Multimedia Overview

A set of APIs for working with audio, video and camera devices.

Multimedia support in Qt is provided by the Qt Multimedia module. The Qt Multimedia module provides a rich feature set that enables you to easily take advantage of a platform’s multimedia capabilities, such as media playback and the use of camera devices.

Features

Here are some things you can do with the Qt Multimedia APIs:

• Access raw audio devices for input and output.

• Play low latency sound effects.

• Play media files in playlists (such as compressed audio or video files).

• Record audio and compress it.

• Use a camera, including viewfinder, image capture, and movie recording

• Decode audio media files into memory for processing.

Multimedia Components

The Qt Multimedia APIs are categorized into three main components. More information specific to each component is available in the overview pages. You can also take a look at some recipes .

• Audio Overview

• Video Overview

• Camera Overview

Multimedia Recipes

For some quick recipes, see this table:

Use case	Examples	QML Types	C++ Classes
Playing a sound effect		SoundEffect	QSoundEffect
Playing encoded audio (MP3, AAC etc)	player	MediaPlayer	QMediaPlayer
Playing raw audio data with low latency	audiosource , spectrum		QAudioSink
Accessing raw audio input data	spectrum , audiosource		QAudioSource
Recording encoded audio data	audiorecorder	CaptureSession , AudioInput , MediaRecorder	QMediaCaptureSession , QAudioInput , QMediaRecorder
Discovering audio and video devices	audiodevices	MediaDevices , audioDevice , cameraDevice	QMediaDevices , QAudioDevice , QCameraDevice
Video Playback	player , mediaplayer	MediaPlayer , VideoOutput , Video	QMediaPlayer , QVideoWidget , QGraphicsVideoItem
Capturing audio and video	camera , recorder	CaptureSession , Camera , AudioInput VideoOutput	QMediaCaptureSession , QCamera , QAudioInput , QVideoWidget
Capturing photos	camera , recorder	CaptureSession , Camera , ImageCapture	QMediaCaptureSession , QCamera , QImageCapture
Capturing movies	camera , recorder	CaptureSession , Camera , MediaRecorder	QMediaCaptureSession , QCamera , QMediaRecorder

Limitations

The Qt Multimedia APIs build upon the multimedia framework of the underlying platform. This can mean that support for various codecs, or containers will vary between machines. This support depends on what the end user has installed.

Changes from Previous Versions

If you previously used Qt Multimedia in Qt 5, see Changes to Qt Multimedia for more information on what has changed, and what you might need to change when porting code to Qt 6.

Reference Documentation

QML Types

The QML types are accessed by using:

import QtMultimedia

Multimedia Classes

qaudio.html	The QAudio namespace contains enums used by the audio classes.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioBuffer	The QAudioBuffer class represents a collection of audio samples with a specific format and sample rate.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioDecoder	The QAudioDecoder class implements decoding audio.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioDevice	The QAudioDevice class provides an information about audio devices and their functionality.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioFormat	The QAudioFormat class stores audio stream parameter information.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioInput	Represents an input channel for audio.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioOutput	Represents an output channel for audio.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioSink	The QAudioSink class provides an interface for sending audio data to an audio output device.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QAudioSource	The QAudioSource class provides an interface for receiving audio data from an audio input device.
QPlatformAudioSink	The QPlatformAudioSink class is a base class for audio backends.
QPlatformAudioSource	The QPlatformAudioSource class provides access for QAudioSource to access the audio device provided by the plugin.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QSoundEffect	The QSoundEffect class provides a way to play low latency sound effects.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QCamera	The QCamera class provides interface for system camera devices.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QCameraFormat	The QCameraFormat class describes a video format supported by a camera device.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QCameraDevice	The QCameraDevice class provides general information about camera devices.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QImageCapture	The QImageCapture class is used for the recording of media content.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QMediaPlayer	The QMediaPlayer class allows the playing of a media files.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QMediaDevices	The QMediaDevices class provides information about available multimedia input and output devices.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QMediaFormat	Describes an encoding format for a multimedia file or stream.
QMediaTimeRange.Interval	The QMediaTimeRange::Interval class represents a time interval with integer precision.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QMediaTimeRange	The QMediaTimeRange class represents a set of zero or more disjoint time intervals.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QMediaCaptureSession	The QMediaCaptureSession class allows capturing of audio and video content.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QMediaRecorder	The QMediaRecorder class is used for encoding and recording a capture session.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QVideoFrame	The QVideoFrame class represents a frame of video data.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QVideoFrameFormat	The QVideoFrameFormat class specifies the stream format of a video presentation surface.
PySide6.QtMultimedia.QVideoSink	The QVideoSink class represents a generic sink for video data.
PySide6.QtMultimediaWidgets.QGraphicsVideoItem	The QGraphicsVideoItem class provides a graphics item which display video produced by a QMediaPlayer or QCamera.
PySide6.QtMultimediaWidgets.QVideoWidget	The QVideoWidget class provides a widget which presents video produced by a media object.