Media

Table of Contents

• Supported Media Formats
• Image Formats
• Scalable Vector Graphics Files
• GStreamer
• Video Playback
• Camera Capture and Playback
• Audio Playback

This chapter discusses media formats supported by EGT.

Supported Media Formats

EGT has direct and indirect support for many standard image, video, and audio formats through classes like egt::VideoWindow, egt::AudioPlayer, egt::CameraWindow, egt::CameraCapture, egt::v1::experimental::Sound, egt::Image, egt::SvgImage, and more. In most cases, the low level handling is implemented using third party libraries like libpng, libjpeg, GStreamer, librsvg, Video4Linux2, and so on.

Image Formats

The following image formats are directly supported by EGT:

• PNG
  • Raster graphics file format that supports lossless data compression.
• JPEG
  • Lossy compression for digital images.
• BMP
  • Raster graphics file format used to store bitmap digital images.
• SVG
  • Scalable Vector Graphics is an Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics.

Loading and using any image in EGT is automatically done through either the egt::Image or egt::SvgImage classes.

            egt::TopWindow window;
            egt::HorizontalBoxSizer sizer;
            window.add(center(sizer));
 
            egt::ImageLabel label1(sizer, egt::Image("icon:unlock.png"));
            egt::ImageLabel label2(sizer, egt::Image("icon:paint.png"));
            egt::ImageLabel label3(sizer, egt::Image("icon:battery.png"));
            egt::ImageLabel label4(sizer, egt::Image("icon:ok.png"));
 
            window.show();

Scalable Vector Graphics Files

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 1999. SVG images and their behaviors are defined in XML text files.

EGT can load SVG files using the third party library librsvg. librsvg is a library to render SVG files using cairo. On top of that, this library provides the ability to load elements by id from SVG files. What this means is a graphic designer can create an SVG file and give each component of the UI a unique element ID. Then, an EGT programmer can individually load these components and assign them to widgets and create logic around these components from a single SVG file. Also, a graphic designer can put elements in the SVG that are a hint where EGT should be used to draw something, like text.

Note

EGT does not support all SVG capabilities including things like extensions, javascript, or animations.

While EGT supports loading SVG files and working with them dynamically, it is also worth noting that there are tools that can convert an SVG file into actual cairo code. This may be useful for several reasons, including reducing dependencies of EGT.

Example SVG files can be found on various websites.

Working with an SVG file in EGT is mostly accomplished with the egt::SvgImage class. This class allows fine grained access into SVG specific properties, while still allowing easy conversion to a normal raster Image instance.

egt::v1::experimental::Gauge, egt::v1::experimental::GaugeLayer, and egt::v1::experimental::NeedleLayer are several classes that are useful for taking advantage of SVG files by using complete SVG files or individual objects in those SVG files to construct layered widgets.

GStreamer

EGT uses GStreamer as the default backend to implement audio, video, and camera playback or capture. In addition, Microchip provides custom GStreamer plugins for hardware acceleration of video and image decoding available on some processors.

GStreamer is a library for constructing graphs of media-handling components. The applications it supports range from simple Ogg/Vorbis playback, audio/video streaming to complex audio (mixing) and video (non-linear editing) processing. Applications can take advantage of advances in codec and filter technology transparently. Developers can add new codecs and filters by writing a simple plugin with a clean, generic interface.

Because EGT uses GStreamer for audio, video, and camera support, the features and capabilities of GStreamer are in turn extended to EGT:

Container Formats

asf, avi, 3gp/mp4/mov, flv, mpeg-ps/ts, mkv/webm, mxf, ogg

Streaming

http, mms, rtsp

Codecs

FFmpeg, various codec libraries, 3rd party codec packs

Metadata

Native container formats with a common mapping between them

Video

Various colorspaces, support for progressive and interlaced video

Audio

Integer and float audio in various bit depths and multichannel configurations including:

• Raw audio formats
• Encoded audio formats: AC-3 or A52 audio streams, Free Lossless Audio codec (FLAC), Audio data compressed using the MPEG audio encoding scheme, Realmedia Audio data, Vorbis audio data, Windows Media Audio, and more.

Video Playback

The following video stream formats are recommended for use with EGT:

Format	Processor Support
Uncompressed YUV	All
MPEG1	All
MPEG2	All
MPEG4	All
H.264	SAMA5D4
VP8	SAMA5D4
VP9	SAMA5D4

Playing video in EGT is usually done with the egt::VideoWindow widget.

            egt::TopWindow window;
 
            egt::VideoWindow player(window.content_area(), "file:assets/video.mp4");
            window.add(player);
            player.volume(50);
            player.show();
            player.play();
 
            window.show();

Camera Capture and Playback

EGT makes direct and indirect advantage of the Video4Linux2 (V4L2) device drivers and API for supporting realtime video capture on Linux systems. It supports many USB webcams, TV tuners, and related devices, standardizing their output, so programmers can easily add video support to their applications.

Video4Linux2 provides access to the Image Sensor Controller (ISC) and Image Sensor Interface (ISI) peripherals available on some Microchip processors.

Video4Linux2 API

To capture any V4L2 camera to a file, the egt::v1::CameraCapture class can be used.

            egt::CameraCapture capture("output.avi");
            capture.start();

To capture and display a live V4L2 camera video feed, the egt::v1::CameraWindow widget can be used.

            egt::TopWindow window;
 
            egt::CameraWindow player("/dev/video0");
            window.add(player);
            player.play();
 
            window.show();

Audio Playback

Playing audio in EGT is usually done with the egt::AudioPlayer class. This class supports all of the expected features for playing various audio formats such as random seeking and pausing.

            egt::AudioPlayer player("file:assets/concerto.mp3");
            player.play();

If a sound needs to be quickly played asynchronously, for example in response to a button press, the egt::v1::experimental::Sound class is usually more appropriate.

            egt::TopWindow window;
 
            egt::experimental::Sound sound("file:assets/tom.wav");
 
            egt::Button button(window, "Play Sound");
            center(button);
            button.on_click([&sound](egt::Event&)
            {
                sound.play();
            });
 
            window.show();