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Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Nokia Corporation. See the Copyright Notice and Specification License for more details.
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javax.microedition.media
Interface Player

All Superinterfaces:
Controllable
public interface Player
extends Controllable

Player controls the rendering of time based media data. It provides the methods to manage the Player's life cycle, controls the playback progress, obtains the presentation components, controls and provides the means to synchronize with other Players.

Simple Playback

A Player can be created from one of the Manager's createPlayer methods. After the Player is created, calling start will start the playback as soon as possible. The method will return when the playback is started. The playback will continue in the background and will stop automatically when the end of media is reached.

Simple playback example illustrates this.

Player Life Cycle

A Player has five states: UNREALIZED, REALIZED, PREFETCHED, STARTED, CLOSED.

The purpose of these life-cycle states is to provide programmatic control over potentially time-consuming operations. For example, when a Player is first constructed, it's in the UNREALIZED state. Transitioned from UNREALIZED to REALIZED, the Player performs the communication necessary to locate all of the resources it needs to function (such as communicating with a server or a file system). The realize method allows an application to initiate this potentially time-consuming process at an appropriate time.

Typically, a Player moves from the UNREALIZED state to the REALIZED state, then to the PREFETCHED state, and finally on to the STARTED state.

A Player stops when it reaches the end of media; when its stop time is reached; or when the stop method is invoked. When that happens, the Player moves from the STARTED state back to the PREFETCHED state. It is then ready to repeat the cycle.

To use a Player, you must set up parameters to manage its movement through these life-cycle states and then move it through the states using the Player's state transition methods.

Player States

This section describes the semantics of each of the Player states.

UNREALIZED State

A Player starts in the UNREALIZED state. An unrealized Player does not have enough information to acquire all the resources it needs to function.

The following methods must not be used when the Player is in the UNREALIZED state.

An IllegalStateException will be thrown.

The realize method transitions the Player from the UNREALIZED state to the REALIZED state.

REALIZED State

A Player is in the REALIZED state when it has obtained the information required to acquire the media resources. Realizing a Player can be a resource and time consuming process. The Player may have to communicate with a server, read a file, or interact with a set of objects.

Although a realized Player does not have to acquire any resources, it is likely to have acquired all of the resources it needs except those that imply exclusive use of a scarce system resource, such as an audio device.

Normally, a Player moves from the UNREALIZED state to the REALIZED state. After realize has been invoked on a Player, the only way it can return to the UNREALIZED state is if deallocate is invoked before realize is completed. Once a Player reaches the REALIZED state, it never returns to the UNREALIZED state. It remains in one of four states: REALIZED, PREFETCHED, STARTED or CLOSED.

PREFETCHED State

Once realized, a Player may still need to perform a number of time-consuming tasks before it is ready to be started. For example, it may need to acquire scarce or exclusive resources, fill buffers with media data, or perform other start-up processing. Calling prefetch on the Player carries out these tasks.

Once a Player is in the PREFETCHED state, it may be started. Prefetching reduces the startup latency of a Player to the minimum possible value.

When a started Player stops, it returns to the PREFETCHED state.

STARTED State

Once prefetched, a Player can enter the STARTED state by calling the start method. A STARTED Player  means the Player is running and processing data. A Player returns to the PREFETCHED state when it stops, because the stop method was invoked, it has reached the end of the media, or its stop time.

When the Player moves from the PREFETCHED to the STARTED state, it posts a STARTED event. When it moves from the STARTED state to the PREFETCHED state, it posts a STOPPED, END_OF_MEDIA or STOPPED_AT_TIME event depending on the reason it stopped.

The following methods must not be used when the Player is in the STARTED state:

An IllegalStateException will be thrown.

CLOSED state

Calling close on the Player puts it in the CLOSED state. In the CLOSED state, the Player has released most of its resources and must not be used again.
The Player's five states and the state transition methods are summarized in the following diagram:

Player Events

Player events asynchronously deliver information about the Player's state changes and other relevant information from the Player's Controls.

To receive events, an object must implement the PlayerListener interface and use the addPlayerListener method to register its interest in a Player's events. All Player events are posted to each registered listener.

The events are guaranteed to be delivered in the order that the actions representing the events occur. For example, if a Player stops shortly after it starts because it is playing back a very short media file, the STARTED event must always preceed the END_OF_MEDIA event.

An ERROR event may be sent any time an irrecoverable error has occured. When that happens, the Player is in the CLOSED state.

The Player event mechanism is extensible and some Players define events other than the ones described here. For a list of pre-defined player events, check the PlayerListener interface.

Managing the Resources Used by a Player

The prefetch method is used to acquire scarce or exclusive resources such as the audio device. Conversely, the deallocate method is used to release the scarce or exclusive resources. By using these two methods, an application can programmatically manage the Player's resources.

For example, in an implementation with an exclusive audio device, to alternate the audio playback of multiple Players, an application can selectively deallocate and prefetch individual Players.

Player's TimeBase

The TimeBase of a Player provides the basic measure of time for the Player to synchronize its media playback. Each Player must provide one default TimeBase. The getTimeBase method can be used to retrieve that.

Setting a different TimeBase on a Player instructs the Player to synchronize its playback rate according to the given TimeBase.

Two Players can be synchronized by getting the TimeBase from one Player and setting that on the second Player.

However, not all Players support using a different TimeBase other than its own. In such cases, a MediaException will be thrown when setTimeBase is called.

Player's Controls

Player implements Controllable which provides extra controls via some type-specific Control interfaces. getControl and getControls cannot be called when the Player is in the UNREALIZED or CLOSED state. An IllegalStateException will be thrown.

Simple Playback Example

 try {
     Player p = Manager.createPlayer("http://abc.mpg");
     p.realize();
     VideoControl vc;
     if ((vc = (VideoControl)p.getControl("VideoControl")) != null)
         add((Component)vc.initDisplayMode(vc.USE_GUI_PRIMITIVE, null));
     p.start();
 } catch (MediaException pe) {
 } catch (IOException ioe) {
 }

Field Summary
static int CLOSED
          The state of the Player indicating that the Player is closed.
static int PREFETCHED
          The state of the Player indicating that it has acquired all the resources to begin playing.
static int REALIZED
          The state of the Player indicating that it has acquired the required information but not the resources to function.
static int STARTED
          The state of the Player indicating that the Player has already started.
static long TIME_UNKNOWN
          The returned value indicating that the requested time is unknown.
static int UNREALIZED
          The state of the Player indicating that it has not acquired the required information and resources to function.
 
Method Summary
 void addPlayerListener(PlayerListener playerListener)
          Add a player listener for this player.
 void close()
          Close the Player and release its resources.
 void deallocate()
          Release the scarce or exclusive resources like the audio device acquired by the Player.
 java.lang.String getContentType()
          Get the content type of the media that's being played back by this Player.
 long getDuration()
          Get the duration of the media.
 long getMediaTime()
          Gets this Player's current media time.
 int getState()
          Gets the current state of this Player.
 TimeBase getTimeBase()
          Gets the TimeBase that this Player is using.
 void prefetch()
          Acquires the scarce and exclusive resources and processes as much data as necessary to reduce the start latency.
 void realize()
          Constructs portions of the Player without acquiring the scarce and exclusive resources.
 void removePlayerListener(PlayerListener playerListener)
          Remove a player listener for this player.
 void setLoopCount(int count)
          Set the number of times the Player will loop and play the content.
 long setMediaTime(long now)
          Sets the Player's media time.
 void setTimeBase(TimeBase master)
          Sets the TimeBase for this Player.
 void start()
          Starts the Player as soon as possible.
 void stop()
          Stops the Player.
 
Methods inherited from interface javax.microedition.media.Controllable
getControl, getControls
 

Field Detail

UNREALIZED

public static final int UNREALIZED
The state of the Player indicating that it has not acquired the required information and resources to function.

Value 100 is assigned to UNREALIZED.

REALIZED

public static final int REALIZED
The state of the Player indicating that it has acquired the required information but not the resources to function.

Value 200 is assigned to REALIZED.

PREFETCHED

public static final int PREFETCHED
The state of the Player indicating that it has acquired all the resources to begin playing.

Value 300 is assigned to PREFETCHED.

STARTED

public static final int STARTED
The state of the Player indicating that the Player has already started.

Value 400 is assigned to STARTED.

CLOSED

public static final int CLOSED
The state of the Player indicating that the Player is closed.

Value 0 is assigned to CLOSED.

TIME_UNKNOWN

public static final long TIME_UNKNOWN
The returned value indicating that the requested time is unknown.

Value -1 is assigned to TIME_UNKNOWN.

Method Detail

realize

public void realize()
             throws MediaException
Constructs portions of the Player without acquiring the scarce and exclusive resources. This may include examining media data and may take some time to complete.

When realize completes successfully, the Player is in the REALIZED state.

If realize is called when the Player is in the REALIZED, PREFETCHTED or STARTED state, the request will be ignored.

Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.
MediaException - Thrown if the Player cannot be realized.
SecurityException - Thrown if the caller does not have security permission to realize the Player.

prefetch

public void prefetch()
              throws MediaException
Acquires the scarce and exclusive resources and processes as much data as necessary to reduce the start latency.

When prefetch completes successfully, the Player is in the PREFETCHED state.

If prefetch is called when the Player is in the UNREALIZED state, it will implicitly call realize.

If prefetch is called when the Player is already in the PREFETCHED state, the Player may still process data necessary to reduce the start latency. This is to guarantee that start latency can be maintained at a minimum.

If prefetch is called when the Player is in the STARTED state, the request will be ignored.

If the Player cannot obtain all of the resources it needs, it throws a MediaException. When that happens, the Player will not be able to start. However, prefetch may be called again when the needed resource is later released perhaps by another Player or application.

Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.
MediaException - Thrown if the Player cannot be prefetched.
SecurityException - Thrown if the caller does not have security permission to prefetch the Player.

start

public void start()
           throws MediaException
Starts the Player as soon as possible. If the Player was previously stopped by calling stop or reaching a preset stop time, it will resume playback from where it was previously stopped. If the Player has reached the end of media, calling start will automatically start the playback from the start of the media.

When start returns successfully, the Player must have been started and a STARTED event will be delivered to the registered PlayerListeners. However, the Player is not guaranteed to be in the STARTED state. The Player may have already stopped (in the PREFETCHED state) because the media has 0 or a very short duration.

If start is called when the Player is in the UNREALIZED or REALIZED state, it will implicitly call prefetch.

If start is called when the Player is in the STARTED state, the request will be ignored.

Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.
MediaException - Thrown if the Player cannot be started.
SecurityException - Thrown if the caller does not have security permission to start the Player.

stop

public void stop()
          throws MediaException
Stops the Player. It will pause the playback at the current media time.

When stop returns, the Player is in the PREFETCHED state. A STOPPED event will be delivered to the registered PlayerListeners.

If stop is called on a stopped Player, the request is ignored.

Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.
MediaException - Thrown if the Player cannot be stopped.

deallocate

public void deallocate()
Release the scarce or exclusive resources like the audio device acquired by the Player.

When deallocate returns, the Player is in the UNREALIZED or REALIZED state.

If the Player is blocked at the realize call while realizing, calling deallocate unblocks the realize call and returns the Player to the UNREALIZED state. Otherwise, calling deallocate returns the Player to the REALIZED state.

If deallocate is called when the Player is in the UNREALIZED or REALIZED state, the request is ignored.

If the Player is STARTED when deallocate is called, deallocate will implicitly call stop on the Player.

Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.

close

public void close()
Close the Player and release its resources.

When the method returns, the Player is in the CLOSED state and can no longer be used. A CLOSED event will be delivered to the registered PlayerListeners.

If close is called on a closed Player the request is ignored.

setTimeBase

public void setTimeBase(TimeBase master)
                 throws MediaException
Sets the TimeBase for this Player.

A Player has a default TimeBase that is determined by the implementation. To reset a Player to its default TimeBase, call setTimeBase(null).

Parameters:
master - The new TimeBase or null to reset the Player to its default TimeBase.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the UNREALIZED, STARTED or CLOSED state.
MediaException - Thrown if the specified TimeBase cannot be set on the Player.
See Also:
getTimeBase()

getTimeBase

public TimeBase getTimeBase()
Gets the TimeBase that this Player is using.
Returns:
The TimeBase that this Player is using.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the UNREALIZED or CLOSED state.
See Also:
setTimeBase(javax.microedition.media.TimeBase)

setMediaTime

public long setMediaTime(long now)
                  throws MediaException
Sets the Player's media time.

For some media types, setting the media time may not be very accurate. The returned value will indicate the actual media time set.

Setting the media time to negative values will effectively set the media time to zero. Setting the media time to beyond the duration of the media will set the time to the end of media.

There are some media types that cannot support the setting of media time. Calling setMediaTime will throw a MediaException in those cases.

Parameters:
now - The new media time in microseconds.
Returns:
The actual media time set in microseconds.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the UNREALIZED or CLOSED state.
MediaException - Thrown if the media time cannot be set.
See Also:
getMediaTime()

getMediaTime

public long getMediaTime()
Gets this Player's current media time. If the media time cannot be determined, getMediaTime returns TIME_UNKNOWN.
Returns:
The current media time in microseconds or TIME_UNKNOWN.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.
See Also:
setMediaTime(long)

getState

public int getState()
Gets the current state of this Player. The possible states are: UNREALIZED, REALIZED, PREFETCHED, STARTED, CLOSED.
Returns:
The Player's current state.

getDuration

public long getDuration()
Get the duration of the media. The value returned is the media's duration when played at the default rate.
If the duration cannot be determined (for example, the Player is presenting live media) getDuration returns TIME_UNKNOWN.
Returns:
The duration in microseconds or TIME_UNKNOWN.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.

getContentType

public java.lang.String getContentType()
Get the content type of the media that's being played back by this Player.

See content type for the syntax of the content type returned.

Returns:
The content type being played back by this Player.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the UNREALIZED or CLOSED state.

setLoopCount

public void setLoopCount(int count)
Set the number of times the Player will loop and play the content.

By default, the loop count is one. That is, once started, the Player will start playing from the current media time to the end of media once.

If the loop count is set to N where N is bigger than one, starting the Player will start playing the content from the current media time to the end of media. It will then loop back to the beginning of the content (media time zero) and play till the end of the media. The number of times it will loop to the beginning and play to the end of media will be N-1.

Setting the loop count to 0 is invalid. An IllegalArgumentException will be thrown.

Setting the loop count to -1 will loop and play the content indefinitely.

If the Player is stopped before the preset loop count is reached either because stop is called or a preset stop time (set with the StopTimeControl) is reached, calling start again will resume the looping playback from where it was stopped until it fully reaches the preset loop count.

An END_OF_MEDIA event will be posted every time the Player reaches the end of media. If the Player loops back to the beginning and starts playing again because it has not completed the loop count, a STARTED event will be posted.

Parameters:
count - indicates the number of times the content will be played. 1 is the default. 0 is invalid. -1 indicates looping indefintely.
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException - Thrown if the given count is invalid.
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the STARTED or CLOSED state.

addPlayerListener

public void addPlayerListener(PlayerListener playerListener)
Add a player listener for this player.
Parameters:
playerListener - the listener to add. If null is used, the request will be ignored.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.
See Also:
removePlayerListener(javax.microedition.media.PlayerListener)

removePlayerListener

public void removePlayerListener(PlayerListener playerListener)
Remove a player listener for this player.
Parameters:
playerListener - the listener to remove. If null is used or the given playerListener is not a listener for this Player, the request will be ignored.
Throws:
IllegalStateException - Thrown if the Player is in the CLOSED state.
See Also:
addPlayerListener(javax.microedition.media.PlayerListener)
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Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Nokia Corporation. See the Copyright Notice and Specification License for more details.
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