MediaSourceHandle
Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.
The MediaSourceHandle
interface of the Media Source Extensions API is a proxy for a MediaSource
that can be transferred from a dedicated worker back to the main thread and attached to a media element via its HTMLMediaElement.srcObject
property. MediaSource
objects are not transferable because they are event targets, hence the need for MediaSourceHandle
s.
It can be accessed via the MediaSource.handle
property.
Each MediaSource
object created inside a dedicated worker has its own distinct MediaSourceHandle
. The MediaSource.handle
getter will always return the MediaSourceHandle
instance specific to the associated dedicated worker MediaSource
instance. If the handle has already been transferred to the main thread using postMessage()
, the handle instance in the worker is technically detached and can't be transferred again.
Note: This feature is available in Web Workers
Instance properties
None.
Instance methods
None.
Examples
The handle
property can be accessed inside a dedicated worker and the resulting MediaSourceHandle
object is then transferred over to the thread that created the worker (in this case the main thread) via a postMessage()
call:
js
// Inside dedicated worker
let mediaSource = new MediaSource();
let handle = mediaSource.handle;
// Transfer the handle to the context that created the worker
postMessage({ arg: handle }, [handle]);
mediaSource.addEventListener("sourceopen", () => {
// Await sourceopen on MediaSource before creating SourceBuffers
// and populating them with fetched media — MediaSource won't
// accept creation of SourceBuffers until it is attached to the
// HTMLMediaElement and its readyState is "open"
});
Over in the main thread, we receive the handle via a message
event handler, attach it to a <video>
via its HTMLMediaElement.srcObject
property, and play
the video:
js
worker.addEventListener("message", (msg) => {
let mediaSourceHandle = msg.data.arg;
video.srcObject = mediaSourceHandle;
video.play();
});
Note: MediaSourceHandle
s cannot be successfully transferred into or via a shared worker or service worker.
Specifications
Specification |
---|
Media Source Extensions™ # mediasourcehandle |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser