How to play or stream a video file for Windows Phone 8

[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]

You can play media files on a Windows Phone using the MediaPlayerLauncher, or for a more customized experience, you can use the MediaElement class.

Playing a video file using the MediaElement API

To play a local video file using the MediaElement API

1. Open a new or existing solution in Visual Studio.

2. Right-click the name of your project in the Solution Explorer, click Add, and then click Existing Item.

3. Navigate to an existing video file and add it to the project. In the Properties window, .set the Build Action to Content

Note

The video must be encoded with a codec listed in Supported media codecs for Windows Phone 8.

4. In the ContentGrid section of the XAML code, add the following line:

   <MediaElement Source="test.wmv" AutoPlay="True"/>
   

   Replace test.wmv with the name of your video file.

To play a remote video file using the MediaElement API

1. Open a new or existing solution in Visual Studio.

2. In the ContentGrid section of the XAML code, add the following line:

   <MediaElement Source="http://mschannel9.vo.msecnd.net/o9/mix/09/wmv/key01.wmv" AutoPlay="True"/>
   

   Replace the value of Source with the location of the remote video file.

Note

The video must be encoded with a codec listed in Supported media codecs for Windows Phone 8.