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MediaElement.Position Property

Gets or sets the current position of progress through the media's playback time.

Namespace:  System.Windows.Controls
Assembly:  PresentationFramework (in PresentationFramework.dll)
public TimeSpan Position { get; set; }
You cannot set this property in XAML.

Property Value

Type: System.TimeSpan
The amount of time since the beginning of the media. The default is 00:00:00.
Exception Condition
InvalidOperationException

The Clock property is not null.

Setting this property can enable you to jump to different points in playback (also known as seeking). Not all media types allow seek operations. The MediaFailed event will fire if the media source does not allow seeking.

This property has no effect until after the MediaOpened event has occurred.

This property can be set only when the Clock property is null. When the Clock property is non-null, the timing engine controls media playback behavior.

The following example shows how to control playback of media using a MediaElement. The example creates a simple media player that allows you to play, pause, stop, and skip back and forth in the media as well as adjust the volume and speed ratio.

The code below creates the UI.

Note Note:

The LoadedBehavior property of MediaElement must be set to Manual in order to be able to interactively stop, pause, and play the media.

<Page xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  x:Class="SDKSample.MediaElementExample" >

  <StackPanel Background="Black">

    <!-- To interactively stop, pause, and play the media, the LoadedBehavior 
           property of the MediaElement must be set to "Manual". -->
    <MediaElement Source="media\numbers.wmv" Name="myMediaElement" 
     Width="450" Height="250" LoadedBehavior="Manual" UnloadedBehavior="Stop" Stretch="Fill" 
     MediaOpened="Element_MediaOpened" MediaEnded="Element_MediaEnded"/>

    <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center" Width="450" Orientation="Horizontal">

      <!-- Play button. -->
      <Image Source="images\UI_play.gif" MouseDown="OnMouseDownPlayMedia" Margin="5" />

      <!-- Pause button. -->
      <Image Source="images\UI_pause.gif" MouseDown="OnMouseDownPauseMedia" Margin="5" />

      <!-- Stop button. -->
      <Image Source="images\UI_stop.gif" MouseDown="OnMouseDownStopMedia" Margin="5" />

      <!-- Volume slider. This slider allows a Volume range between 0 and 1. -->
      <TextBlock Foreground="White" VerticalAlignment="Center" Margin="5"  >Volume</TextBlock>
      <Slider Name="volumeSlider" VerticalAlignment="Center" ValueChanged="ChangeMediaVolume" 
       Minimum="0" Maximum="1" Value="0.5" Width="70"/>

      <!-- Volume slider. This slider allows a Volume range between 0 and 10. -->
      <TextBlock Foreground="White" Margin="5"  VerticalAlignment="Center">Speed</TextBlock>
      <Slider Name="speedRatioSlider" VerticalAlignment="Center" ValueChanged="ChangeMediaSpeedRatio" 
       Value="1" Width="70" />

      <!-- Seek to slider. Ths slider allows you to jump to different parts of the media playback. -->
      <TextBlock Foreground="White" Margin="5"  VerticalAlignment="Center">Seek To</TextBlock>
      <Slider Name="timelineSlider" Margin="5" ValueChanged="SeekToMediaPosition" Width="70"/>

    </StackPanel>
  </StackPanel>
</Page>


The code below implements the functionality of the sample UI controls. The Play, Pause, and Stop methods are used to respectively play, pause and stop the media. Changing the Position property of the MediaElement allows you to skip around in the media. Finally, the Volume and SpeedRatio properties are used to adjust the volume and playback speed of the media.

using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Input;

namespace SDKSample
{

   public partial class MediaElementExample : Page
   {

      // Play the media.
      void OnMouseDownPlayMedia(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs args)
      {

         // The Play method will begin the media if it is not currently active or 
         // resume media if it is paused. This has no effect if the media is
         // already running.
         myMediaElement.Play();

         // Initialize the MediaElement property values.
         InitializePropertyValues();

      }

      // Pause the media.
      void OnMouseDownPauseMedia(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs args)
      {

         // The Pause method pauses the media if it is currently running.
         // The Play method can be used to resume.
         myMediaElement.Pause();

      }

      // Stop the media.
      void OnMouseDownStopMedia(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs args)
      {

         // The Stop method stops and resets the media to be played from
         // the beginning.
         myMediaElement.Stop();

      }

      // Change the volume of the media.
      private void ChangeMediaVolume(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<double> args)
      {
         myMediaElement.Volume = (double)volumeSlider.Value;
      }

      // Change the speed of the media.
      private void ChangeMediaSpeedRatio(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<double> args)
      {
         myMediaElement.SpeedRatio = (double)speedRatioSlider.Value;
      }

      // When the media opens, initialize the "Seek To" slider maximum value
      // to the total number of miliseconds in the length of the media clip.
      private void Element_MediaOpened(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
         timelineSlider.Maximum = myMediaElement.NaturalDuration.TimeSpan.TotalMilliseconds;
      }

      // When the media playback is finished. Stop() the media to seek to media start.
      private void Element_MediaEnded(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
         myMediaElement.Stop();
      }

      // Jump to different parts of the media (seek to). 
      private void SeekToMediaPosition(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<double> args)
      {
         int SliderValue = (int)timelineSlider.Value;

         // Overloaded constructor takes the arguments days, hours, minutes, seconds, miniseconds.
         // Create a TimeSpan with miliseconds equal to the slider value.
         TimeSpan ts = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, SliderValue);
         myMediaElement.Position = ts;
      }

      void InitializePropertyValues()
      {
         // Set the media's starting Volume and SpeedRatio to the current value of the
         // their respective slider controls.
         myMediaElement.Volume = (double)volumeSlider.Value;
         myMediaElement.SpeedRatio = (double)speedRatioSlider.Value;
      }

   }
}


Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0
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Position doesn't seem to be accurate when using a MediaStreamSource object to access the raw stream
Hi,

I've set up my MediaElement to use a MediaStreamSource to play a raw PCM 16 bit file. The file plays just fine.

The problems start when I try to use a Slider and TextBlock to indicate the current position. I set up a timer which ticks every 1 second, check the Position property of the MediaElement, and set the value of the TextBlock to that. (and the Slider too). The value seems to be about 1/7 of what it should be, meaning it takes 7 seconds of playback to make it move 1 second. I suppose I could get around this by simply using the timer to keep time but why should I have to do that? What's wrong with the Position property?

Also, I tried setting the Position property to play the audio from a specific point (45 seconds) and it began from the beginning. I do this with the following code:

TestMediaElement.Position = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(45);
TestMediaElement.Play();

This is done in the Click event handler of the Play button.

I'd appreciate any guidance on this, since there is very little documentation for the case where MediaStreamSource is used to play media.

Response: Please use the WPF Forum for technical questions.