How to create a streaming video player for large content?

Question

I spent hours working on creating a proper streaming video player in android and quite successful in creating a player that can play very small content like songs, trailers, etc. But the player exhibits unusual behavior for large content such as movies and TV shows, since it requires a lot of streaming, the player begins to lag behind such data. Can anyone help me crack a solution to this problem.

Thanks in Advance ...

Here is the source:

public class player extends Activity implements OnErrorListener, OnPreparedListener { /** Called when the activity is first created. */ private static final int UPDATE_FREQUENCY = 500; private static final int STEP_VALUE = 4000; private static final int DIALOG_KEY = 0; private TextView currentTime, duration; private VideoView videoView; private SeekBar seekbar = null; private View mediacontroller; private ProgressDialog progressDialog = null; private ImageButton playButton = null; private ImageButton prevButton = null; private ImageButton nextButton = null; private boolean isMoveingSeekBar = false; private boolean isMediaCtrlShown = false; private final Handler handler = new Handler(); private boolean isStarted = true; private String currentFile = "singham_320b"; private boolean isCustomSeekButtonClick = false; private boolean isPauseButtonClick = false; private static boolean isMyDialogShowing = false; private static int percentageBuffer = 0; private int mpCurrentPosition; int hh = 00, mm = 00, ss = 00, ms = 00; int i = 0; int previouPosition = 0; private Runnable onEverySecond=new Runnable() { public void run() { if (videoView!=null) { seekbar.setProgress(videoView.getCurrentPosition()); } if (!isPauseButtonClick) { mediacontroller.postDelayed(onEverySecond, 1000); } } }; private final Runnable updatePositionRunnable = new Runnable() { public void run() { updatePosition(); } }; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); setUpMyDialog(); showMyDialog(); videoView = (VideoView) findViewById(R.id.videoview); getWindow().clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FORCE_NOT_FULLSCREEN); getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN); seekbar = (SeekBar) findViewById(R.id.seekbar); currentTime = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.currentTime); playButton = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.play); prevButton = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.prev); nextButton = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.next); duration = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.duration); mediacontroller = findViewById(R.id.mediacontroller); videoView.setOnErrorListener(this); videoView.setOnPreparedListener(this); videoView.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() { @Override public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) { if (!isMediaCtrlShown) { mediacontroller.setVisibility(View.GONE); isMediaCtrlShown = true; } else { mediacontroller.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); isMediaCtrlShown = false; } return false; } }); Uri video = Uri.parse("http://wpc.1B42.edgecastcdn.net/001B42/mobile/songs/pyaar_ka_punchnama/life_sahi_hai_320b.mp4"); videoView.setVideoURI(video); seekbar.setOnSeekBarChangeListener(seekBarChanged); playButton.setOnClickListener(onButtonClick); nextButton.setOnClickListener(onButtonClick); prevButton.setOnClickListener(onButtonClick); } @Override public boolean onError(MediaPlayer mp, int what, int extra) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub return false; } public void calculateTime(int ms) { ss = ms / 1000; mm = ss / 60; ss %= 60; hh = mm / 60; mm %= 60; hh %= 24; } @Override public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) { dismissMyDialog(); videoView.start(); mediacontroller.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); isMediaCtrlShown = false; seekbar.setProgress(0); seekbar.setMax(videoView.getDuration()); ms = videoView.getDuration(); calculateTime(ms); duration.setText("" + hh + ":" + mm + ":" + ss); ms = videoView.getCurrentPosition(); calculateTime(ms); currentTime.setText("" + hh + ":" + mm + ":" + ss); playButton.setImageResource(android.R.drawable.ic_media_pause); updatePosition(); isStarted = true; mp.setOnBufferingUpdateListener(new OnBufferingUpdateListener() { // show updated information about the buffering progress @Override public void onBufferingUpdate(MediaPlayer mp, int percent) { Log.d(this.getClass().getName(), "percent: " + percent); percentageBuffer = percent; secondarySeekBarProgressUpdater(percent); // progress.setSecondaryProgress(percent); if (i == 0) { i = i + 1; previouPosition = mp.getCurrentPosition(); } else if (i == 1) { if (mp.getCurrentPosition() == previouPosition) { if (!isPauseButtonClick) { showMyDialog(); if (percent == 100) { dismissMyDialog(); } } } else { i = 0; previouPosition = 0; dismissMyDialog(); } } else if (isCustomSeekButtonClick) { isCustomSeekButtonClick = false; if (mpCurrentPosition == mp.getCurrentPosition()) { showMyDialog(); if (percent == 100) { dismissMyDialog(); } } else { dismissMyDialog(); } } } }); mp.setOnSeekCompleteListener(new OnSeekCompleteListener() { public void onSeekComplete(MediaPlayer mp) { if (mp.isPlaying()) { } else { onStart(); onPause(); onStart(); } } }); } private SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener seekBarChanged = new SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener() { @Override public void onStopTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) { isMoveingSeekBar = false; } @Override public void onStartTrackingTouch(SeekBar seekBar) { isMoveingSeekBar = true; } @Override public void onProgressChanged(SeekBar seekBar, int progress,boolean fromUser) { Log.e("",""+progress+""+percentageBuffer); if (fromUser) { isCustomSeekButtonClick = fromUser; videoView.seekTo(progress); mpCurrentPosition = progress; Log.e("OnSeekBarChangeListener", "onProgressChanged"); } if (isMoveingSeekBar) { videoView.seekTo(progress); Log.i("OnSeekBarChangeListener", "onProgressChanged"); } } }; private View.OnClickListener onButtonClick = new View.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) { switch (v.getId()) { case R.id.play: { if (videoView.isPlaying()) { handler.removeCallbacks(updatePositionRunnable); isPauseButtonClick = true; videoView.pause(); playButton.setImageResource(android.R.drawable.ic_media_play); } else { if (isStarted) { videoView.start(); isPauseButtonClick = false; playButton.setImageResource(android.R.drawable.ic_media_pause); updatePosition(); } else { startPlay(currentFile); isPauseButtonClick = false; videoView.start(); } } break; } case R.id.next: { int seekto = videoView.getCurrentPosition() + STEP_VALUE; if (seekto > videoView.getDuration()) seekto = videoView.getDuration(); videoView.pause(); videoView.seekTo(seekto); /* * try { Thread.sleep(15000); } catch (InterruptedException e) { * // TODO Auto-generated catch block e.printStackTrace(); } */ // player.pause(); videoView.start(); break; } case R.id.prev: { int seekto = videoView.getCurrentPosition() - STEP_VALUE; if (seekto < 0) seekto = 0; videoView.pause(); videoView.seekTo(seekto); // player.pause(); videoView.start(); break; } } } }; private void updatePosition() { handler.removeCallbacks(updatePositionRunnable); seekbar.setProgress(videoView.getCurrentPosition()); ms = videoView.getCurrentPosition(); calculateTime(ms); currentTime.setText("" + hh + ":" + mm + ":" + ss); handler.postDelayed(updatePositionRunnable, UPDATE_FREQUENCY); } private void startPlay(String file) { Log.i("Selected: ", file); // selelctedFile.setText(file); seekbar.setProgress(0); videoView.stopPlayback(); videoView.start(); seekbar.setMax(videoView.getDuration()); playButton.setImageResource(android.R.drawable.ic_media_pause); updatePosition(); isStarted = true; } void setUpMyDialog() { if (progressDialog == null) { progressDialog = (ProgressDialog) onCreateDialog(DIALOG_KEY); progressDialog = new ProgressDialog(player.this); progressDialog.setMessage("Loading..."); progressDialog.setProgressStyle(ProgressDialog.STYLE_SPINNER); } } void showMyDialog() { Log.e("showMyDialog***", "****" + isMyDialogShowing); if (!isMyDialogShowing) { isMyDialogShowing = true; Log.e("showMyDialog: true***", "****" + isMyDialogShowing); if (progressDialog != null && !progressDialog.isShowing()) { Log.e("showMyDialog: true***", "****progressDialog" + progressDialog.isShowing()); progressDialog.show(); } else if(progressDialog == null) { setUpMyDialog(); progressDialog.show(); } } } void dismissMyDialog() { Log.e("dismissMyDialog***", "****"); if (progressDialog != null && progressDialog.isShowing()) { progressDialog.dismiss(); progressDialog = null; isMyDialogShowing = false; } } void killMyDialog() { isMyDialogShowing = false; } private void secondarySeekBarProgressUpdater(int percent){ seekbar.setSecondaryProgress(percent); } 

Answer 1

My intuition says that you can ignore something by focusing on the player, especially since it is great for smaller content. Have you thought about checking the streaming server? If the server does not cope with the task of streaming large files, there is little that the player can do. In addition, you can adjust the packet size from the server to help the player control playback using the smaller “bites” (pardon puns) of the media at a time. Try using the free Apple Darwin streaming server. There is a version for Apache, Windows, and others, and it is very customizable. Get yourself a set of files of different sizes and try to determine at what size the playback will start with an error. This figure will give you a big clue to the question of where the problem is, be it the size of the server being transferred, the available memory in the Android environment, or elsewhere. Whatever the picture, try installing a smaller packet size from the server. This should give your player less work and hopefully improve playback.

You can get the Darwin server from various places on the Internet. Here is such a link . Wikipedia has useful information and some links for this server, find them here . Good luck with that.

Franc.