The MediaPlayer-Extended library is an API-compatible media player library for Android supporting exact seeking to frames, playback speed adjustment, and DASH playback. It strives to be a direct replacement for the Android MediaPlayer and VideoView components and builds upon the Android MediaExtractor and MediaCodec API components. It is very lightweight, easy to use, makes native code / NDK fiddling unnecessary, and works from Android 4.1 up.

A demo is available on the Google Play Store.

• Direct replacement for Android components
• Frame-exact seeking
• Playback speed adjustment
• Local files and network sources
• Supports all Android network protocols and media formats
• DASH support
• Lightweight (all components total to ~100kB)

For the GLES hardware accelerated view with zooming/panning, shader effects and frame grabbing, that was part of this library until v3.x, please check Spectaculum.

• v4.5.0
  • compile and target SDK updated to 33
  • published to Maven Central repository
  • upgraded Crashlytics in demo app for improved privacy
• v4.4.1: Fix loading of video without audio track (#114)
• v4.4.0
  • Cue API: addCue, removeCue, setOnCueListener to set cue points on the media timeline and fire events when they are passed during playback (#95)
  • Fix buffer level calculation (#80)
• v4.3.3: Stability improvements
  • Fix deadlock when calling stop or release on a dead player instance (#81)
  • Improve buffer level reporting (#80)
• v4.3.2: Stability improvements
  • Always release MediaExtractor instances
  • Drop finished segment downloads during release of DashMediaExtractor (#71)
  • Avoid invalid MediaPlayer method call sequence in VideoView (#70)
• v4.3.1: Fix DASH playback freeze, memory leaks and limit buffer update frequency
  • Fix DASH playback freeze on representation switch
  • Fix memory leaks from registered event listeners
  • Limit OnBufferUpdateListener call frequency to at most 1 Hz and only call it on percentage changes
• v4.3.0: Improved track index selection and seek accuracy
  • Added MediaPlayer#setDataSource(MediaSource source, int videoTrackIndex, int audioTrackIndex) and VideoView#setVideoSource(MediaSource source, int videoTrackIndex, int audioTrackIndex) to explicitly select track indices or pass MediaPlayer.TRACK_INDEX_AUTO for automatic selection, or MediaPlayer.TRACK_INDEX_NONE for no selection
  • The new track index selection methods can be used to bypass segmentation faults in some Samsung Android versions that happen with video thumbnail tracks (see issue #56)
  • Improved seek accuracy by taking the SampleOffset into account
  • Improved track index selection (stops reading tracks once all desired tracks are found which circumvents crashes on unsupported track types)
  • Fix crash on unsupported video tracks without width/height fields
• v4.2.2: Multiple leaks in release() fixed
  • All users of v4 are recommended to upgrade to this version!
• v4.2.2-rc2: Fix prepareAsync/release order
• v4.2.2-rc1: Fix Audio/Decoder/PlaybackThread leaks in release()
  • This version fixes a few serious leaks present since v4.0.0
• v4.2.1: Fix setSurface and playback loop audio sync
• v4.2.0: Playback until very end, setAudioStreamType, state checking
  • Playback video until the very last frame (previously, playback stopped when the audio stream stopped, which is sometimes shorter than the video)
  • Implement setAudioStreamType in MediaPlayer
  • Check states in MediaPlayer and throw IllegalStateException when methods are called in illegal states (similar to API MediaPlayer)
  • DASH fix: cache EOS detection in DashMediaExtractor
• v4.1.5: hotfix for playback stuttering after pause issue (#36)
• v4.1.4: hotfixes for MediaPlayer (release during prepare) and VideoView
  • pulled from Maven due to playback bug (#36)
• v4.1.3: hotfix for fatal crash when surface is destroyed during prepareAsync()
  • pulled from Maven due to playback bug (#36)
• v4.1.2: fix slowmotion audio playback on devices where mono audio is decoded to stereo audio
• v4.1.1: bugfixes in MediaPlayer and demo app
  • Support surround audio tracks
  • Throw exception when negative playback speed is set
  • Fix playback speed fluctuations on API >= 21
• v4.1.0: Buffering in MediaPlayer, many DASH improvements
  • Implement correct buffering in MediaPlayer, pause playback during buffering, and send MEDIA_INFO_BUFFERING_START (improves Android API compatibility)
  • DASH: configurable segment cache size on DashMediaExtractor and through DashSource (unchanged default is 100 megabytes)
  • DASH: Upgrade OkHttp from v2 to v3 (3.4.2)
  • DASH: Allow setting of custom OkHttpClient in DashSource and DashMediaExtractor (through the new SegmentManager)
  • DASH: Order segment download requests by priority (PTS)
  • DASH fix: memory was leaking for fragmented MP4 sources where fragment data was never freed
  • DASH fix: use DashSource headers for segment requests too (not just the MPD request)
  • DASH fix: various other fixes and improvements
• v4.0.2: bugfixes in MediaPlayer, VideoView, and demo app
  • VideoView: allow setting new video source while previous source is still preparing
  • MediaPlayer: correctly deliver buffer percentage in onBufferingUpdate
• v4.0.0: GLES components removed, license changed, stability improvements
  • GLES components have been migrated to the Spectaculum library
  • License changed from GPLv3 to Apache 2.0
  • stability improvements in VideoView
  • MediaPlayer.release() is now blocking until all resources are released
• v3.1.0: add seek modes from Android's MediaPlayer, bugfixes in the DASH MPD parser
• v3.0.0: Library renamed from ITEC MediaPlayer to MediaPlayer-Extended
  • Package renamed from at.aau.itec.android.mediaplayer to net.protyposis.android.mediaplayer
  • This version is functionally equivalent to v2.2.3. It is given a new major version because the changed package name might be considered an incompatible API change, which requires a new major version according to SemVer.
• v2.2.3: fix playback speed change during pause
• v2.2.2: correctly display rotated video and report rotated dimensions (on API21+, fixes issue #6)
• v2.2.1: play back all remaining buffered audio at the end of stream
• v2.2.0: playback performance improvements (less CPU load), audio-only playback support, bugfixes
• v2.1.0: add setVolume() to MediaPlayer, update Grade dependencies, update project files to Android Studio 2.0
• v2.0.0: API changed, improved Android API compatibility, improved decoder
  • smoother playback with less CPU time
  • add prepare()/prepareAsync() to MediaPlayer (similar to Android MediaPlayer, breaking change from v1, needs to be called after setting the datasource)
  • first frame not rendered automatically anymore (similar to Android MediaPlayer)
  • add looping functionality (setLooping/isLooping) to MediaPlayer (similar to Android MediaPlayer)
• v1.4.3: bugfixes for re-setting a data source on a video view, OnSeekListener called from wrong thread, and infinite loop when seeking from end of stream (fixes GitHub issues #8 and #9)
• v1.4.2: add stopPlayback() and seek mode getters/setters to (GL)VideoView
• v1.4.1: hotfix for exact seeking in segmented DASH streams
• v1.4.0: DASH MPD parser improved and compatibility enhanced, MediaPlayer API improvements and minor changes, error reporting improved, increased responsivity of demo app
• v1.3.3: zooming fixed
• v1.3.2: compile and target SDK updated to 22, added to JCenter repository
• v1.3.1: support for separate audio and video sources added, lint error fix
• v1.3: DASH playback / representation switching greatly improved (no more screen resizing, skipped frames, and video artefacts, better segment caching), external dependencies updated, various other improvements
• v1.2.4: demo app enhanced with option to type/paste url and Crashlytics exception reporting
• v1.2.3: device compatibility improved, contrast/brightness adjustment filter added
• v1.2.2: hotfix for display aspect ratio
• v1.2.1: hotfix for video decoder crash
• v1.2: audio playback support, improved DASH rate based adaption, support for DASH non-square pixel aspect ratios, keep screen on during playback
• v1.0.1: do not catch up lost time after a lag, error handling for invalid URLs improved
• v1.0: initial release

For questions and issues, please open an issue on the issue tracker. Commercial support, development and consultation is available through Protyposis Multimedia Solutions.

• Android API 16+ (Android 4.1 Jelly Bean)

• MadLipz
• react-native-android-video-player (library)

There are many apps and libraries using this project. If you want to have your project listed here, open an issue, submit a pull request, or drop an email.

Usage is very simple because the library's aim is to be API-compatible with the default Android classes. The MediaPlayer in this library is the equivalent of Android's MediaPlayer, the VideoView is the equivalent of Android's VideoView.

To migrate from the Android default classes to this library, just replace the imports in your Java headers. If there are any methods missing, feel free to open an issue on the issue tracker or submit a pull request.

This are the important additions to Android's default components:

This library adds additional methods to set the playback source, namely mediaPlayer.setDataSource(MediaSource source) and videoView.setVideoSource(MediaSource source). These methods expect an instance of an object implementing the MediaSource interface. A few common implementations are provided:

• UriSource expects an URI to a file or online resource, and also accepts two URIs for separate audio and video resources.
• FileSource expects a File instance (e.g. new File(String pathToFile)), or two instances to separate audio and video files.
• DashSource (in the MediaPlayer-DASH module) expects an URI to an MPD file/resource, or a custom built or parsed MPD object instance, and an object implementing AdaptationLogic (e.g. one of the provided ConstantPropertyBasedLogic or SimpleRateBasedAdaptationLogic).

Additional media sources can be built by implementing the MediaSource interface. The advantage of this interface is that it provides a way to implement data sources above the file level, and that it can provide and sync multiple separate media sources to the same media player.

To use this library in your own project, you can either (1) fetch the modules from the Maven Central repository, or checkout the Git repository and (2) install the modules to your local Maven repository or (3) include the required gradle modules directly.

The Maven Central Maven repository contains release builds of the library since v4.5.0, usage is similar to any other Maven dependency:

repositories {
    ...
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation 'net.protyposis.android.mediaplayer:mediaplayer:<version>'
    implementation 'net.protyposis.android.mediaplayer:mediaplayer-dash:<version>'
}

Older version can be found in the legacy jcenter() repository. Run gradlew publishToMavenLocal to compile and install the modules to your local Maven repository.

The base module provides the MediaPlayer, which can be used as a replacement for the Android MediaPlayer, and the VideoView, which can be used as a replacement for the Android VideoView. To load a video, use either the compatibility methods known from the Android API to specify a file or URI, or supply a UriSource.

Extends the MediaPlayer base with DASH support. To play a DASH stream, supply the MediaPlayer or VideoView a DashSource with the URI of the MPD file or an externally parsed/constructed MPD object, and an AdaptationLogic. MPDs can be externally parsed with the DashParser. This component comes with two basic AdaptationLogic implementations, ConstantPropertyBasedLogic which selects a specified constant representation mode, and SimpleRateBasedAdaptationLogic, which monitors the bandwidth and tries to choose the best representation accordingly. It supports MP4, fragmented MP4 and WebM containers, with both file and byte-range requests. The DASH support does not cover the full standard, but many common use cases. DashSource can also be configured with a custom OkHttpClient instance, useful for HTTP request caching, cookie management, authentication, proxy settings, etc.

MediaPlayer-DASH has external dependencies on OkHttp, Okio, and ISO Parser.

Example:

Uri uri = Uri.parse("http://server.com/path/stream.mpd");
MediaSource dashSource = new DashSource(context, uri, new SimpleRateBasedAdaptationLogic());
mediaPlayer.setDataSource(dashSource); // or: videoView.setVideoSource(dashSource);

This module is a demo app that incorporates all the main functionality of the MediaPlayer modules and serves as an example on how they can be used and extended. It is available for download as MediaPlayer-Extended Demo on the Google Play Store.

-keep class * implements com.coremedia.iso.boxes.Box {* ; }
-keep class * implements com.coremedia.iso.fragment.MovieFragmentBox {* ; }
-dontwarn com.coremedia.iso.boxes.*
-dontwarn com.googlecode.mp4parser.authoring.tracks.mjpeg.**
-dontwarn com.googlecode.mp4parser.authoring.tracks.ttml.**

• MediaPlayer-DASH: MPD parser is basic and only tested with the test MPDs listed below
• MediaPlayer-DASH: representation switching can result in a short lag (this only happens with mp4/avc videos because reinitializing Android's MediaCodec takes some time; a workaround would be to prepare a second codec with a second surface, and switch them at the right frame; webm works flawlessly)

The DASH support in this library is currently limited to the most common use cases. It supports video and audio, and switching between multiple representations thereof (bitrates and resolutions). Segments must be divided into separate files or explicit byte ranges and defined in a SegmentTemplate or SegmentList. The player can also display live streams (dynamic mode), but this is just a simple hack to demonstrate the ability. An evaluation of the DASH-IF test vectors is available here.

Currently not supported are single-segment representations, audio-only MPDs, multiple periods (it only plays back the first period), segment index box parsing (sidx), dynamic MPD updates, and encryption. The supported codecs are limited by their support through the Android MediaCodec.

There are two main cases when DASH fails:

• At MPD parsing time, when the parser detects an unsupported feature and throws an exception, or when it crashes because of unexpected data. This is indicated in the demo app by a red error message and greyed out video view buttons.
• At video view / media player initialization time, because segments cannot be downloaded, the MediaExtractor fails reading a stream (usually because of unsupported container features), or a stream uses a codec not supported by Android's MediaCodec. The demo app indicates this by an error toast message and disabled playback controls.

These URLs have been tested and definitely work in the demo app:

• HTTP streaming:
  • http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4
  • http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/bunny_4000.webm
• DASH streaming:
  • all DASH MPDs on the ITEC DASH-JS page:
    • MP4 3 rep 50kbps to 150kbps: http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/bunny_ibmff_240.mpd
    • MP4 7 rep 200kbps to 700kbps: http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/bunny_ibmff_360.mpd
    • MP4 4 rep 900kbps to 2000kbps: http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/bunny_ibmff_720.mpd
    • MP4 6 rep 2500kbps to 8000kbps: http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/bunny_ibmff_1080.mpd
    • WebM 5 rep 200 kbps to 2000 kbps multiplexed audio: http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/sintel_multi_rep.mpd
    • WebM 7 rep 200 kbps to 4700 kbps multiplexed audio: http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/bigbuckbunny.mpd
    • WebM 7 rep 1000 kbps to 8000 kbps multiplexed audio: http://www-itec.uni-klu.ac.at/dash/js/content/bigbuckbunny_1080p.mpd
  • MP4 8 rep 250 to 6000 kbps separate audio: http://dj9wk94416cg5.cloudfront.net/sintel2/sintel.mpd
  • DASH-IF test vectors (not all working, evaluation protocol)
  • Akamai live stream: http://24x7dash-i.akamaihd.net/dash/live/900080/elemental/dash.mpd
  • IRT reference clips (not yet tested)

Copyright (C) 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2024 Mario Guggenberger mg@protyposis.net. Released under the Apache 2.0 license. See LICENSE for details.