I need to be able to embed and control the playback of an AVI file in a WinForms app, using C#. The video needs to be embedded in the form, not launched in a separate media player window.
What's the best approach to do this? I found the System.Media namespace, which sounded promising, but it appears that is only useful for sound.
Do I use DirectX to do this? MCI? Or some other approach?
You can use Media Player inside your Winform. This would been an easy way to do it.
I would consider using the WPF media controls and just use the ElementHost to put your WPF control inside your WinForms app. I think you will get a much more rich experience.
See System.Windows.Forms.Integration for more information
The suggestions from Daok and Brian Genisio are both good options. Let me add a third: DirectShow. Used to be part of DirectX but has now been promoted to the Windows SDK. There are many good C# sample applications to look at, and it gives complete control of the playback.
I highly recommend this library:
http://directshownet.sourceforge.net/
It is a .NET wrapper around the DirectShow API.
(The sample apps should get you going very quickly.)
--Bruce