We have a provider that gives us m3u8 files for HLS streams (originally intended for use in an iOS app).
Android 3.0+ supports http live streaming (http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html) - and we can in fact play these m3u8 files using the standard VideoView on Android 3.0+.
EDIT: Android seems to treat this as "real-time" video feed, and disables the ability to seek or calculate a video duration. (Where-as iOS let's you seek within the stream without issue)
Is there any way to force android 3.0+ to seek within these files?
Here is a sample activity for others to test with:
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.MediaController;
import android.widget.VideoView;
public class SandboxActivity extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
VideoView vw = (VideoView) findViewById(R.id.videoView);
vw.setVideoPath("http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/gear4/prog_index.m3u8");
vw.setMediaController(new MediaController(this));
vw.requestFocus();
vw.start();
}
}
and a sample layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:gravity="center" android:id="@+id/root">
<VideoView
android:id="@+id/videoView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />
</RelativeLayout>
This is using a sample HLS link from Apple.