Synchronous way to convert byte array to image in Windows Phone 8.1

Question

I have a StorageFile with serialized music information which I deserialize when starting the app. I need to store albumart picture, but because BitmapImage can't be serialized I use a byte array. I want to bind the byte array (which is part of a ObservableCollection) to the Source of an image. For this to work I need to convert the byte array to a BitmapImage using an IValueConverter.

My problem is that an IValueConverter is a synchronous method and I can't seem to find a synchronous way to convert a byte array in a BitmapImage...

I tried this:

byte[] imagedata = tag.Pictures[0].PictureData;
Debug.WriteLine("Byte array length: " + imagedata.Length.ToString());

using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(imagedata))
{
    // create IRandomAccessStream
    var albumartstream = ms.AsRandomAccessStream();
    albumartstream.Seek(0);

    // create bitmap and assign
    BitmapImage albumart = new BitmapImage();
    albumart.SetSourceAsync(albumartstream);

    // return
    return albumart;
}

This throws an exception:

The application called an interface that was marshalled for a different thread

The only way to solve this is to use a Dispatcher which makes the code asynchronous and therefor incompatible with the IValueConverter...

What should I do to make this work?

Answer 1

I have a similar byte array and I wish to set it as image source. I am being able to display the image using BitmapImage.

But, binding is not working. Could you please specify how to bind the byte array?