Playing a Video

Demonstrates how to use the VideoPlayer to play a video.

Complete Sample

The code in this topic shows you the technique for playing a video. You can download a complete code sample for this topic, including full source code and any additional supporting files required by the sample.

Download VideoPlayback_Sample.zip

Playing a Video

To play a video

Add a video to the game project using the steps outlined in loading resources.

1. In LoadContent, load the video using the ContentManager.

2. Create a new instance of the VideoPlayer.

   Video video;
   VideoPlayer player;
   Texture2D videoTexture;
   
   protected override void LoadContent()
   {
       // Create a new SpriteBatch, which can be used to draw textures.
       spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);
       video = Content.Load<Video>("video");
       player = new VideoPlayer();
   }
   

3. In the Update method, play the video.

   Tip

   Set IsLooped to true if you want the video to repeat.

   protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
   {
       ...
       if (player.State == MediaState.Stopped)
       {
           player.IsLooped = true;
           player.Play(video);
       }
       ...
       base.Update(gameTime);
   }
   

4. In Draw, if the VideoPlayer is not stopped, call GetTexture to get a copy of the latest frame of video.

5. Create a Rectangle defining where on-screen the video will appear.

6. If the texture is not null, draw it on-screen using SpriteBatch.Draw.

   protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
   {
       GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);
   
       // Only call GetTexture if a video is playing or paused
       if (player.State != MediaState.Stopped)
           videoTexture = player.GetTexture();
   
       // Drawing to the rectangle will stretch the 
       // video to fill the screen
       Rectangle screen = new Rectangle(GraphicsDevice.Viewport.X,
           GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Y,
           GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width,
           GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height);
   
       // Draw the video, if we have a texture to draw.
       if (videoTexture != null)
       {
           spriteBatch.Begin();
           spriteBatch.Draw(videoTexture, screen, Color.White);
           spriteBatch.End();
       }
   
       base.Draw(gameTime);
   }
   

See Also

Concepts

Media Overview

Reference

Video Class
VideoPlayer Class