Android: MediaPlayer gapless or seamless Video Playing

Question

I can play the videos fine back to back by implementing the OnCompletionListener to set the data source to a different file. No problems there. I call reset() and prepare() just fine.

What I haven't been able to figure out, is how to get rid of the 1-2 second gap screen flicker between the data source change and the new video starting. The gap shows a black screen, and I haven't found any way to get around it.

I've tried setting the background of the parent view to an image, but it manages to bypass that. Even if the SurfaceView is transparent (which it is by default.) I've also tried to have the multiple video files played at the same time, and switching mediaplayer's display when one ends and the other is supposed to start.

The last thing I tried, was to have a second view in the background that I show temporarily while the video is "preparing" and removing it when the video is ready to start. That also wasn't very seamless.

Is there any way to get rid of that gap. Running a video in a loop works wonderfully and does exactly what I want with the exception that it's looking through the same video instead of playing a different one that I pick.

main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:background="@drawable/background"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">
    <SurfaceView
        android:id="@+id/surface"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_gravity="center">
    </SurfaceView>
</FrameLayout>

Player.java

public class Player extends Activity implements
        OnCompletionListener, MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener, SurfaceHolder.Callback {
        private MediaPlayer player;
    private SurfaceView surface;
    private SurfaceHolder holder;

    public void onCreate(Bundle b) {
        super.onCreate(b);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        surface = (SurfaceView)findViewById(R.id.surface);
        holder = surface.getHolder();
        holder.addCallback(this);
        holder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS);    
    }

    public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer arg0) {
        File clip = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(),"file2.mp4");
        playVideo(clip.getAbsolutePath());
    }
    public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mediaplayer) {
        holder.setFixedSize(player.getVideoWidth(), player.getVideoHeight());
        player.start();
    }

    private void playVideo(String url) {
        try {
            File clip = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(),"file1.mp4");

            if (player == null) {
                player = new MediaPlayer();
                player.setScreenOnWhilePlaying(true);
            }
            else {
                player.stop();
                player.reset();
            }
            player.setDataSource(url);
            player.setDisplay(holder);
            player.setOnPreparedListener(this);
            player.prepare();
            player.setOnCompletionListener(this);
        }
        catch (Throwable t) {
            Log.e("ERROR", "Exception Error", t);
        }
    }

Answer 1

I too have the same problem as outlined by below link

VideoView Disappears for a second when video is changed

But this issue wont occur if you try using Android 4.0+ (ICS). I started to port VideoView.java and MediaPlayer.java from 4.0 to my app , but thats seems complex and no luck till now. Basically it seems a bug in the native code of the older versions.

Answer 2

after too much wasted time trying to figure out how to play consecutive videos without the "gap", i'm leaning towards impossible. unless of course you're able to dig down to the native level and implement your own player, Android's media player simply doesn't support seamless playback as of the moment.

Answer 3

I've not done this with video playback on a MediaPlayer but I've done something similar with audio files when a stream gets interrupted because a user has switched from 3G to Wifi.

I think the delay that you're seeing is whilst the media player is buffering the input file. So maybe you can define both players at the start? You should do define the datasource and prepare both players but only start one of them.

Then in your onCompletionListener you can flip them over instead of resetting the existing one and setting a new datasource.

  player.release();
  player = flipPlayer;
  flipPlayer = null;
  player.start();

Obviously you'd need to either use a different onPreparedListener for flipPlayer or take the player.start() out of the onPrepare. (Since you're calling it synchronously I wouldn't have thought this was an issue).