Home/ Questions/Q 7732351
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-01T06:42:33+00:00

I have an application thats main goal is to play a specific video file.

  • 0

I have an application thats main goal is to play a specific video file.

it plays the video correctly sometimes. But other times it gives me this error:

03-21 14:52:36.181: I/AwesomePlayer(119): 
setDataSource_l('/data/data/my.package.name/files/MyMovie.mp4')
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612): Unable to open content: /data/data/my.package.name/files/MyMovie.mp4
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612): java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The surface has been released
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.media.MediaPlayer._setVideoSurface(Native Method)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.media.MediaPlayer.setDisplay(MediaPlayer.java:633)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.widget.VideoView.openVideo(VideoView.java:222)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.widget.VideoView.access$2000(VideoView.java:49)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.widget.VideoView$6.surfaceCreated(VideoView.java:465)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.view.SurfaceView.updateWindow(SurfaceView.java:533)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.view.SurfaceView.access$000(SurfaceView.java:81)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.view.SurfaceView$3.onPreDraw(SurfaceView.java:169)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.view.ViewTreeObserver.dispatchOnPreDraw(ViewTreeObserver.java:590)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performTraversals(ViewRootImpl.java:1617)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.view.ViewRootImpl.handleMessage(ViewRootImpl.java:2442)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4424)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
03-21 14:52:36.196: W/VideoView(26612):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
03-21 14:52:36.196: D/VideoView(26612): Error: 1,0

I am using the prepared listener to call start like this:

mVideoView.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
    @Override
    public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer arg0) {
        mVideoView.start();

    }
});

And I set the data source with this:

file = new File(this.getFilesDir() + File.separator + VIDEO_FILE_NAME);
mVideoView.setVideoPath(file.getAbsolutePath());

I know for certain that the file does exist and is the proper format.

My application has the ability to be launched from an alarm trigger. It seems to only be a problem when the trigger fires and launches my app while the devices screen is turned off(my app will turn the screen on with a wake lock). If I manually launch the app, or the trigger happens with the screen on the video plays fine. This error is also only occuring on the Galaxy Nexus. I can run the exact same code on a Nexus S(as well as a long list of others) and it starts fine every time.

Does anyone know of anything specific to the Galaxy Nexus or ICS that could cause this behavior? And are there any suggestions for what I could try to fix?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    UThis is connected to your SurfaceView.
    Make sure you don’t touch the SurfaceView after you have called prepare on you MediaPlayer and that it is visible. In your case where you try to wake up the screen make sure that everything happens in the correct order. So preparing the MediaPlayer for playback is the very last thing which your app should do. It could be that the prepare/playback is initiated prior to the app being fully awake, causing the app to attempt to manipulate the SurfaceView.

    The follow code example illustrates how to trigger that kind of exception:

       private void setupVideo(String file){
      ...
      mSurfaceView = (SurfaceView) findViewById(R.id.surface);
      mHolder = mSurfaceView.getHolder(); // DON'T TOUCH BEHIND THIS POINT
      mHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS);
      mMediaPlayer.setDisplay(mHolder);
      mMediaPlayer.setOnPreparedListener(this);
      mMediaPlayer.prepare();
   }
   @Override
   public void onPrepared(final MediaPlayer mp) {
      mSurfaceView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); // THIS WILL CAUSE THE ERROR
      mp.start();
   }
    • 0