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Media Library (Compact 7)

  • Article

3/12/2014

The Media Library in Windows Embedded Compact 7 provides simplified media management to easily acquire, organize, manage, and retrieve media content. By using the Media Library, you can use a device to:

  • Store and retrieve media content residing locally on a device.

  • Use the Windows Media Player, when it is functioning as a Digital Media Server (DMS), to browse and retrieve media content.

  • Gather metadata, such as artist name, date, and song name, from different file sources such as HTTP and local files. The gathering and parsing of metadata runs in the background and does not affect the performance of the device.

  • Add, modify, and remove metadata from media files.

    Note

    You can also create your own parser plug-ins to extract metadata for a file type that is not natively supported.

  • Collect data both locally and from remote DLNA-based servers.

  • Create, modify, and delete playlists, store and retrieve Media Player playlists, and query playlists and items in a playlist.

A Microsoft SQL Server CE 3.5 SP1 database is used to store and retrieve metadata information about media content, regardless of where on the device the content physically resides. This database has a size limit of 4 gigabytes (GB), which ensures excellent performance and a small memory/CPU footprint. Supported file types include:

  • Music: asf, wma, mp3
  • Videos: asf, wmv, avi
  • Photos: jpg, jpeg, png, tif, tiff, bmp, gif

The Media Library also provides capabilities that are easy for developers to use, including:

  • An extensible architecture that supports content from a variety of sources, such as local, network, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), and non-Microsoft services, so you can build next-generation experiences where content can come from any source.
  • A programming-based UI and APIs to help you create device UIs that are simple and intuitive for browsing and discovering content.
  • A plug-in model that supports content from non-Microsoft services, so that you can include these and other content providers in future releases of your product.
  • The ability to create client-side applications that use MTP to transfer content onto the device.

See Also

Concepts

Windows Embedded Compact 7 Multimedia Features
DirectShow Multimedia Pipeline
Media Player
Windows Embedded Compact 7 and the DLNA Standard