Making a Video Player

[Shadow32o]

Not quite sure if this is the right spot...sorry if it is the wrong place.

Ok, recently I have begun wondering what the best way to create some kind of video player would be. My questions is if anyone can help me find a tutorial or steer me in the right direction as to how to make one. I preferably would like to make one from scratch, however I am not sure how complicated this would be. I am always willing to learn a new language, but am not sure where to start for this project.

Currently I know visual basic (and yes I know about adding the windows media object, but I would like to create one from scratch). I also know Java as well, but as I said, I am willing to learn/look into a new language if need be. The reason for my wanting to create one is so that I may give it the functionality that I would like since there are many different players and like features from several different ones. So I thought why not try to combine some of these features into one.

I am looking to make an offline one, not one that will be embedded in a website.

Thank you for your help and I hope this gives enough detail.

 

[Drago del Fato]

Well let's see. You have 2 way's you can make video players (I am guessing you want it to be on Windows not Linux).

1. Using .NET framework wrappers for DirectShow while adding stuff you would need/want your player to have.

To use those wrappers you would need to download DirectX SDK and when you download it you can pretty much use those in any programming language which supports CLR templates (which mostly means having Visual Studio 2008 or 2010 since you know Visual Basic, if you want to use C# then SharpDevelop is your free IDE of choice )

2. Using DirectShow DLL calls while adding stuff you would need/want your player to have. Also you would mostly need complete DirectX SDK for this

- Also you would need to read a lot about:
- COM Interfaces
- DirectShow, DirectDraw, OpenGL

If you plan adding something more than just playing a file, for example seeking a bad corrupted file (some parts of the file are readable while some others are not) you would need to know a really good part about Video playing and file containers.

DirectX SDK is for both .net and normal and its over 500MB.

In other words, just drop this if you're not trying to make some big useful program out of it.

If you just need a video player you can always use Windows Media Player ActiveX control. :XD: