Android Video Streaming (VideoView) Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn how to stream a remote video by using a MediaController and display it into a VideoView in your Android Application. MediaController is a controller for Media Player such as functions like Play/Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward and a progress slider. Videos can be loaded from various sources such as remote servers, cloud storage and internal SD Card. We will create a button and on button click will start to stream a remote video in a new activity. So lets begin…

Create a new project in Eclipse File > New > Android Application Project. Fill in the details and name your project VideoStreamTutorial.

Application Name : VideoStreamTutorial

Project Name : VideoStreamTutorial

Package Name : com.androidbegin.videostreamtutorial

Open your MainActivity.java and paste the following code.

MainActivity.java

package com.androidbegin.videostreamtutorial;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

	Button button;

	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		// Get the layout from video_main.xml
		setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

		// Locate the button in activity_main.xml
		button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.MyButton);

		// Capture button clicks
		button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
			public void onClick(View arg0) {

				// Start NewActivity.class
				Intent myIntent = new Intent(MainActivity.this,
						VideoViewActivity.class);
				startActivity(myIntent);
			}
		});
	}

}

In this activity, we have created a button and on button click will open a new activity. In this tutorial, we have hosted a video file in our server. https://www.androidbegin.com/tutorial/AndroidCommercial.3gp

NOTE : Keep in mind that your video file must be compatible with Android. Check it out compatibility list here.

Next, create an XML file for your MainActivity Graphical Layout. Go to res > layout > Right Click on layout > New > Android XML File

Name your new XML file activity_main.xml and paste the following code.

activity_main.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" >

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/MyButton"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:text="@string/button" />

</RelativeLayout>

Next, create a new activity to stream a remote video. Go to File > New > Class and name it VideoViewActivity.java. Select your package named com.androidbegin.videostreamtutorial and click Finish.

Open your VideoViewActivity.java and paste the following code.

package com.androidbegin.videostreamtutorial;

import android.media.MediaPlayer;
import android.media.MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.ProgressDialog;
import android.util.Log;
import android.widget.MediaController;
import android.widget.VideoView;

public class VideoViewActivity extends Activity {

	// Declare variables
	ProgressDialog pDialog;
	VideoView videoview;

	// Insert your Video URL
	String VideoURL = "https://www.androidbegin.com/tutorial/AndroidCommercial.3gp";

	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		// Get the layout from video_main.xml
		setContentView(R.layout.videoview_main);
		// Find your VideoView in your video_main.xml layout
		videoview = (VideoView) findViewById(R.id.VideoView);
		// Execute StreamVideo AsyncTask

		// Create a progressbar
		pDialog = new ProgressDialog(VideoViewActivity.this);
		// Set progressbar title
		pDialog.setTitle("Android Video Streaming Tutorial");
		// Set progressbar message
		pDialog.setMessage("Buffering...");
		pDialog.setIndeterminate(false);
		pDialog.setCancelable(false);
		// Show progressbar
		pDialog.show();

		try {
			// Start the MediaController
			MediaController mediacontroller = new MediaController(
					VideoViewActivity.this);
			mediacontroller.setAnchorView(videoview);
			// Get the URL from String VideoURL
			Uri video = Uri.parse(VideoURL);
			videoview.setMediaController(mediacontroller);
			videoview.setVideoURI(video);

		} catch (Exception e) {
			Log.e("Error", e.getMessage());
			e.printStackTrace();
		}

		videoview.requestFocus();
		videoview.setOnPreparedListener(new OnPreparedListener() {
			// Close the progress bar and play the video
			public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
				pDialog.dismiss();
				videoview.start();
			}
		});

	}

}

In this activity, we will show a progress bar until the video has been partially loaded then play the video in a VideoView. We have implemented a MediaController to allow users to Play/Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward and a progress slider to control the video.

Next, create an XML file for your VideoViewActivity Graphical Layout. Go to res > layout > Right Click on layout > New > Android XML File

Name your new XML file videoview_main.xml and paste the following code.

videoview_main.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" >

    <VideoView
        android:id="@+id/VideoView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true" />

</RelativeLayout>

Next, change the application name and texts. Open your strings.xml in your res > values folder and paste the following code.
strings.xml

<resources>

    <string name="app_name">Video Stream Tutorial</string>
    <string name="hello_world">Hello world!</string>
    <string name="menu_settings">Settings</string>
    <string name="button">Stream Video</string>

</resources>

In your AndroidManifest.xml, we need to declare an activity and a permissions to allow the application to access to the Internet. Open your AndroidManifest.xml and paste the following code.

AndroidManifest.xml

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.androidbegin.videostreamtutorial"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="8"
        android:targetSdkVersion="15" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" >
    </uses-permission>

    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
        <activity android:name=".MainActivity" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity android:name=".VideoViewActivity" />

    </application>

</manifest>

Output:

Source Code 

[purchase_link id=”7890″ text=”Purchase to Download Source Code” style=”button” color=”green”]