Android - Video Playback from internal memory

0
votes

I have a requirement to be able to save and play videos from the internal memory. The files have a mix of .mp4 and .3gp formats. My question has two parts - saving files and playback.

SAVING FILES

I know of two ways to save video into the internal memory:

1. FileOutputStream f = context.openFileOutput(videoName, MODE_WORLD_READABLE);
2. FileOutputStream f = new FileOutputStream(internalFilePath+File.separator+videoName);
        where internalFilePath is obtained separately by using getFilesDir() function.

Question: I can only play videos which were saved using #1 and not #2 above. Why? I get errors saying like: "This video can't be played"

Is it because files stored by #2 are not readable by video playback apps because they are private to my app? But then how can I make my files private and playable at the same time? This is where the second part of the question fits I guess.

PLAYBACK

I know of three ways to play videos in my app:

  1. Building an intent with ACTION_VIEW, setting the data type to the appropriate mime type, startActivity(intent) and letting installed apps take care of the playback.
  2. Using a VideoView. Although I personally don't like this approach because of the amount of coding involved.
  3. Using MediaPlayer class.

Question: Considering that I store my files in the internal memory, which of these methods is the best for playback?

1
androidvideo

1 Answers

0
votes

When you are saving a video to your internal storage, that video is accessible to that application only and no other app can use that video. In your case, you have shown two methods to save videos to your file.

  FileOutputStream f = context.openFileOutput(videoName, MODE_WORLD_READABLE);

This way you are able to play your file because you have set mode as MODE_WORLD_READABLE. MODE_PRIVATE makes it private for your app. This is why you are able to use the video file from other app by this way as your mode is mode_world_readable and when you are saving the file the second way, it doesn't play because the file is again private to your application only.

For playing videos that have been saved from the second approach, you can try the following code:

  FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(filePath);
   mediaPlayer.setDataSource(fileInputStream.getFD());

I guess this should work.

Edit: Please change the above code snippet variables as per your project needs.

Source: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html#filesInternal