For more information on MediaSource and related APIs, see Media items, playlists, and tracks. There are also higher-level classes that work with MediaSource, such as MediaPlaybackItem and MediaPlaybackList, that provide more advanced features like playlists and the ability to manage media sources with multiple audio, video, and metadata tracks. This class allows you to load and play media from many different sources, including local files, memory streams, and network sources, all using the same interface. Note that MediaPlayer uses the MediaSource class as a container for all media items. This article will walk you through the MediaPlayer features that a typical media playback app will use. MediaElement continues to function to support backwards compatibility, but no additional features will be added to this class. Many of the playback control and status APIs provided by MediaElement are now available through the new MediaPlaybackSession object. The lightweight XAML control, MediaPlayerElement, has been introduced to allow you render media content in a XAML page. To take advantage of these improvements, the recommended best practice for playing media is to use the MediaPlayer class instead of MediaElement for media playback. With Windows 10, version 1607, significant improvements were made to the media playback APIs, including a simplified single-process design for background audio, automatic integration with the System Media Transport Controls (SMTC), the ability to synchronize multiple media players, the ability to render video frames to a Windows.UI.Composition surface, and an easy interface for creating and scheduling media breaks in your content.

This article shows you how to play media in your Universal Windows app using the MediaPlayer class.

Universal media player for windows 10