MediaElementWithHttpClient

TL;DR

Use Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.MediaElement with Windows.Web.Http.HttpClient.

Docs

MediaElement is a control to play audio and video in Windows Universal/Store apps.

However, when the audio or video is served from an internet server, using HttpClient is a better choice to handle the request because you can provide:

• Authentication credentials.
• Custom headers.
• Etc.

The HttpRandomAccessStream class is a wrapper on top of HttpClient that can stream content from the internet and can be consumed as an IRandomAcessStream.

Example

MediaElement mediaPlayer = new MediaElement();

HttpClient client = new HttpClient();

// Add custom headers, credentials, etc.
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Foo", "Bar");

Uri uri = new Uri("http://video.ch9.ms/ch9/70cc/83e17e76-8be8-441b-b469-87cf0e6a70cc/ASPNETwithScottHunter_high.mp4");

HttpRandomAccessStream stream = await HttpRandomAccessStream.CreateAsync(client, uri);

mediaPlayer.SetSource(stream, "video/mp4");

Note: The server must support HTTP Range headers.

Windows8 vs Windows10 solutions.

Both solutions are equivalent, and the HttpRandomAccessStream class is the same in both solutions.

The Windows8 solution is targeted for Windows 8.1 and it loads great in Visual Studio 2013.

The Windows10 solution is targeted for Windows 10 (Universal Windows) and it loads great in Visual Studio 2015.

Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.MediaPlayerElement

For an example with MediaPlayerElement, please go to kiewic/MediaPlayerElementWithHttpClient repository.