Question

I save a video, test.mp4, in my project’s res/raw directory. I have my SurfaceView declared as such:

  <SurfaceView android:id="@+id/surface"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="center">
  </SurfaceView>

Then, in my activity’s onCreate () method, I have the following:

private MediaPlayer mp;
private SurfaceView view;
private SurfaceHolder holder;

/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    view = (SurfaceView) findViewById (R.id.surface);
    holder = view.getHolder();
    holder.setKeepScreenOn (true); 
    mp = MediaPlayer.create(this.getBaseContext (), R.raw.test);
    mp.setDisplay (holder);
    mp.setLooping (true);
    mp.start();
}

I don’t get why it doesn’t show the video, even if I set the display. I’m running on API 7 (2.1.1) and I get the audio. I need a Video-only type of interface, without the control panel. As far as I know, VideoView, although simpler than MediaPlayer, has a built-in control layer. Also, I don’t see a way to use VideoView on a resource. If there are workarounds for these two issues I have, or if my assumption of VideoView is wrong, I’d appreciate being told.

---

UPDATE: I am currently using the VideoView class. My assumption really was wrong about automatically having a UI control panel. Still, I have NOT been able to play videos stored in res/raw via the MediaPlayer class; it always fails when I call prepare () or the audio plays, but the video doesn’t. Because of this, my question still stands.

If anyone runs into my question about how I used VideoView, let me save you some trouble in looking for how to retrieve a video in res/raw. The following snippet assumes you have a VideoView with an id of view in a layout file, main.xml:

public class generalActivity extends Activity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate (Bundle icicle) {
        super.onCreate (icicle);
        this.setContent (R.layout.main);

        // You know the that view is an instance of VideoView, so cast it as such
        VideoView v = (VideoView) this.findViewById (R.id.view);

        // This is the name of the video WITHOUT the file extension.
        // In this example, the name of the video is 'test.mp4'
        String videoName = "test"

        // You build the URI to your video here
        StringBuilder uriPathBuilder = new StringBuilder ();
        uriPathBuilder.append ("android.resource://");
        uriPathBuilder.append (this.getPackageName ());
        uriPathBuilder.append (File.separator);
        uriPathBuilder.append ("raw");
        uriPathBuilder.append (File.separator);
        uriPathBuilder.append (videoName);
        Uri uri = Uri.parse (uriPathBuilder.toString ());

        view.setVideoURI (uri);
        view.start ();
    }
}

Here’s the link that I used as a reference to get the uri path: reference link

I’m leaving this open because I asked if I could play video in res/raw using MediaPlayer, and not VideoView. Even if I got it to work the way I wanted using VideoView, as far as I know, there are still things MediaPlayer can do that VideoView can’t. I could be wrong though, so if you just need to show a video and don’t need anything advanced, I’m pretty sure VideoView will suffice.

Oh, and thanks to @Ravi for all the help.

Answer 1

I think a better approach would be to use VideoView instead of MediaPlayer, as it wraps the player, the surface and the holder for you, if you fail to see the video in VideoView, then maybe the video file cannot be played on android.