Sound and Video

Abstract

In this chapter, you’ll tackle two more areas of WPF functionality: audio and video. The support WPF provides for audio is a significant step up from the first versions of .NET, but it’s far from groundbreaking. WPF gives you the ability to play a wide variety of sound formats, including MP3 files and anything else supported by Windows Media Player. However, WPF’s sound capabilities still fall far short of Direct Sound (the advanced audio API in Direct X), which allows you to apply dynamic effects and place sounds in a simulated 3-D space. WPF also lacks a way to retrieve spectrum data that tells you the highs and lows of sound, which is useful for creating some types of synchronized effects and sound-driven animations.