Multimedia on Symbian OS (eBook)

Adi Rome has a BA in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University. After a spell in teaching, she worked in Quality Assurance, moving to analysis, design and implementation of embedded systems, before joining Symbian in 2004. As the multimedia guru within the Developer Services team she provides technical consultancy across all areas of Symbian OS, with special emphasis on hardware. Adi was responsible for communicating Symbian's roadmap to silicon and multimedia partners, and also led Symbian's component validation program. Away from technical work Adi has been involved in setting up the Symbian China partner-consulting organization and is in much demand for her presentation skills, having given sessions at a wide range of partner and industry events, including 3GSM World Congress. Mark Wilcox has been playing with computers since his dad bought a ZX81 when he was four. He wrote his first multimedia application (a three room text adventure with sound effects!) on an Acorn Electron when he was seven. Mark has a Masters degree in Mathematics, following this up with a research postgraduate in Cybernetic Intelligence. In 2001 he started developing software for mobile phones and since then has been involved in handset development projects for Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Panasonic and Samsung. During this time he's worked on everything from a GPRS stack, device drivers and a power management server to messaging applications and the code that draws the soft keys. It was while working as a Software Architect for Nokia's Multimedia business unit, developing their flagship Nseries products, that Mark developed his interest in the multimedia capabilities of Symbian OS. Mark became an Accredited Symbian Developer and a Forum Nokia Champion in 2007.

Foreword.

About this Book.

Authors' Biographies.

Authors' Acknowledgements.

Symbian Press Acknowledgments.

Code Conventions and Notations.

1 Introduction.

1.1 The Convergence Device.

1.2 Transformation of the Media Industry.

1.3 Symbian OS.

1.4 The Cutting Edge.

1.5 Evolution of the Multimedia Subsystem in Symbian OS.

1.6 A Peek into the Future.

2 Multimedia Architecture.

2.1 The ECOM Framework.

2.2 Platform Security.

2.3 The Content Access Framework.

2.4 Multimedia Subsystem.

2.5 Future Multimedia Support.

3 The Onboard Camera.

3.1 Introduction.

3.2 Accessing the Camera.

3.3 Camera Control.

3.4 Displaying the Viewfinder.

3.5 Capturing Still Images.

3.6 Capturing Video.

3.7 Error Handling.

3.8 Advanced Topics.

4 Multimedia Framework: Video.

4.1 Video Concepts.

4.2 Symbian OS Video Architecture.

4.3 Client API Introduction.

4.4 Identifying Video Controllers.

4.5 Controlling Video Playback.

4.6 Controlling Screen Output.

4.7 Getting Video Information.

4.8 Accessing Metadata.

4.9 Controlling the Audio Output.

4.10 Streaming Playback.

4.11 Recording Video.

4.12 Controlling the Video that Is Recorded.

4.13 Controlling the Audio that Is Recorded.

4.14 Storing Metadata.

4.15 Custom Commands.

4.16 Examples and Troubleshooting.

5 Multimedia Framework: Audio.

5.1 Introduction.

5.2 Audio Input and Output Streams.

5.3 Audio Player Utility.

5.4 Audio Recorder Utility.

5.5 File Conversion.

5.6 Tone Utility.

5.7 DevSound.

5.8 Audio Policies.

5.9 Priority Settings.

5.10 Miscellaneous.

6 Image Conversion Library.

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 Decoding Images.

6.3 Encoding Images.

6.4 Displaying Images.

6.5 Transforming Images.

6.6 Native Bitmap Operations.

6.7 Miscellaneous APIs.

7 The Tuner API.

7.1 Introduction.

7.2 Getting Started.

7.3 Basic Use Cases.

7.4 Future Technologies.

7.5 Sample Code.

8 Best Practice.

8.1 Always Use an Active Scheduler.

8.2 Use APPARC to Recognize Audio and Video.

8.3 Don't Use the Video Player to Open Audio Files.

8.4 Know that MMF and ICL Cannot Detect Some Formats.

8.5 Don't Use CMdaAudioOutputStream for Network
Streaming.

8.6 Use CMdaAudioPlayerUtility to Play Tone Sequence Files.

8.7 Use CMdaAudioPlayerUtility to Play Clips.

8.8 Don't Hardwire Controller UIDs in Portable Code.

8.9 Set Controller Thread Priorities Before Playing or
Recording.

8.10 Recognize that Behavior Varies when Several Clients Are
Active.

8.11 Understand that the System is Based on Plug-ins.

8.12 Use RFile and TMMSource Instead of Passing a File Name.

8.13 Consider the Volume Control.

8.14 Know When to Use Threaded Requests on ICL.

8.15 Don't Have too many Clients.

8.16 Understand the Multi-heap Problem.

References and Resources.

Index.