4 This document provides a brief tutorial on the use of the mlt++ wrapper
11 The mlt++ wrapper is a c++ wrapper for the mlt C library. As such, it
12 provides clean C++ access to the underlying library.
14 An example of use is as follows:
17 #include <mlt++/Mlt.h>
23 Producer p( "pango:" );
24 p.set( "text", "Hello World" );
28 struct timespec tm = { 1, 0 };
29 while ( !c.is_stopped( ) )
30 nanosleep( &tm, NULL );
34 This is a fairly typical example of use of mlt++ - create a 'producer' (an
35 object which produces 'frames'), create a 'consumer' (an object which consumes
36 frames), connect them together, start the consumer and wait until done (here
37 we just wait for the user to close the window).
39 In this case, we construct a window as a consumer using the 'sdl' consumer
40 (SDL is a standard portable library which provides platform independent
41 access to accelerated video display and audio) and use the 'pango'
42 producer to generate frames with the words 'Hello World' (pango is a
43 library from the gtk toolkit).
45 The main point of this example is to show that mlt uses existing libraries
46 to provide its functionality - this keeps the framework itself very small.
48 Note that mlt is designed to be housed in GUI or server type applications -
49 typically, applications don't wait around for the consumer to be stopped in
52 TODO: Replace wait loop with an event.
54 So far, we've introduced the Producer and Consumer mlt classes. We'll cover
55 each of these in more detail later in the tutorial, but for now, we'll
56 briefly cover the remaining classes.
62 Another simple class is the Playlist - this is direct extension of Producer
63 and it allows you to maintain a list of producer objects.
65 As a simple example of the Playlist in action, we'll convert the example
66 above into an application which plays multiple video or audio files.
69 #include <mlt++/Mlt.h>
72 int main( int argc, char **argv )
76 for ( int i = 1; i < argc; i ++ )
78 Producer p( argv[i] );
85 struct timespec tm = { 1, 0 };
86 while ( !c.is_stopped( ) )
87 nanosleep( &tm, NULL );
91 Now you can run the program as:
93 ./player *.avi *.mp3 *.jpg etc
95 In this case, we construct a playlist by simply appending producers to it.
96 Notice that although the scope of the Producer is limited to the inner
97 for loop, we can safely add it to the playlist - this is due to the fact
98 that all mlt objects maintain reference counts and no object is really
99 destroyed until all the references are gone. In this case, when the list
100 object goes out of scope, all the producers we created will automatically
107 So far, we've shown how you can load and play media. We've given a brief
108 intro to the Playlist container, now it's time to start manipulating
111 For the next example, I'll add a 'watermark' to the video - a watermark
112 is used by broadcasters to brand the channel and normally consists of a
113 logo of some sort. We'll just use some black text on a partially
114 transparent red background.
117 #include <mlt++/Mlt.h>
120 int main( int argc, char **argv )
124 for ( int i = 1; i < argc; i ++ )
126 Producer p( argv[i] );
130 Filter f( "watermark", "pango:" );
131 f.set( "producer.text", "MLT++" );
132 f.set( "producer.fgcolour", "0x000000ff" );
133 f.set( "producer.bgcolour", "0xff000080" );
138 struct timespec tm = { 1, 0 };
139 while ( !c.is_stopped( ) )
140 nanosleep( &tm, NULL );
144 Notice that the watermark filter reuses the 'pango' producer we showed in the
145 first example. In fact, you could use any producer here - if you wanted to
146 use a graphic or a video, you would just construct the filter with a full path
147 to that as the second argument.
149 We manipulate the filter using the set method - this method was also shown
150 in the first example.
152 Finally, we attach the filter to the playlist. This ensure that all frames
153 that are obtained from the playlist are watermarked.
159 A tractor is an object that allows the manipulation of multiple video and audio
162 Stepping away from the player example we've been tinkering with for a minute,
163 let's assume we want to do something like dubbing a video with some audio. This
164 a very trivial thing to do:
166 Tractor *dub( char *video_file, char *audio_file )
168 Tractor *tractor = new Tractor( );
169 Producer video( video_file );
170 Producer audio( audio_file );
171 tractor->set_track( video, 0 );
172 tractor->set_track( audio, 1 );
176 That's all that needs to be done - you can now connect the returned object to a
177 consumer, or add it to a playlist, or even apply it as a track to another tractor.
183 Let's now assume we want to mix the audio between two tracks - to do this, we
184 need to introduce the concept of a transition. A transition in mlt is a service
185 which combines frames from two producers to produce a new frame.
187 Tractor *mix( char *video_file, char *audio_file )
189 Tractor *tractor = new Tractor( );
190 Transition mix( "mix" );
191 Producer video( video_file );
192 Producer audio( audio_file );
193 tractor.set_track( video, 0 );
194 tractor.set_track( audio, 1 );
195 tractor.field.plant_transition( mix, 0, 1 );
199 The tractor returned will now mix the audio from the original video and the audio.
205 And that, believe it or not, is a fairly complete summary of the classes you'll
206 typically be interfacing with in mlt++. Obviously, there's a little more to it
207 than this - a couple of intrisinc classes have been glossed over (notably, the
208 Properties and Service base classes). The next section will cover all of the
209 above, but in much more detail...
215 The previous section was designed to give you a whistle stop tour through the major
216 framework classes. This section will take you through the scenic route.
219 Introducing Base Classes
220 ------------------------
222 Services in mlt are the collective noun for Producers, Filters, Transitions and
223 Consumer. A Service is also the base class from which all of these classes
224 extend. It provides the basic connectivity which has been shown throughout the
225 examples in the previous section.
227 Properties are the main way in which we communicate with the Services -
228 essentially, it provides get/set methods for named values. All services extend
235 Properties provide the general mechanism for communicating with Services -
236 through the Properties interface, we are able to manipulate and serialise
239 For example, to dump all the properties to stdout, you can use something
242 void dump( Properties &properties )
244 for ( int i = 0; i < properties.count( ); i ++ )
245 cout << Properties.get_name( i ) << " = " << Properties.get( i ) << endl;
248 Note that the properties object handles type conversion, so the following
251 properties.set( "hello", "10.5" );
252 int hello_int = properties.get_int( "hello" );
253 double hello_double = properties.get_double( "hello" );
255 A couple of convenience methods are provide to examine or serialise property
262 will report all serialisable properties on stderr, in the form:
264 Object: [ ref=1, in=0, out=0, track=0, u=75, v=150, _unique_id=15,
265 mlt_type=filter, mlt_service=sepia ]
271 Typically, all the services are constructed via the specific classes
272 constructor. Often, you will receive Service objects rather than their
273 specific type. In order to access the extended classes interface,
274 you will need to create a reference.
276 For example, given an arbitrary Service object, you can determine its
277 type by using the type method - this will return a 'service_type' which
278 has values of producer_type, filter_type etc. Alternatively, you can
279 create a wrapping object and check on its validity.
281 bool do_we_have_a_producer( Service &service )
283 Producer producer( service );
284 return producer.is_valid( );