Threading with WPF Images (System.InvalidOperationException) - wpf

Question

I'm using a thread to get an image from a website and shoot it back to the parent form (WPF) to display. I ran into an issue and have managed to debug it to this example:
public void Watch()
{
while (true)
{
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(1, 1);
BitmapImage bmpImg = new BitmapImage();
this.SetImage(bmp, bmpImg);
}
}
public delegate void SetImageCallback(Bitmap bmp, BitmapImage bmpImg);
private void SetImage(Bitmap bmp, BitmapImage bmpImg)
{
if (!this.imgVideo.Dispatcher.CheckAccess())
{
SetImageCallback del = new SetImageCallback(SetImage);
this.Dispatcher.Invoke(del, bmp, bmpImg);
}
else
{
Bitmap bitmap = bmp;
BitmapImage bitmapImage = bmpImg;
}
}
Keep in mind that Watch() runs on its own thread. If I use the bitmap object (which I can use with PictureBox in Window Forms) everything works great. That is, debugging this code, when I get to the line
Bitmap bitmap = bmp;
And inspect the variable bmp, everything is great and works as expected. HOWEVER, when I get to the next line
BitmapImage bitmapImage = bmpImg;
And inpsect the variable bmpImage, I get a ton of System.InvalidOperationException's. When this is in practice and gets assigned to a WPF Image object, it says that "The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it." Why am I running into this issue with WPF BitmapImages (which are required to set an ImageSource) but NOT in Windows Forms Bitmap objects (which can be used to set a PictureBox)? How do I fix this in WPF?

Answer 1

Most objects in WPF are of this category: they cannot be shared between different threads. However certain low-level resources such as brushes and bitmaps are derived from a special class called Freezable that if frozen can be shared between different threads. Of course once an object is frozen is can no longer be modified in any way. To freeze a freezable object simply call Freeze and this will prevent cross-thread exceptions.

Answer 2

Instead of
if (!this.imgVideo.Dispatcher.CheckAccess())
{
SetImageCallback del = new SetImageCallback(SetImage);
this.Dispatcher.Invoke(del, bmp, bmpImg);
}
try using :
if (!App.Current.Dispatcher.CheckAccess())
App.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action<CustomObject>(SetImage),CustomeObjectInstance );
Here Cutom object will be a wrapper class wrapping
Bitmap bmp, BitmapImage bmpImg
Obviously, your SetImage signature will change to
SetImage(CutomObject custObj)
I have not tested the code but this may solve the issue.
Let us know if this works so that some poor soul can be benefitted from this post.
All the best!
Sid