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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T04:05:46+00:00

I’m having great difficulty getting my Android application to play videos from the SD

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I’m having great difficulty getting my Android application to play videos from the SD card. It doesn’t matter what size, bitrate, video format, or any other setting I can think of, neither the emulator nor my G1 will play anything I try to encode. I’ve also tried a number of videos from the web (various video formats, bitrates, with and without audio tracks, etc.), and none of those work either.

All I keep getting is a dialog box that says:

“Cannot play video”

“Sorry, this video cannot be played.”

There are errors reported in LogCat, but I don’t understand them and I’ve tried searching the Internet for further explanations without any luck. See below:

03-30 05:34:26.807: ERROR/QCOmxcore(51): OMXCORE API :  Free Handle 390d4
03-30 05:34:26.817: ERROR/QCOmxcore(51):  Unloading the dynamic library for OMX.qcom.video.decoder.avc
03-30 05:34:26.817: ERROR/PlayerDriver(51): Command PLAYER_PREPARE completed with an error or info PVMFErrNoResources
03-30 05:34:26.857: ERROR/MediaPlayer(14744): error (1, -15)03-30 05:34:26.867: ERROR/MediaPlayer(14744): Error (1,-15)

Sometimes I also get this:

03-30 05:49:49.267: ERROR/PlayerDriver(51): Command PLAYER_INIT completed with an error or info PVMFErrResource
03-30 05:49:49.267: ERROR/MediaPlayer(19049): error (1, -17)
03-30 05:49:49.347: ERROR/MediaPlayer(19049): Error (1,-17)

Here is the code I’m using (in my onCreate() method):

this.setContentView(R.layout.main);
//just a simple VideoView loading files from the SD card
VideoView myIntroView = (VideoView) this.findViewById(R.id.VideoView01);
MediaController mc = new MediaController(this);
myIntroView.setMediaController(mc);
myIntroView.setVideoPath("/sdcard/test.mp4");
myIntroView.requestFocus();
myIntroView.start();

Please help!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Okay, here goes. The video I’ve been working on in Adobe Premiere is supposed to be 480×800 (WxH), but I have the Adobe Media Encoder output the sequence as an “Uncompressed Microsoft AVI” using the “UYVY” video codec, 24fps frame rate, progressive, square pixels, and dimensions: 720×800 (WxH). This outputs a rather large file with 120px black borders on either side of the video content. I then take the video into Handbrake 0.9.4 and use the following settings (I started with the Regular->Normal preset):

    Container: MP4 File
Large file size: [un-Checked]
Web-optimized: [un-Checked]
iPod 5G support: [un-Checked]

Width: 320 (this is key, any higher than 320 and it won’t work)
Height: 528
Keep Aspect Ratio: [Checked]
Anamorphic: None

Crop Left: 120
Crop Right: 120

Everything under the "Video Filter" tab set to "Off"

Video Codec: H.264(x264)
Framerate: same as source
2-Pass Encoding: [Checked]
Turbo first pass: [un-Checked]
Avg Bitrate: 384

Create chapter markers: [un-Checked]

Reference Frames: 2
Mixed References: [un-Checked]
B-Frames: 0
Motion Estimation Method: Uneven Multi-Hexagon
Sub-pixel Motion Estimation: 9
Motion Estimation Range: 16
Analysis: Default
8x8 DCT: [un-Checked]
CABAC Entropy Coding: [un-Checked]
No Fast-P-Skip: [un-Checked]
No DCT-Decimate: [un-Checked]
Deblocking: Default, Default
Psychovisual Rate Distortion: [MAX]

    My main problem was that I was trying to output an mp4 file with 480×800 (WxH) dimensions. After changing the width to 320 (higher values didn’t work), yet keeping the proper aspect ratio, the output video now plays without errors. I hope this helps someone else with a similar problem.

    Side note: I wish the Android video restrictions were better documented.

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