> I was a bit surprised that the metadata retrieval functionality > of javafx.scene.media.Media is only usable in conjunction with a player, so > if I want to retrieve the dimensions of a video file I have to instantiate > a player and wait for it to reach ready state? That's how I read the > javadoc. Is this a misunderstanding?
Nope, currently you have to create a player. Once a player is created it kicks off a parser to grab metadata or waits for the underlying native player to parse. > If not is there a specific reason not > to offer this functionality independently of a player? There were plans, there were also issues as we don't have a Java based mp4 parser so we're relying on the underlying platforms (e.g. QTKit, AVFoundation, etc..) to provide that data, which basically means we're creating a player at the native level anyways. If you're using the horribly outdated FXM format you get the benefit of a Java based parser, but honestly, who's using that these days? -DrD-