Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : Programming Tutorials : How to - Build a complete mediaplayer

[MrDiaz]

Hi guys, this is my first article/tutorial on the forums. We are going to build a FULLY functional mediaplayer, and we are going to do it using Delphi (object pascal code) Some of you might be thinking "oh man this is soo hard" well the fact is that there's no easier programming language than Delphi's. With it you can do everything and no need for lots of lines of coding. OK anyways....let's get into the point. So what are the features of our mediaplayer?

1 - Ability to play audio files (almost any extension)
2 - Save playlists.
3 - Open playlists.
4 - Time displaying and many others.

Uhh...well I was thinking in posting the whole thing here but that will take a lot of space and it will just make it annoying, so instead just go here:

http://www.planetdiaz.com/articles/d...p3player1.html

There's the complete article, step by step. Easy as a cake

Just to point out a few more things, I am currently working on new features for the mediaplayer. So we don't have to use winamp or mediaplayer classic anymore. You can use you OWN! mediaplayer, named as you want, it's yours.

Features coming on the next release:

1 - Separate window to play videos
2 - Transparency on the windows (like winamp)
3 - Scale on your windows.
4 - Display filename, more complex and professional way of doing it.
5 - ID3 Tag information (also for .wmv and .asf and .ogg files)
6 - Fully skin supported (it's going to have it's own skin engine)
7 - Live stream support (audio and video)
8 - A small client with it (in case you want to say something to the people watching your stream
9 - And many many more......

Please tell me what do you think of the current tutorial and your ideas to include on the next release. All the feeback will be greetly appreciated. Thanks and have fun with it!.

Link: http://www.planetdiaz.com/articles/d...p3player1.html

[Twinky]

Doesnt work

[csrs]

Maybe he means this link
http://www.planetdiaz.com/articles/d...mp3player1.php

[Narf]

I think first off for this too be a tutorial for anyone who does not know anything about Delphi, you should problably go back to the START and tell them the basics.

Like:

Open A New Project (Which Kind)
Where to put place the code you wrote for the buttons and things.

Just a few pointers IMO.

[MrDiaz]

Sorry for the incorrect link. I posted this a while ago before I changed my coding. All my pages are now in php and that's why the html didn't work.

The application is for beginners, but they should have an idea of how to use Delphi. For those who don't they could join my forums and I can help them there. Right now I am working in a great varietry of tutorials, especially for php and delphi. All will keep you guys updated.

[Twinky]

Okay cheers.

Is delphi a commercial software?
If yes where can i find a trial version ( i tried google )

[MrDiaz]

Yes Delphi is a commercial application, however you can try a trial version. Here is the link:

http://www.borland.com/downloads/download_delphi.html

I recommend you download version 6 or 7 because the latest ones are more .NET directed and it might confuse you.

[w3bdesign]

The links don't work, but I am very interesting in how you managet op layback the MP3 files?
Do you link in a remote DLL to handle the play functions, or do you use the inbuilt MEdiaplayer in Windows?

[MrDiaz]

check this for an update.

www.planetdiaz.com/articles/delphi

There is the MediaPlayer. I am using the inbuilt TMediaplayer of Delphi, not Mediaplayer on windows. You can use a dll for it as well, there are many components that handle media functions. You can for example use BassDLL

[w3bdesign]

http://www.planetdiaz.com/downloads/.../mp3player.rar is not working. Broken link. 404 error.

[MrDiaz]

Oh the source, yeah I have to upload that again. But if you do step by step what I stated on the tutorial you should be fine.

[Ricardob]

building a media player can be quite complex, depending on how sophisticated you want it to be.

you can check the vlc media player, it's open source so you can download the entire source code, it's written on C and it's daunting, hundreds and hundreds of classes.

Of course you can rely on Windows API, .net has some classes but you will probably have to go into the win32 api and although that's easier than building everything yourself it's not easy, the win32 api is huge and poorly documented.

If you want to build it for linux, you will probably have to go the way vlc has, with a lot of low level coding.

[bberlia]

I agree Media Player is not as simple but its a brave effort tostart building the application .

I think that most of teh current players are really sophisticated so the new player should not only be visually appealing but should also have features to enhance the sound quality .. not to mention the ability to play various types of files. Trying to implement the low level coding like C will defiantely help as it will reduce the requiements of system resources.


So all the very best in your developments

[Snigle]

None of the links to the tutorial seem to work, I am quite intrested in this.

[MrDiaz]

sry for the broken links lately. I have been updating my site constantly.

You can vie the tutorial here: http://www.planetdiaz.com/articles/delphi/index.php

There is the mediaplayer tutorial and some others I have been workin on. if you need help with a specific tutorial, you are more than welcome to discuss so on my forums.