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Extract images from mp4 using java

I want to write code in java to extract the images in a mp4 file. Kindly guide me how to go about it. I am totally clueless.

Java SE has Java Media Framework (JMF) but it provides support for only a few video formats, not including MPEG-4.
Of course, you have some third-party choices to achieve your goal. One of them is Jffmpeg. It is an extension to JMF which contains support for MPEG-4.
Xuggler is another good choice with GPL/LGPL license. It works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Xuggler is an open-source third party library you can use to do this. Read through the API's. and sample code.

The Java Media Framework isn't cross platform?

I'm using JMF in my Java GUI and before downloading the packages from Oracle, it asks you which version you want:
Linux
Solaris SPARC
Windows
Does this mean my Java (cross-platform by nature) application WON'T be cross platform any more?

There is a 100% pure Java implementation, but that does not support all codecs and doesn't run as efficiently as the version using native code. So, effectively, the JMF is not fully cross-platform.
The developers justify this by considering the JMF an extension to the Java platform itself rather than just a library: just like you have to download a specific JVM for your platform, but can reuse your source and object code unchanged, you need a platform-dependent JMF implementation, but the JMF clients can be reused unchanged.

JMF isn't a pure Java API, so it'll only work where it's officially ported.

how to stream live audio video using Java EE?

I wanted to stream live audio & video from one client to another over the internet, I'm using WebSphere community edition as my server, and I'm supposed to do this task using Java EE technologies.
I'm doing this as a part of the project for IBM TGMC.
Which particular API or tech is best suited for my purpose?
I googled for JMF, but heard that it's a bit complex and old. Is there a better alternative?

JMF is complex because media handling is complex - there is no 'magic wand'. It is not only old but abandoned.
JMF works just fine for the codecs it supports, but those codecs are not as compressive as some that were developed later. OTOH if you can develop an encoder/decoder for the codec of interest, it should be relatively simple to get JMF to use it - JMF supports new codecs via the SPI.
No there is no better alternative that I know about. FMJ was designed as an alternative to JMF, but last I heard, it had also been abandoned.

How to stream mp3 using pure Java

Is it possible to stream mp3s using pure Java?
If so, what are the best resources to implement this.
If not, are any other music formats streamable using Java only?

As Mario says, JMF - Java Media Framework is a good starting point.
What Mario does not say is that Sun killed MP3 support since 2.1.1b as detailed in the "My Lost Streaming MP3 Article" blog entry.
So you need to add a plugin to support MP3:
the JMF Formats list does mention MP3 (under the ACM -- Window's Audio Compression Manager support -- section), but only for Windows, and not with JMF alone.

You could use MP3SPI from JavaZoom to stream MP3 files
As it says on their webpage:
"MP3SPI is a Java Service Provider Interface that adds MP3 (MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 1/2/3) audio format support for Java Platform. It supports streaming, ID3v2 frames, Equalizer, .... "
People have already used it to build applicatons that stream from Shoutcast
Hope this helps

I think you can use the Java Media Framework from SUN to achieve what you want. Being this the official SUN implementation this would be the way to go. I am pretty sure that the actual streaming is native though.
I looked in the FAQ and I found the following answer:
Q: Will JMF 2.1.1 support streaming?
Yes. JMF 2.1.1 provides RTP/RTSP
streaming support.
JMF 2.1.1 also provides HTTP and FTP
streaming support on the client side.

Video Thumbnails in Java

I want to generate a thumbnail preview of videos in Java. I'm mostly JMF and video manipulation alienated.
Is there an easy way to do it?
What about codecs? Will I have to deal with it?
Any video type is suported? (including Quicktime)

Well, since you're not stuck with JMF, have you considered Xuggler? Xuggler is a Java API that uses FFmpeg under the covers to do all video decoding and encoding. It's free and LGPL licensed.
In fact, we have a tutorial that shows How to Make Thumbnails of an Existing File

There seems to be a few examples out there that are far better than what I was going to send you.
See http://krishnabhargav.blogspot.com/2008/02/processing-videos-in-java.html.
I'd agree with Stu, however. If you can find a way to get what you want using some command-line tools (and run them using Commons-Exec), you might have a better overall solution than depending on what is essentially the Sanskrit of Java extensions.

Are you sure that JMF is right for you? Unfortunately, it is not in particularly good shape. Unless you are already committed to JMF, you very well may want to investigate alternatives. Wikipedia has a decent overview at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Media_Framework
Many JMF developers have complained that it supports few codecs and formats in modern use. Its all-Java version, for example, cannot play MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Windows Media, RealMedia, most QuickTime movies, Flash content newer than Flash 2, and needs a plug-in to play the ubiquitous MP3 format. While the performance packs offer the ability to use the native platform's media library, they're only offered for Linux, Solaris and Windows. Furthermore, Windows-based JMF developers can unwittingly think JMF provides support for more formats than it does, and be surprised when their application is unable to play those formats on other platforms.
Another knock against JMF is Sun's seeming abandonment of it. The API has not been touched since 1999, and the last news item on JMF's home page was posted in November 2004.
While JMF is built for extensibility, there are few such third-party extensions.
Furthermore, editing functionality in JMF is effectively non-existent, which makes a wide range of potential applications impractical.

My own server-side app shells out to FFmpeg to do the encoding. I'm 98.42% sure FFmpeg does snapshots, too. (It is an all singing, all dancing beast of a program. The command line options alone could fill a book.)
Check it out: ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu

There is a relatively newer option called JThumbnailer that you find here: https://github.com/makbn/JThumbnail
JThumbnail is a Java library for creating Thumbnails of common types
of file including .doc, .docx, .pdf , .mp4 and etc. full list