Supported media categories

The mm-renderer service supports playback of tracks and playlists. The content can be read from local files, HTTP streams, or database queries (for playlists only). The media category is indicated in the input URL given to mm-renderer.

Note: For the current list of supported device types, filesystems, codecs, and video formats, see the Release Notes for the QNX SDK for Apps and Media.

Sources for audio and video tracks

A track is an audio or video file such as an MP3 or MP4 file. You can play tracks from these sources:

Files
To play media content from files, specify the path (in POSIX format) of an audio or video file in the input URL, with or without a file: or http: prefix. You can name a dynamically growing file using the file2b: prefix, which lets you play content that's downloading.
HTTP streams
To play media content from HTTP sources, specify an HLS source or another type of HTTP stream in an input URL starting with http: or https:. The mm-renderer service supports cookies, SSL, and authentication, which enables secure playback of HTTP streams.
Audio capture devices
Use an input URL that either starts with snd: and lists the device path or that starts with audio: and names a supported audio device. For both URL types, you can configure several parameters such as the sampling rate, number of channels, and number of bits per sample.

More details on the options available with any of these URL types and the sources they refer to are given in the mmr_input_attach() description. The same reference also explains how you can treat a single track as its own playlist, using the autolist input type.

Supported playlist types

A playlist is a list of track URLs. The following types of playlists are supported:

M3U files
The input URL must be a full path (with or without a file: or http: prefix) of a file with an M3U extension. In its simplest form, an M3U file is a plain-text file containing the pathnames or URLs of the tracks to play (one per line). Playlists for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) are supported; these may have M3U and M3U8 file extensions.
SQL queries
The input URL must be of the form sql:database?query=querystring, where database is a full path to a database file, and querystring is an SQL query that returns a column of track names.

The mmr_input_attach() description gives full details on the format of playlist URLs.