Configuring Media Player in TIA Portal V13 and WinCC Unified

Overview

The Media Player control in the Siemens HMI engineering environment lets a WinCC runtime display video, audio, and animated sequences inside a screen. The control is delivered as a stock ActiveX / OCX object in WinCC Professional / WinCC Advanced V13 SP1 and as a native RT object in WinCC Unified (V17 and later, documented online for V21). Engineers use it to deliver animated process documentation, video-based operator guidance, training loops, and machine acceptance recordings on a Comfort Panel, Unified Comfort Panel, or WinCC Runtime Professional PC.

This reference walks through both engineering paths so a project that started in TIA V13 can be migrated forward without losing the original screen layout, and so new projects in TIA V17/V18/V19/V20/V21 can use the newer Unified control. Where the dialogs and property sheets differ between versions, the differences are called out explicitly.

Prerequisites

Confirm the installed TIA Portal build under Help > About and the WinCC package version under Help > Installed Software. An exact version number is essential when filing a Siemens Support Request (SR) because the Media Player control was re-implemented between V13 and V17.

Adding the Media Player in TIA Portal V13 (WinCC Professional / Advanced)

1. Open the TIA Portal project and expand the HMI device in the project tree.
2. Open Screens > Add new screen (or select an existing screen) to launch the HMI screen editor.
3. In the screen editor, switch from the "Toolbox" task card to the Controls task card (the right-hand palette in the editor). The Controls palette ships with stock WinCC controls: HTML browser, Media Player, PDF view, Sm@rtClient view, WinCC Channel Diagnostics, Alarm view, Trend view, Function trend, Ruler, Slider, Gauge, Bar, and others.
4. Drag the Media Player icon onto the canvas. A rectangular placeholder object is dropped at the cursor position; the HMI editor assigns the next free control name (Control_1, Control_2, …).
5. Resize the placeholder to the target display area. Comfort Panel multi-touch screens should keep a minimum touch target of 60 × 60 pixels; the Media Player has no native touch interaction with the video content (it is a display surface, not an input element), so the bounding box can be reduced to fit the visible frame size.
6. Open the Inspector window (View > Inspector or Ctrl+Shift+I) and select the Media Player instance to expose the configuration properties.

Configuring the Media Source in TIA V13

The Media Player control exposes a small set of configuration properties in the Inspector. The critical properties for playback are listed in the table below.

To make the file path dynamic, link the URL property to an HMI tag of type WString via the dynamic value list. A common pattern is to set the tag with a script that selects a video from a recipe or a tag-prefix list, for example:

// VBScript on a button "Play help video"
SmartTags("MediaURL") = "\" & "/media/help_" & SmartTags("LanguageID") & ".wmv"
ActivateScreen "Help", 0

When the URL tag is updated and the screen is visible, the control re-loads and plays the new file. On a Comfort Panel the path must use forward slashes and the file must be transferred to the panel's storage location by including the path under HMI device > Files in the file system in the project tree and adding the asset to the load transfer list.

Adding the Media Player in WinCC Unified (V17 / V18 / V19 / V20 / V21)

WinCC Unified replaces the OCX-based controls with native HTML5-aware RT objects. The Media Player is documented in the Siemens online help under Configuring screens (RT Unified) > Overview of screen objects (RT Unified) > Controls (RT Unified) > Media Player (RT Unified) (Siemens TIA Portal docs — Media Player (RT Unified)).

1. Open the TIA Portal project and the WinCC Unified HMI device.
2. Open the screen editor and open the Toolbox task card; in Unified the Media Player is grouped under Controls > Media.
3. Drag the Media Player object onto the canvas. The object uses a single configurable surface (no OCX border chrome).
4. Select the placed object. The Inspector window shows the configuration tree.

Configuring the URL in WinCC Unified

1. In the Inspector window click Properties > General > URL. This is the documented entry point in the Unified editor (see the Media Player (RT Unified) online help).
2. Enter the URL. Supported schemes are:
   • file://<path> — local file on the Unified Comfort Panel or Unified PC runtime. Forward slashes are required.
   • http://<host>/<path> / https://<host>/<path> — stream from a web server reachable from the RT device.
   • rtsp://<host>/<path> — IP camera stream (only on Unified PC runtime; Comfort Panels do not support RTSP).
3. Click Dynamic value to switch the URL to a tag. The dynamic value accepts an HMI tag of type WString for runtime re-binding.
4. Set Autoplay, Loop, Show controls, and Muted under Properties > General.
5. Under Properties > Appearance configure the display mode (contain / cover / fill) and z-order with respect to other screen objects.
6. Under Properties > Events wire the OnEnded, OnError, and OnPlay events to script functions for fault handling and chained playback.

To dynamically change the URL at runtime from a Unified script:

// JavaScript in a button "Operator training video"
export function Play_TrainingVideo() {
  HMIRuntime.UI.Screens[1].Items("MediaPlayer_1").PropertyFlask = {
    URL: "file:///media/training_" + Tags("LanguageID").Read() + ".mp4"
  };
  HMIRuntime.UI.Screens[1].Items("MediaPlayer_1").Play();
}

Note that the script uses the Unified Client API; on a Unified Comfort Panel the call is local, on a WinCC Unified PC runtime it is a remote call to the SCADA node.

Deploying the Media Files to the Runtime

Compiling, Loading, and Verification

1. Compile the HMI: Right-click HMI device > Compile > Software (rebuild all). A clean compile is required before the load dialog will offer the latest screen and tag list.
2. Simulate the screen in the HMI Runtime Simulator (Start simulation on the toolbar) to validate the URL and the file path locally. The simulator runs on the engineering PC and uses the same codec stack as a PC runtime, so this is the fastest way to catch URL typos and unsupported codecs.
3. Load the project to the runtime target: Online > Extended download to device for an HMI panel, or the standard download for a PC runtime. The dialog must list all referenced media files in the "Files for transfer" list — if a referenced file is missing, TIA Portal issues the warning "File <name> is not available in the project" and skips the file. Resolve by re-adding the file or by clearing the reference.
4. On the runtime target, navigate to the screen that hosts the Media Player. Verify that:
   • Video starts automatically (if Autoplay is enabled).
   • Audio plays at the configured volume (if not muted).
   • Switching the dynamic URL tag changes the played clip without restarting the screen.
   • Events OnPlay, OnPause, OnEnded, and OnError fire as expected (place a script that sets a status tag and watch the tag in the online tag monitor).
5. Capture a screenshot of the runtime for the commissioning report and log the firmware build, panel type, file size, codec, and bit rate of every deployed video.

Supported Codecs and Container Formats

Troubleshooting Matrix

Migration from TIA V13 Classic to WinCC Unified

Projects that used the OCX Media Player in V13 SP1 must be re-engineered in Unified. The migration is a manual operation; the HMI screen is reused but the control instance must be replaced. Recommended steps:

1. Open the V13 project in the latest TIA Portal (V17 or later); confirm the project upgrade completes without errors.
2. Open the screen that contained the Media Player. The legacy OCX is rendered as a placeholder with a "legacy" marker.
3. Delete the legacy Media Player and insert the new Unified Media Player from the Toolbox.
4. Map the V13 properties (URL, Auto start, Loop, Mute, Volume) to the corresponding Unified properties; V13 had no concept of OnError or OnEnded events, so design the event handling afresh in the Unified script environment.
5. Re-test on a Unified Comfort Panel or Unified PC runtime target.

Field-Commissioning Checklist

• Record the TIA Portal version, WinCC edition, and installed SP / Update level in the project cover sheet.
• Record the runtime target type, firmware version, and serial number.
• For every media file: container, video codec, audio codec, resolution, frame rate, bit rate, file size, MD5 checksum, source author, and approval status.
• Verify the URL scheme is supported on the runtime target (file://, http(s)://, or rtsp://).
• Confirm licensing on the runtime (WinCC RT Professional or WinCC Advanced RT).
• Capture a screenshot of each media player on the live HMI for the FAT/SAT report.
• Document the password / write protection of the SD card or USB media if used.

FAQ