[c#] Using FFmpeg in .net?

So I know its a fairly big challenge but I want to write a basic movie player/converter in c# using the FFmpeg library. However, the first obstacle I need to overcome is wrapping the FFmpeg library in c#. I've downloaded ffmpeg but couldn't compile it on Windows, so I downloaded a precompiled version for me. Ok awesome. Then I started looking for C# wrappers.

I have looked around and have found a few wrappers such as SharpFFmpeg (http://sourceforge.net/projects/sharpffmpeg/) and ffmpeg-sharp (http://code.google.com/p/ffmpeg-sharp/). First of all, I wanted to use ffmpeg-sharp as its LGPL and SharpFFmpeg is GPL. However, it had quite a few compile errors. Turns out it was written for the mono compiler, I tried compiling it with mono but couldn't figure out how. I then started to manually fix the compiler errors myself, but came across a few scary ones and thought I'd better leave those alone. So I gave up on ffmpeg-sharp.

Then I looked at SharpFFmpeg and it looks like what I want, all the functions P/Invoked for me. However its GPL? Both the AVCodec.cs and AVFormat.cs files look like ports of avcodec.c and avformat.c which I reckon I could port myself? Then not have to worry about licencing.

But I want to get this right before I go ahead and start coding. Should I:

1. Write my own C++ library for interacting with ffmpeg, then have my C# program talk to the C++ library in order to play/convert videos etc.

OR

2. Port avcodec.h and avformat.h (is that all i need?) to c# by using a whole lot of DllImports and write it entirely in C#?

First of all consider that I'm not great at C++ as I rarely use it but I know enough to get around. The reason I'm thinking #1 might be the better option is that most FFmpeg tutorials are in C++ and I'd also have more control over memory management than if I was to do it in c#.

What do you think? Also would you happen to have any useful links (perhaps a tutorial) for using FFmpeg?

a few other managed wrappers for you to check out

• FFMpeg.NET
• FFMpeg-Sharp

Writing your own interop wrappers can be a time-consuming and difficult process in .NET. There are some advantages to writing a C++ library for the interop - particularly as it allows you to greatly simplify the interface that the C# code. However, if you are only needing a subset of the library, it might make your life easier to just do the interop in C#.

The original question is now more than 5 years old. In the meantime there is now a solution for a WinRT solution from ffmpeg and an integration sample from Microsoft.

GPL-compiled ffmpeg can be used from non-GPL program (commercial project) only if it is invoked in the separate process as command line utility; all wrappers that are linked with ffmpeg library (including Microsoft's FFMpegInterop) can use only LGPL build of ffmpeg.

You may try my .NET wrapper for FFMpeg: Video Converter for .NET (I'm an author of this library). It embeds FFMpeg.exe into the DLL for easy deployment and doesn't break GPL rules (FFMpeg is NOT linked and wrapper invokes it in the separate process with System.Diagnostics.Process).

A solution that is viable for both Linux and Windows is to just get used to using console ffmpeg in your code. I stack up threads, write a simple thread controller class, then you can easily make use of what ever functionality of ffmpeg you want to use.

As an example, this contains sections use ffmpeg to create a thumbnail from a time that I specify.

In the thread controller you have something like

List<ThrdFfmpeg> threads = new List<ThrdFfmpeg>();

Which is the list of threads that you are running, I make use of a timer to Pole these threads, you can also set up an event if Pole'ing is not suitable for your application. In this case thw class Thrdffmpeg contains,

public class ThrdFfmpeg
{
    public FfmpegStuff ffm { get; set; }
    public Thread thrd { get; set; }
}

FFmpegStuff contains the various ffmpeg functionality, thrd is obviously the thread.

A property in FfmpegStuff is the class FilesToProcess, which is used to pass information to the called process, and receive information once the thread has stopped.

public class FileToProcess
{
    public int videoID { get; set; }
    public string fname { get; set; }
    public int durationSeconds { get; set; }
    public List<string> imgFiles { get; set; }
}

VideoID (I use a database) tells the threaded process which video to use taken from the database. fname is used in other parts of my functions that use FilesToProcess, but not used here. durationSeconds - is filled in by the threads that just collect video duration. imgFiles is used to return any thumbnails that were created.

I do not want to get bogged down in my code when the purpose of this is to encourage the use of ffmpeg in easily controlled threads.

Now we have our pieces we can add to our threads list, so in our controller we do something like,

        AddThread()
        {
        ThrdFfmpeg thrd;
        FileToProcess ftp;

        foreach(FileToProcess ff in  `dbhelper.GetFileNames(txtCategory.Text))`
        {
            //make a thread for each
            ftp = new FileToProcess();
            ftp = ff;
            ftp.imgFiles = new List<string>();
            thrd = new ThrdFfmpeg();
            thrd.ffm = new FfmpegStuff();
            thrd.ffm.filetoprocess = ftp;
            thrd.thrd = new   `System.Threading.Thread(thrd.ffm.CollectVideoLength);`

         threads.Add(thrd);
        }
        if(timerNotStarted)
             StartThreadTimer();
        }

Now Pole'ing our threads becomes a simple task,

private void timerThreads_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        int runningCount = 0;
        int finishedThreads = 0;
        foreach(ThrdFfmpeg thrd in threads)
        {
            switch (thrd.thrd.ThreadState)
            {
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.Running:
                    ++runningCount;


 //Note that you can still view data progress here,
    //but remember that you must use your safety checks
    //here more than anywhere else in your code, make sure the data
    //is readable and of the right sort, before you read it.
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.StopRequested:
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.SuspendRequested:
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.Background:
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.Unstarted:


//Any threads that have been added but not yet started, start now
                    thrd.thrd.Start();
                    ++runningCount;
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.Stopped:
                    ++finishedThreads;


//You can now safely read the results, in this case the
   //data contained in FilesToProcess
   //Such as
                    ThumbnailsReadyEvent( thrd.ffm );
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.WaitSleepJoin:
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.Suspended:
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.AbortRequested:
                    break;
                case System.Threading.ThreadState.Aborted:
                    break;
                default:
                    break;
            }
        }


        if(flash)
        {//just a simple indicator so that I can see
         //that at least one thread is still running
            lbThreadStatus.BackColor = Color.White;
            flash = false;
        }
        else
        {
            lbThreadStatus.BackColor = this.BackColor;
            flash = true;
        }
        if(finishedThreads >= threads.Count())
        {

            StopThreadTimer();
            ShowSample();
            MakeJoinedThumb();
        }
    }

Putting your own events onto into the controller class works well, but in video work, when my own code is not actually doing any of the video file processing, poling then invoking an event in the controlling class works just as well.

Using this method I have slowly built up just about every video and stills function I think I will ever use, all contained in the one class, and that class as a text file is useable on the Lunux and Windows version, with just a small number of pre-process directives.

You can try a simple ffmpeg wrapper .NET from here : http://ivolo.mit.edu/post/Convert-Audio-Video-to-Any-Format-using-C.aspx

You can use this nuget package:

Install-Package Xabe.FFmpeg

I'm trying to make easy to use, cross-platform FFmpeg wrapper.

You can find more information about this at Xabe.FFmpeg

More info in documentation

Conversion is simple:

IConversionResult result = await Conversion.ToMp4(Resources.MkvWithAudio, output).Start();