MediaView doesn't display video; opens new window instead

Question

Hello,
I'm having some trouble working with the MediaView/MediaPlayer classes.
Using Netbeans' composer, I've configured correctly (I think) a MediaView component so that it should load the MediaPlayer, which loads a local Media file. However, when executed, the MediaView area just remains blank, while a new "ActiveMovie" window opens, rendering the video.
I've done some searching over here and on google but I really haven't found any solution. I know the ActiveMovie window is probably just DirectShow opening the video; why, though, does this happen, if I explicitly designed the application so that the MediaView component alone displayed the video?
It's as if, by instanciating a Media component, the code was issuing a Open File system call and Windows - not JVM - was doing the rest.
Any help is very welcome.
Thanks,
Leo

Answer 1

aidreamer wrote:
I don't know how to fix it, assuming that is even possible without rewriting DirectShow or the JavaFX platform, but I can tell you about my own experiences with this issue.
I was trying to figure out a way to run WebM video files in JavaFX and installed a Direct Show filter from Xiph to enable it. It sort of worked, except that it caused the same issue you just described. I tried playing other video formats handled by Direct Show, and they ran normally, so I'm assuming that it is an issue specific to some of the filters.Thank you for your reply, I think now I've finally understood what the problem is!
Indeed, I've ran into some cases where one tried to use recent HD Youtube videos (VP8-encoded, which is what WebM uses: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM#Services) and have also failed.
Apparently, JavaFX only really supports VP6 videos. Probably that's the reason the SimpleMediaPlayer sample (http://javafx.com/samples/SimpleVideoPlayer/) uses a VP6 video, and not, say, an WMV or whatever other encode.
The main problem is the strange deceitfulness of all documentation related to video playback on JavaFX: while most articles and docs state rather ambiguously that "any video supported by the system will run on the JavaFX platform", only one document explicitly states that that's not quite the case:
Video Codecs
Cross-Platform: On2 VP6
Windows XP and Vista: All the codecs supported by Windows Media Player
Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5: All the codecs supported by Mac through Core Video
Ubuntu 8.04 and OpenSolaris 2009.06: All the codecs supported by GStreamer.http://download.oracle.com/javafx/1.2/tutorials/media/format.html#audio
Well, that clears things up! Natively, JavaFX only really supports On2 VP6 encoding, whilst any other encoding will depend solely on the operating system and 3rd party software installed. So that's the reason why, when trying to open any other video which isn't VP6-encoded, JavaFX calls the 3rd party codec, which opens an ActiveMovie DirectShow window, failing to display the player in the appropriate MediaView container. Please do correct me if I'm wrong; I've only been playing with JavaFX for a day or so!
The deceitfulness is that JavaFX is fanfared as a "ultimate, play-all media API", which lead me to thinking that it would easily handle the most popular video encoders. This assumption is enforced if we remember that the old Java Media Framework (JMF) API did indeed suport MPEG-1.
Once again, thanks!