I would recommend vlcj because i am sure it has all the formats you could need or have.Its not outdated at all and easy to start with.If you want to display a video graphically i dont think you could ever find so simple instructions like you mention but if you organize all steps that i will mention and explain in more depth you will see that vlcj is the best option for handling media like that (as it goes in my opinion).I also like and recommend JavaFx because of the effects you can make with that but its too difficult for me to setup and code in that stuff.
So, lets begin.Firstly, i would like to say that i have implemented the vlcj in a Swing-based application (in Windows) but that should not make you sad because for an immediate popup player that you mention we could just make a jdialog and place the video-surface in its contentPane.
Steps
1)So the first thing that should be done is to download vlc media player (we will need the 32 bit version that plays in both 32bit or 64bit computer environments).I had a terrible month trying to configure why my app wasnt loading the required libraries succesfully and found out that when you run a jar exetutable file it runs on 32-bit jvm(in eclipse was running in 64bit jvm and everything was ok.Thats why we need 32bit version), while i had 64-bit native libraries to load from.Anyways if you download and install 32bit vlc media player make somewhere a folder to include your project(lets say "C:/MyProject") inside MyProject create another folder and call it for instance "Needed"(here we will place all the required libraries for vlcj in order to work properly).Now from the contents of C:Program Files (x86)VideoLANVLC copy the plugins directory and the 4 dlls
(axvlc.dll,libvlc.dll,libvlccore.dll,npvlc.dll) and paste them inside your Needed folder
2)Now if you work in Eclipse IDE or similar you will need to make a folder in your project (lets say "lib") and inside that create another folder( name it "jars" ).In jars folder place the following jars: jna-3.5.1.jar, platform-3.5.1.jar,vlcj-2.2.0.jar.You can find these jars from vlcj google project.And then just include them to your classpath(either select them and right-click->add to build path or go to project properties->Java build path and add those 3 jars).Thats all for setup before we begin any coding with player setup.
3) You have to load now vlcj before starting using it.I just use this code to make that possible(i will explain it shortly dont worry).
public void LoadLibrary(){
SwingWorker loadWorker;
loadWorker = new SwingWorker(){
@Override
protected Object doInBackground() throws Exception {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
Thread.sleep(2000);
path = new File("").getAbsolutePath().toString();
path = path.replace(".", "");
path = path.replace("", "//");
path = path+"//Needed";
if(RuntimeUtil.isWindows()){
NativeLibrary.addSearchPath(
"libvlc",path
);
Native.loadLibrary(RuntimeUtil.getLibVlcLibraryName(), LibVlc.class);
}
else if(RuntimeUtil.isNix()){
NativeLibrary.addSearchPath(
"libvlc",path
);
}
mediaPlayerFactory = new MediaPlayerFactory();
player = mediaPlayerFactory.newEmbeddedMediaPlayer();
CanvasVideoSurface videoSurface = mediaPlayerFactory.newVideoSurface(canvas);
player.setVideoSurface(videoSurface);
return null;
}
};
loadWorker.execute();
}
So what i do is to make a thread for Swing-based apps because you cannot play media if your media canvas is not displayable and everything in the constructor is fully built when its code is done.That means that before making the player we should first create a delay(mine is 2 seconds) for our constructor to end his job and our JFrame(or jWindow or jDialog etc) to become displayable.Next i calculate my path dynamically taking the path of my runnable jar(attention: not from workspace inside Eclipse) and entering the Needed folder to implement the required native libraries.Inside the if statement i tell the system to look for the libvlc.dll in the specific path i calculated and then load it and thus make one step forward to play media files.Outside if-else statement i actually create my player and place the canvas for its VideoSurface(canvas is a Canvas java.awt Object I use WindowsCanvas because i work only in windows, you could find for linux or mac a similar canvas(dont worry about that!)) Outside the Swing-Worker field(the thread) i just telling the thread to be executed (important as a call-function instruction).
4)To play a file i just use a button somewhere in my app to call an action event each time it is pressed so that we do something inside it.I for example make a JFileChooser to choose a media file from.You can easily search for it but here is my code:
final JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
FileNameExtensionFilter filter0 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".wav", "wav");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter1 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".mp3","mp3");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter2 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".mpg","mpg");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter3 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".mp4","mp4");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter4 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".avi","avi");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter5 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".flv","flv");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter6 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".wmv","wmv");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter7 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".3gp", "3gp");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter8 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".swf", "swf");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter9 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".mkv", "mkv");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter10 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".flac", "flac");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter11 = new FileNameExtensionFilter("Music & Videos","wav","mp3","mpg","mp4","avi","flv","wmv","3gp","swf","mkv","flac","VOB");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter12 = new FileNameExtensionFilter("Music","wav","mp3","flac");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter13 = new FileNameExtensionFilter(".VOB", "VOB");
FileNameExtensionFilter filter14 = new FileNameExtensionFilter("Videos","mpg","mp4","avi","flv","wmv","3gp","swf","mkv","VOB");
chooser.setFileFilter(filter14);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter2);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter3);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter4);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter5);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter6);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter13);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter7);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter8);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter9);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter12);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter0);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter1);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter10);
chooser.setFileFilter(filter11);
int returnVal = chooser.showOpenDialog(getParent());
if(returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
System.out.println("You chose to open this file: " +
chooser.getSelectedFile().getName());
File myfile1 = chooser.getSelectedFile();
myfilepath1 = chooser.getSelectedFile().getAbsolutePath();
}
player.startMedia("file:///"+myfilepath1);
player.pause();
Those file filters are some of the media file types that vlcj can play for u.What i do is opening a file dialog to choose a file from and if i choose a file i hold its path(usefull for saying vlcj where to look for it).
5)Now to play the file u just have to type the following code :
player.play();
Maybe inside another action event of another Button.
6) if you finish writing those all you have to do is to export your project to a runnable jar file into your MyProject folder first created and run it (attention by double-clicking it (not from console(else it will be runned with 64bit jvm and you dont want that cause you have 32 bit natives and vlcj dont accept those conflicts)))
In Conclusion,i have to say that these steps worked for me.I hope they will help you go further in your app developement.
Regards,
PeGiannOS
