Enable apps to play all media formats with ease on Windows

Jun 10, 2015 09:09 GMT  ·  By
Windows 10 is the first OS version that will benefit from all these improvements
   Windows 10 is the first OS version that will benefit from all these improvements

Microsoft is working to enhance the app experience on its overhauled Windows platform on both PCs and phones, and one of the ways it tries to do that is by adding support for new technologies that would work on all types of devices.

Today, Redmond has announced that it’s adding FFMpeg support for apps designed to run on Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10, so developers can optimize their apps to play virtually all media formats out there.

FFmpeg is an open-source multimedia framework that allows for easy and fast transcoding, streaming, and playing, while also offering the necessary libraries for developers to integrate this functionality in their apps.

Introduced with Windows 10 in mind

“We have released a set of Compilation Instructions for a WinRT compatible build of FFmpeg. Typically, after including FFmpeg libraries, developers have to go through the costly effort of rendering audio and video frames themselves,” Microsoft explains.

“To solve this issue, we have released an open-source project, FFmpegInterop library for Windows. This project includes the FFmpegInterop WinRT component which processes media with FFmpeg and then leverages the Windows Media Framework for playback. This approach works well because the Windows Media Framework automatically renders and synchronizes media samples while reaping the benefits of hardware acceleration.”

Microsoft is making this change ahead of the debut of Windows 10, as the company expects that the universal apps that will be developed to run on this new operating system will benefit from additional functionality and thus provide users with many more options than on the existing versions.

In Windows 10, Microsoft is trying to address the app problem, as many believe that the lack of apps is one of the biggest issues around Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1. Many developers are still reluctant to bring apps on Windows platforms, but with all these improvements, it could all change when Windows 10 comes out.