Playback Components

GStreamer includes several higher-level components to simplify an application developer's life. All of the components discussed here (for now) are targetted at media playback. The idea of each of these components is to integrate as closely as possible with a GStreamer pipeline, but to hide the complexity of media type detection and several other rather complex topics that have been discussed in Advanced GStreamer concepts.

We currently recommend people to use either playbin (see Playbin) or decodebin (see Decodebin), depending on their needs. Playbin is the recommended solution for everything related to simple playback of media that should just work. Decodebin is a more flexible autoplugger that could be used to add more advanced features, such as playlist support, crossfading of audio tracks and so on. Its programming interface is more low-level than that of playbin, though.

Playbin

Playbin is an element that can be created using the standard GStreamer API (e.g. gst_element_factory_make ()). The factory is conveniently called “playbin”. By being a GstPipeline (and thus a GstElement), playbin automatically supports all of the features of this class, including error handling, tag support, state handling, getting stream positions, seeking, and so on.

Setting up a playbin pipeline is as simple as creating an instance of the playbin element, setting a file location using the “uri” property on playbin, and then setting the element to the GST_STATE_PLAYING state (the location has to be a valid URI, so “<protocol>://<location>”, e.g. file:///tmp/my.ogg or http://www.example.org/stream.ogg). Internally, playbin will set up a pipeline to playback the media location.

#include <gst/gst.h>

[.. my_bus_callback goes here ..]

gint
main (gint   argc,
      gchar *argv[])
{
  GMainLoop *loop;
  GstElement *play;
  GstBus *bus;

  /* init GStreamer */
  gst_init (&argc, &argv);
  loop = g_main_loop_new (NULL, FALSE);

  /* make sure we have a URI */
  if (argc != 2) {
    g_print ("Usage: %s <URI>\n", argv[0]);
    return -1;
  }

  /* set up */
  play = gst_element_factory_make ("playbin", "play");
  g_object_set (G_OBJECT (play), "uri", argv[1], NULL);

  bus = gst_pipeline_get_bus (GST_PIPELINE (play));
  gst_bus_add_watch (bus, my_bus_callback, loop);
  gst_object_unref (bus);

  gst_element_set_state (play, GST_STATE_PLAYING);

  /* now run */
  g_main_loop_run (loop);

  /* also clean up */
  gst_element_set_state (play, GST_STATE_NULL);
  gst_object_unref (GST_OBJECT (play));

  return 0;
}

Playbin has several features that have been discussed previously:

Settable video and audio output (using the “video-sink” and “audio-sink” properties).
Mostly controllable and trackable as a GstElement, including error handling, eos handling, tag handling, state handling (through the GstBus), media position handling and seeking.
Buffers network-sources, with buffer fullness notifications being passed through the GstBus.
Supports visualizations for audio-only media.
Supports subtitles, both in the media as well as from separate files. For separate subtitle files, use the “suburi” property.
Supports stream selection and disabling. If your media has multiple audio or subtitle tracks, you can dynamically choose which one to play back, or decide to turn it off altogether (which is especially useful to turn off subtitles). For each of those, use the “current-text” and other related properties.

For convenience, it is possible to test “playbin” on the commandline, using the command “gst-launch-1.0 playbin uri=file:///path/to/file”.

Decodebin

Decodebin is the actual autoplugger backend of playbin, which was discussed in the previous section. Decodebin will, in short, accept input from a source that is linked to its sinkpad and will try to detect the media type contained in the stream, and set up decoder routines for each of those. It will automatically select decoders. For each decoded stream, it will emit the “pad-added” signal, to let the client know about the newly found decoded stream. For unknown streams (which might be the whole stream), it will emit the “unknown-type” signal. The application is then responsible for reporting the error to the user.


#include <gst/gst.h>


[.. my_bus_callback goes here ..]



GstElement *pipeline, *audio;

static void
cb_newpad (GstElement *decodebin,
       GstPad     *pad,
       gpointer    data)
{
  GstCaps *caps;
  GstStructure *str;
  GstPad *audiopad;

  /* only link once */
  audiopad = gst_element_get_static_pad (audio, "sink");
  if (GST_PAD_IS_LINKED (audiopad)) {
    g_object_unref (audiopad);
    return;
  }

  /* check media type */
  caps = gst_pad_query_caps (pad, NULL);
  str = gst_caps_get_structure (caps, 0);
  if (!g_strrstr (gst_structure_get_name (str), "audio")) {
    gst_caps_unref (caps);
    gst_object_unref (audiopad);
    return;
  }
  gst_caps_unref (caps);

  /* link'n'play */
  gst_pad_link (pad, audiopad);

  g_object_unref (audiopad);
}

gint
main (gint   argc,
      gchar *argv[])
{
  GMainLoop *loop;
  GstElement *src, *dec, *conv, *sink;
  GstPad *audiopad;
  GstBus *bus;

  /* init GStreamer */
  gst_init (&argc, &argv);
  loop = g_main_loop_new (NULL, FALSE);

  /* make sure we have input */
  if (argc != 2) {
    g_print ("Usage: %s <filename>\n", argv[0]);
    return -1;
  }

  /* setup */
  pipeline = gst_pipeline_new ("pipeline");

  bus = gst_pipeline_get_bus (GST_PIPELINE (pipeline));
  gst_bus_add_watch (bus, my_bus_callback, loop);
  gst_object_unref (bus);

  src = gst_element_factory_make ("filesrc", "source");
  g_object_set (G_OBJECT (src), "location", argv[1], NULL);
  dec = gst_element_factory_make ("decodebin", "decoder");
  g_signal_connect (dec, "pad-added", G_CALLBACK (cb_newpad), NULL);
  gst_bin_add_many (GST_BIN (pipeline), src, dec, NULL);
  gst_element_link (src, dec);

  /* create audio output */
  audio = gst_bin_new ("audiobin");
  conv = gst_element_factory_make ("audioconvert", "aconv");
  audiopad = gst_element_get_static_pad (conv, "sink");
  sink = gst_element_factory_make ("alsasink", "sink");
  gst_bin_add_many (GST_BIN (audio), conv, sink, NULL);
  gst_element_link (conv, sink);
  gst_element_add_pad (audio,
      gst_ghost_pad_new ("sink", audiopad));
  gst_object_unref (audiopad);
  gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipeline), audio);

  /* run */
  gst_element_set_state (pipeline, GST_STATE_PLAYING);
  g_main_loop_run (loop);

  /* cleanup */
  gst_element_set_state (pipeline, GST_STATE_NULL);
  gst_object_unref (GST_OBJECT (pipeline));

  return 0;
}

Decodebin, similar to playbin, supports the following features:

Can decode an unlimited number of contained streams to decoded output pads.
Is handled as a GstElement in all ways, including tag or error forwarding and state handling.

Although decodebin is a good autoplugger, there's a whole lot of things that it does not do and is not intended to do:

Taking care of input streams with a known media type (e.g. a DVD, an audio-CD or such).
Selection of streams (e.g. which audio track to play in case of multi-language media streams).
Overlaying subtitles over a decoded video stream.

Decodebin can be easily tested on the commandline, e.g. by using the command gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=file.ogg ! decodebin ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! autoaudiosink.

URIDecodebin

The uridecodebin element is very similar to decodebin, only that it automatically plugs a source plugin based on the protocol of the URI given.

Uridecodebin will also automatically insert buffering elements when the uri is a slow network source. The buffering element will post BUFFERING messages that the application needs to handle as explained in Buffering. The following properties can be used to configure the buffering method:

The buffer-size property allows you to configure a maximum size in bytes for the buffer element.
The buffer-duration property allows you to configure a maximum size in time for the buffer element. The time will be estimated based on the bitrate of the network.
With the download property you can enable the download buffering method as described in Download buffering. Setting this option to TRUE will only enable download buffering for selected formats such as quicktime, flash video, avi and webm.
You can also enable buffering on the parsed/demuxed data with the use-buffering property. This is interesting to enable buffering on slower random access media such as a network file server.

URIDecodebin can be easily tested on the commandline, e.g. by using the command gst-launch-1.0 uridecodebin uri=file:///file.ogg ! ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! autoaudiosink.

Playsink

The playsink element is a powerful sink element. It has request pads for raw decoded audio, video and text and it will configure itself to play the media streams. It has the following features:

It exposes GstStreamVolume, GstVideoOverlay, GstNavigation and GstColorBalance interfaces and automatically plugs software elements to implement the interfaces when needed.
It will automatically plug conversion elements.
Can optionally render visualizations when there is no video input.
Configurable sink elements.
Configurable audio/video sync offset to fine-tune synchronization in badly muxed files.
Support for taking a snapshot of the last video frame.

Below is an example of how you can use playsink. We use a uridecodebin element to decode into raw audio and video streams which we then link to the playsink request pads. We only link the first audio and video pads, you could use an input-selector to link all pads.



#include <gst/gst.h>


[.. my_bus_callback goes here ..]





GstElement *pipeline, *sink;

static void
cb_pad_added (GstElement *dec,
          GstPad     *pad,
          gpointer    data)
{
  GstCaps *caps;
  GstStructure *str;
  const gchar *name;
  GstPadTemplate *templ;
  GstElementClass *klass;

  /* check media type */
  caps = gst_pad_query_caps (pad, NULL);
  str = gst_caps_get_structure (caps, 0);
  name = gst_structure_get_name (str);

  klass = GST_ELEMENT_GET_CLASS (sink);

  if (g_str_has_prefix (name, "audio")) {
    templ = gst_element_class_get_pad_template (klass, "audio_sink");
  } else if (g_str_has_prefix (name, "video")) {
    templ = gst_element_class_get_pad_template (klass, "video_sink");
  } else if (g_str_has_prefix (name, "text")) {
    templ = gst_element_class_get_pad_template (klass, "text_sink");
  } else {
    templ = NULL;
  }

  if (templ) {
    GstPad *sinkpad;

    sinkpad = gst_element_request_pad (sink, templ, NULL, NULL);

    if (!gst_pad_is_linked (sinkpad))
      gst_pad_link (pad, sinkpad);

    gst_object_unref (sinkpad);
  }

  gst_clear_caps (&caps);
}

gint
main (gint   argc,
      gchar *argv[])
{
  GMainLoop *loop;
  GstElement *dec;
  GstBus *bus;

  /* init GStreamer */
  gst_init (&argc, &argv);
  loop = g_main_loop_new (NULL, FALSE);

  /* make sure we have input */
  if (argc != 2) {
    g_print ("Usage: %s <uri>\n", argv[0]);
    return -1;
  }

  /* setup */
  pipeline = gst_pipeline_new ("pipeline");

  bus = gst_pipeline_get_bus (GST_PIPELINE (pipeline));
  gst_bus_add_watch (bus, my_bus_callback, loop);
  gst_object_unref (bus);

  dec = gst_element_factory_make ("uridecodebin", "source");
  g_object_set (G_OBJECT (dec), "uri", argv[1], NULL);
  g_signal_connect (dec, "pad-added", G_CALLBACK (cb_pad_added), NULL);

  /* create audio output */
  sink = gst_element_factory_make ("playsink", "sink");
  gst_util_set_object_arg (G_OBJECT (sink), "flags",
      "soft-colorbalance+soft-volume+vis+text+audio+video");
  gst_bin_add_many (GST_BIN (pipeline), dec, sink, NULL);

  /* run */
  gst_element_set_state (pipeline, GST_STATE_PLAYING);
  g_main_loop_run (loop);

  /* cleanup */
  gst_element_set_state (pipeline, GST_STATE_NULL);
  gst_object_unref (GST_OBJECT (pipeline));

  return 0;
}

This example will show audio and video depending on what you give it. Try this example on an audio file and you will see that it shows visualizations. You can change the visualization at runtime by changing the vis-plugin property.

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