How do I download video from remote source and play it on Android?

Audio and Graphics
#1

I´m trying to download a mp4 video from a webpage, save it in TemporaryDirectory and playing it using native.newVideo.

The video downloads and gets saved but I cant play it on my Android device. The app exits.

I have tried the same with a mp3 sound-file. That works great.

Please help  :rolleyes:

Here is my code:

local video = native.newVideo( display.contentCenterX, display.contentCenterY, 320, 480 )

    

    local function startvideo()

        video:load( “Latin.mp4”, system.TemporaryDirectory )

        video:play()

    end

    

    

    local function networkListener( event )

        if ( event.isError ) then

                print( “Network error - download failed” )

        elseif ( event.phase == “began” ) then

                print( “Progress Phase: began” ) 

        elseif ( event.phase == “ended” ) then

                print( “Progress Phase: ready” )

                startvideo()

        end

     end

local params = {}

        params.progress = true

         

network.download(

        “http://sirma.no/Latin.mp4”,

        “GET”,

        networkListener,

        params,

        “Latin.mp4”,

        system.TemporaryDirectory

        )

#2

Here is a clue :slight_smile:

Latin.mp4 ~= Latin.m4v

#3

Oh myyy  :rolleyes:  Thank you!

That was stupid, but after changing it to Latin.mp4 it still doesnt work  :frowning:

#4

Oh no  :unsure:

This might be the problem: “This (native.newVideo) API is supported on iOS only”  :( 

But in the Corona documentation it also says “On Android the video objects do not rotate”, when using native.newVideo.

That sounds like it works but it won´t rotate.

I´m confused  :wacko: 

#5

It seems like the native.newVideo API is supported on a few Android devices.

I got it to work on my galaxy tab four times but never again.

I guess I have to use media.playVideo, but that is not so easy to customize.

I wanted to be able to jump (seek) in the video and at the same time make my mp3-files jump the same amount of seconds.

With media.playVideo there is only a listener for when the movie has ended  :frowning:

#6

With media.playVideo there is only a listener for when the movie has ended 

Yes, real pain. Until we will have some plugin or you have access to enterprise subscription (access to native code) then this is sadly only option: native player or uncustomizable video view which is on top of everything in Corona.

#7

I can’t play videos on Android for one of my apps from a remote source even using media.playVideo (they are stored on Parse.com) - I get the error “Cannot play video”. I feel there may be some formatting issue. Anyone have any ideas?

#8

Here is a message from Corona staff in a thread from 2013:

“in the next year we will definitely catch up on Android video. I hesitate to use the word “definitely” because you never know what can happen, but I’m using it here because this is an important feature and we do intend to cover it”.

I hope they will fix it soon, because the media.playVideo is not so good for Android. I have tried to play from a remote source and, well, it works kind of. Sometimes it starts to play after 10 seconds, but most of the time it starts playing after 1 - 10 minutes or it doesnt start at all!?!? My video is about 500kb.

One solution might be to use a webview and play a Youtube-video in that, but I havent tested that yet.

#9

It must be something with your source or you call function in wrong way, because I have been using media.playVideo over half the year and it always workd fine. There is lag, but 2-3 sec max if good wifi.

media.playVideo( url, media.RemoteSource, true, videoListener )
#10

I have been testing “media.playVideo( url, media.RemoteSource, true, videoListener )”

It worked great the first 5 or so times, but then it started to fail. I was hoping I had done something wrong in my codes so I deleted everything but the media.playVideo code. I even tried using other videos, like in coronas example. That didnt help. My wifi-connection is excellent.

I bet this works on some Android devices but my Samsung 7´ tablet did not want to play the video every time. On my iPhone everything works fine of course :stuck_out_tongue:

My Android even played videos using native.newVideo sometimes but failed most of the time.

#11

could it be the video size? One of my apps uses smaller videos that are mp4’s, bundled with the app itself and it’s fine on Android. The other uses mp4’s stored on Parse but the size is somewhat bigger, 4 MB vs. 3 MBs…doesn’t seem like a huge size difference though… 

#12

Here is a clue :slight_smile:

Latin.mp4 ~= Latin.m4v

#13

Oh myyy  :rolleyes:  Thank you!

That was stupid, but after changing it to Latin.mp4 it still doesnt work  :frowning:

#14

Oh no  :unsure:

This might be the problem: “This (native.newVideo) API is supported on iOS only”  :( 

But in the Corona documentation it also says “On Android the video objects do not rotate”, when using native.newVideo.

That sounds like it works but it won´t rotate.

I´m confused  :wacko: 

#15

It seems like the native.newVideo API is supported on a few Android devices.

I got it to work on my galaxy tab four times but never again.

I guess I have to use media.playVideo, but that is not so easy to customize.

I wanted to be able to jump (seek) in the video and at the same time make my mp3-files jump the same amount of seconds.

With media.playVideo there is only a listener for when the movie has ended  :frowning:

#16

With media.playVideo there is only a listener for when the movie has ended 

Yes, real pain. Until we will have some plugin or you have access to enterprise subscription (access to native code) then this is sadly only option: native player or uncustomizable video view which is on top of everything in Corona.

#17

I can’t play videos on Android for one of my apps from a remote source even using media.playVideo (they are stored on Parse.com) - I get the error “Cannot play video”. I feel there may be some formatting issue. Anyone have any ideas?

#18

Here is a message from Corona staff in a thread from 2013:

“in the next year we will definitely catch up on Android video. I hesitate to use the word “definitely” because you never know what can happen, but I’m using it here because this is an important feature and we do intend to cover it”.

I hope they will fix it soon, because the media.playVideo is not so good for Android. I have tried to play from a remote source and, well, it works kind of. Sometimes it starts to play after 10 seconds, but most of the time it starts playing after 1 - 10 minutes or it doesnt start at all!?!? My video is about 500kb.

One solution might be to use a webview and play a Youtube-video in that, but I havent tested that yet.

#19

It must be something with your source or you call function in wrong way, because I have been using media.playVideo over half the year and it always workd fine. There is lag, but 2-3 sec max if good wifi.

media.playVideo( url, media.RemoteSource, true, videoListener )
#20

I have been testing “media.playVideo( url, media.RemoteSource, true, videoListener )”

It worked great the first 5 or so times, but then it started to fail. I was hoping I had done something wrong in my codes so I deleted everything but the media.playVideo code. I even tried using other videos, like in coronas example. That didnt help. My wifi-connection is excellent.

I bet this works on some Android devices but my Samsung 7´ tablet did not want to play the video every time. On my iPhone everything works fine of course :stuck_out_tongue:

My Android even played videos using native.newVideo sometimes but failed most of the time.