Android's MediaPlayer setSurface while on paused state

Question

EDIT:

So apparently this has nothing to do with multiple activities, and this has something to do with the encoding of the video file.

I will try to simplify the question: I have a MediaPlayer object in a paused state, when I call mediaPlayer.getCurrentPosition() I get a result which is accurate. When I call mediaPlayer.setSurface() (using a different surface) followed by mediaPlayer.play() on this object the video is played in a different position than the one returned by getCurrentPosition(). I am testing on API >= ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH.

• Tested both using a local resource in the project and via network stream, result: no difference.

Link to video file: http://wpc.4ba9.edgecastcdn.net/804BA9/testenvmedia/m_8705_LuS3w7ctSZjB.mov.bs.mp4

---

I have two activities, Activity-A and Activity-B.

Activity-A plays video from a remote stream to a TextureView using a MediaPlayer, it also holds a button, who's purpose is to:

1. Call mediaPlayer.pause();

2. Open Activity-B.

Activity-B holds also a TextureView which is supposed to play the same video at it's current location using the same MediaPlayer object.

Activity-A onCreate method:

    textureView.setSurfaceTextureListener(new TextureView.SurfaceTextureListener() {        
        @Override
        public void onSurfaceTextureAvailable(SurfaceTexture surfaceTexture, int w, int h) {
            try {
                final MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = MyApplication.getMediaPlayer();
                mediaPlayer.setDataSource(context, videoURI);
                mediaPlayer.setSurface(new Surface(surfaceTexture));
                mediaPlayer.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
                mediaPlayer.setLooping(shouldLoop);
                mediaPlayer.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
                        mp.start();
                    }
                });

                mediaPlayer.prepareAsync();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void onSurfaceTextureSizeChanged(SurfaceTexture surface, int width, int height) {}

        @Override
        public boolean onSurfaceTextureDestroyed(SurfaceTexture surface) { return false; }

        @Override
        public void onSurfaceTextureUpdated(SurfaceTexture surface) {}
    });

    btnFullScreen.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener(){
    @Override
    public void onClick(View v) {     
        Log.e("WHATEVER", ">>> pause video at " + MyApplication.getMediaPlayer().getCurrentPosition());
        MyApplication.getMediaPlayer().pause();
        Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity(), ActivityB.class);
        startActivity(intent);
    }});

---

Activity-B onCreate method:

        textureView.setSurfaceTextureListener(new TextureView.SurfaceTextureListener() {
        @Override
        public void onSurfaceTextureAvailable(SurfaceTexture surface, int w, int h) {
            MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = MyApplication.getMediaPlayer();
            mediaPlayer.setSurface(new Surface(surface));

            Log.e("WHATEVER", ">>> resume video at " + mediaPlayer.getCurrentPosition());
            mediaPlayer.start();
        }

        @Override
        public void onSurfaceTextureSizeChanged(SurfaceTexture surface, int width, int height) {
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onSurfaceTextureDestroyed(SurfaceTexture surface) {
            return false;
        }

        @Override
        public void onSurfaceTextureUpdated(SurfaceTexture surface) {
        }
    });

LogCat output:

10-10 17:33:15.966  13886-13886/com.whatever.android.debug E/WHATEVER﹕ >>> pause video at 1958
10-10 17:33:16.817  13886-13886/com.whatever.android.debug E/WHATEVER﹕ >>> resume video at 1958

---

So even though it seems like the MediaPlayer is going to resume from that exact position, I get different behaviour for different videos, most of them start at the exact same frame every time I try to play those in Activity-B, one video starts at the very beginning, other one starts at some other point every time.

From Android's documentation of MediaPlayer.SetSurface() method:

This method can be called in any state and calling it does not change the object state.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

it seems your problem is with this specific video, more keyframes will help the player to resume the playing more accurately.

try to re-encode again, with ffmpeg and libx264 try adding these parameters:

-g=25 -keyint_min=25

Answer 2

Try passing the position of your MediaPlayer from activity A to Activity B using Intent.putExtra(). So Basically in Activity A where you call intent to start activity B, you would do this:

 public void onClick(View v) {     
    Log.e("WHATEVER", ">>> pause video at " + MyApplication.getMediaPlayer().getCurrentPosition());
    MyApplication.getMediaPlayer().pause();
    int position = MyApplication.getMediaPlayer().getCurrentPosition(); //new line added
    Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity(), ActivityB.class);
    intent.putExtra("position", position); //another new line of code
    startActivity(intent);
}

Now in Activity B seek to the position where mediaplayer was paused before calling start, like this:

@Override
    public void onSurfaceTextureAvailable(SurfaceTexture surface, int w, int h) {
        MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = MyApplication.getMediaPlayer();
        mediaPlayer.setSurface(new Surface(surface));

        Log.e("WHATEVER", ">>> resume video at " + mediaPlayer.getCurrentPosition());
        mediaPlayer.seekTo(getIntent().getExtras().getInt("position"));// new line of code
        mediaPlayer.start();
    }