mxf-reader

A library to read and parse MXF media as specified by SMPTE 377 with support for the "Generic Container" (SMPTE 379M)

Quick start

Reading an MXF file:

File file = new File(fileName);
mxfReader = new MxfReader(file);
mxfReader.setDebugPrint(true);
mxfReader.setMetadataReadMode(MxfReader.MetadataReadMode.All);
mxfReader.setParseEssenceElements(true); // force parse GC essence (media) elements
mxfReader.setParseSystemElements(true); // force parse of GC system elements
mxfReader.readAll(); // start parsing

Navigating the metadata

Use MxfTreeReader to have a DOM-like tree of metadata to navigate. This tree is made of groups, represented by GroupNode and values, represented by LeafNode. Call reader.getGroups() to get a set of all the top-level GroupNodes. You can search for specific groups by matching its ul tag with one from the Groups constants. For example, Groups.EssenceContainerData for the essence container data set. Likewise, Metadata can be used to reference individual values. For example, Metadata.EssenceStreamID which specifies the essence container's stream identifier. Putting it all together:

// "groups" is Set<GroupNode>
for (Iterator<GroupNode> i = groups.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
	GroupNode group = i.next();
	if (Groups.EssenceContainerData.equals(group.ul())) {
		Number bodySid = (Number) group.value(Metadata.EssenceStreamID);
		UMID filePackageId = (UMID) group.value(Metadata.LinkedPackageID);
		addTracks(groups, bodySid, filePackageId);
	}
}

Extracting essence

This is just a matter of implementing EssenceContainerOutputController. A default implementation that indiscriminately writes each physical track to its own file can be found in EssenceFileOutputController, and might be a good place to start implementing your own. In order to use the implementation, you will have to override MxfReader.createEssenceFileOutputController(File file) like this:

@Override
protected EssenceContainerOutputController createEssenceFileOutputController(File file)
{
	return new MyOutputController(outputStream);
}

MXF is allowed a preamble called a "run-in". Some non-compliant files may take more liberties and you may find it useful to set mxfReader.setEnableRuninAnywhere(true) in order to process them.

Metadata read mode

The MetadataReadMode can be set to All, which will read everything including the metadata header, essence container and all system and essence elements. MxfReader will always attempt to use the RIP to hop through the file, if it's available. If you're just after the metadata, FooterOnly will read only the footer metadata set which should be final. Otherwise, HeaderOnly will only read the header partition; (FromFooterAll is not used at this time).

To-do

• Currently, the API is file-oriented. I'd like to change this to better support streams, e.g. InputStream, etc. This should be relatively cosmetic except for some places where I explicitly rely on an EOF.