how to control VLC by java

Question

Hi all I want to run a program called VLC in java and control it while running, for example if user clicked on pause or fast forward button, I do a specific suitable action. I run VLC by this code :

      try{

            Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime();
            Process p = rt.exec(VLCProgramAddFile + " udp://@:" + listeningPort);

            OutputStream out = p.getOutputStream();
            InputStream in = p.getInputStream();

            p.waitFor();
            System.out.println("End of VLC");
        }catch (Exception e){
            System.out.println("error in running VLC");
        }

I have heard about java binding, but I don't know how does it work for this job. please guide me.

thank you, sajad

Answer 1

You are probably looking for VLCJ, this is a java wrapper for VLC. It allows you to embed VLC media player in a java application, and thus add all your personal controls.

(Do note that for user applications this is fine, but the VLCJ library isn't perfect, you can have several problems pop up.)

EDIT: For my project I've seen memory leaks and issues with long running programs (multiple instances for several hours). Especially the multiple instances doesn't work in combination with some compile options (which are on by default).

Answer 2

Depending on what you want to ultimately accomplish maybe the gstreamer Java bindings are worth a look which will give you a very fine grained control about the playback. And you can do conversions and everything. They also have a minimalistic video player example application to get you started with.