How to get video duration from mp4, wmv, flv, mov videos

Question

Alright. Actually i need mostly the mp4 format. But if it is possible to get for other types as well that would be nice. I just need to read the duration of the file. How can i do that with C# 4.0 ?

So the thing i need is like this video is like : 13 minutes 12 seconds

I can use 3 third party exes too. Like they save the information about the file to a text file. I can parse that text file.

Thank you.

Answer 1

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); } 

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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);     } } 

Answer 2

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;     } }