support all event types. I only used it for the one list player event I was interested in, but it could easily be used for others.

I've also seen the helyar.net articles. They are a good start for beginners, but a little out of date. They probably did help encourage me to simply write this project myself and make it work the way I wanted.

I will try to set something up to share my wrapper some time this week for those interested.

[solud]

I have a working C# project using the latest version of VLC -- I find VLC works great for what I do with it: RTSP stream playback from Live555's OnDemandRTSPServer hosted on a separate machine.

I came across a problem with releasing objects on a form hosting a couple VLC displays and found the fix (using a thread other than the window-processing main thread to release the objects). Anyway, during the process of finding the fix, I had posted a demo of the problem in a post on these forums that contains enough code for someone to get started using VLC with C#. Of course the demo project doesn't include the fix, but just keep reading the thread to find the fix at the bottom.

Here's the post in the thread.

Edit: not all VLC functions are wrapped in this application, as I wrapped things as I needed them. It's pretty easy to wrap new functions, just google "VLC doxygen" to get the function lists for LibVLC.

[Bradskey]

For those interested in my wrapper, I have uploaded the VS2010 solution here:

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-99964dbb.html

I called the wrapper EasyVLC. I also included a sample test application which consists of a form hosting the user control and some playback buttons. It's based on some code from one of my own applications and seems to be working okay, but I can't guarantee it doesn't have any minor issues. While it's sort of a work in progress, I have been using the wrapper a lot and I think it has been fairly stable and bug-free for me, but ymmv. Doubleclick to toggle fullscreen and spacebar to pause should be working. I'm sure it goes without saying that you need libvlc.dll/libvlccore.dll and the plugins folder from VLC 1.1.x in your bin\Debug or bin\Release folder either for the test application or your own project. Hopefully some of you will find this project of some use.

[Belgeran]

Thanks Bradskey, For those interested Bradskeys wrapper worked out of the box for me with out any playing around what so ever. Might be a good idea to throw it up on google code or somewhere if your happy to share as none of the other solutions i found were working out of the box with the latest VLC.

[Bradskey]

No problem, I'm glad it works for you and hopefully lives up to it's name. I suppose I could clean it up a little and maybe set it up on a project site and start a new forum thread for it. There might be a few more features and some VLC events I should expose. Some of what's there I've never actually used myself. I think it's still a little rough around the edges, so let me know if you find any issues.

I see all these .NET wrappers over the years but most of them seem complex and/or they get abandoned or people just have to roll their own as libvlc continues to change with each major release. Maybe keeping a simple wrapper like this with a tightly focused intended application would make it less daunting to continue to support future VLC versions while giving .NET developers easy access to a good subset of VLC features for projects that just need basic video playback and control.

[carlesls]

I'm also interested in using libvlc v1.1 inside .net environment (I'm developing with vb.net 2005 and/or vb.net 2008... but c# is also welcome!)

Can anyone let us know something (maybe good news) about libvlc wrappers?

Thanks

I have worked with libvlcnet but I do not know... if it allows you to take captures or queue of still images instead of pain mp4 in a c# form (window).