How to get video duration from mp4, wmv, flv, mov videos
This answer about P/Invoke for Shell32 reminded me of the Windows API Code Pack to access common Windows Vista/7/2008/2008R2 APIs.
It was very easy, using the PropertyEdit demo in the included samples, to figure out the Shell32 API to get various media file properties, like duration.
I assume the same prerequisite applies for having the proper demultiplexers installed, but it was quite simple, as it only required adding references to Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.dll
and Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.dll
and the following code:
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell;
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.PropertySystem;
using (ShellObject shell = ShellObject.FromParsingName(filePath))
{
// alternatively: shell.Properties.GetProperty("System.Media.Duration");
IShellProperty prop = shell.Properties.System.Media.Duration;
// Duration will be formatted as 00:44:08
string duration = prop.FormatForDisplay(PropertyDescriptionFormatOptions.None);
}
Other stuff
Some common properties for an MPEG-4/AAC audio media file:
System.Audio.Format = {00001610-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
System.Media.Duration = 00:44:08
System.Audio.EncodingBitrate = ?56kbps
System.Audio.SampleRate = ?32 kHz
System.Audio.SampleSize = ?16 bit
System.Audio.ChannelCount = 2 (stereo)
System.Audio.StreamNumber = 1
System.DRM.IsProtected = No
System.KindText = Music
System.Kind = Music
It's easy to iterate through all properties if you're looking for the available metadata:
using (ShellPropertyCollection properties = new ShellPropertyCollection(filePath))
{
foreach (IShellProperty prop in properties)
{
string value = (prop.ValueAsObject == null) ? "" : prop.FormatForDisplay(PropertyDescriptionFormatOptions.None);
Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", prop.CanonicalName, value);
}
}
You could also use windows media player, although it don't support alle file types you requested
using WMPLib;
public Double Duration(String file)
{
WindowsMediaPlayer wmp = new WindowsMediaPlayerClass();
IWMPMedia mediainfo = wmp.newMedia(file);
return mediainfo.duration;
}
}