docs/html/guide/topics/media/media.jd

page.title=Media Capabilities
@jd:body

<div class="sidebox">

<h3>Media Quickview</h3>

<h4>Built-in capabilities</h4>
<ul>
<li>Audio playback and record</li>
<li>Video playback</li>
</ul>

<h4>Data sources</h4>
<ul>
<li>Raw resources</li>
<li>Data files</li>
<li>Streams</li>
</ul>

<h4>Media Formats</h4>
<ul>
<li>See appendix <a href="{@docRoot}devguide/appendix/media_formats.html">Android 1.0 Media Formats</a></li>
</ul>

<h4>Key APIs</h4>
<ul>
<li>{@link android.media.MediaPlayer} (playback, all audio and video formats)</li>
<li>{@link android.media.MediaRecorder} (record, all audio formats)</li>
</ul>
</div>

<p>The Android platform offers built-in encoding/decoding for a variety of common media types, 
so that you can easily integrate audio, video, and images into your applications. Accessing the platform's media 
capabilities is fairly straightforward &mdash you do so using the same intents and
activities mechanism that the rest of Android uses.</p>

<p>Android lets you play audio and video from several types of data sources. You can play audio or video from media files stored in the application's resources (raw resources), from standalone files in the filesystem, or from a data stream arriving over a network connection. To play audio or video from your application, use the {@link android.media.MediaPlayer} class.</p>

<p>The platform also lets you record audio, where supported by the mobile device hardware. Recording of video is not currently supported, but is planned for a future release. To record audio, use the 
{@link android.media.MediaRecorder} class. Note that the emulator doesn't have hardware to capture audio, but actual mobile devices are likely to provide these capabilities that you can access through MediaRecorder. </p>

<p>For a list of the media formats for which Android offers built-in support, see the <a href="{@docRoot}devguide/appendix/media_formats.html">Android Media Formats</a> appendix. </p>

<h2>Playing Audio and Video</h2>
<p>Media can be played from anywhere: from a raw resource, from a file from the system, 
or from an available network (URL).</p>
  
<p>You can play back the audio data only to the standard
output device; currently, that is the mobile device speaker or Bluetooth headset. You
cannot play sound files in the conversation audio. </p>

<h3>Playing from a Raw Resource</h3>
<p>Perhaps the most common thing to want to do is play back media (notably sound)
within your own applications. Doing this is easy:</p>
<ol>
  <li>Put the sound (or other media resource) file into the <code>res/raw</code>
  folder of your project, where the Eclipse plugin (or aapt) will find it and
  make it into a resource that can be referenced from your R class</li>
  <li>Create an instance of <code>MediaPlayer</code>, referencing that resource using
  {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#create MediaPlayer.create}, and then call
  {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#start() start()} on the instance:<br><br></li>
</ol>
<pre>
    MediaPlayer mp = MediaPlayer.create(context, R.raw.sound_file_1);
    mp.start();
</pre>
<p>To stop playback, call {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#stop() stop()}. If 
you wish to later replay the media, then you must 
{@link android.media.MediaPlayer#reset() reset()} and
{@link android.media.MediaPlayer#prepare() prepare()} the MediaPlayer object
before calling {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#start() start()} again. 
(<code>create()</code> calls <code>prepare()</code> the first time.)</p>
<p>To pause playback, call {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#pause() pause()}. 
Resume playback from where you paused with 
{@link android.media.MediaPlayer#start() start()}.</p>

<h3>Playing from a File or Stream</h3>
<p>You can play back media files from the filesystem or a web URL:</p>
<ol>
  <li>Create an instance of the <code>MediaPlayer</code> using <code>new</code></li>
  <li>Call {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#setDataSource setDataSource()}
    with a String containing the path (local filesystem or URL)
    to the file you want to play</li>
  <li>First {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#prepare prepare()} then
  {@link android.media.MediaPlayer#start() start()} on the instance:<br><br></li>
</ol>
<pre>
    MediaPlayer mp = new MediaPlayer();
    mp.setDataSource(PATH_TO_FILE);
    mp.prepare();
    mp.start();
</pre>
<p>{@link android.media.MediaPlayer#stop() stop()} and 
{@link android.media.MediaPlayer#pause() pause()} work the same as discussed
above.</p>
  <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> It is possible that <code>mp</code> could be
  null, so good code should <code>null</code> check after the <code>new</code>.
  Also, <code>IllegalArgumentException</code> and <code>IOException</code> either
  need to be caught or passed on when using <code>setDataSource()</code>, since
  the file you are referencing may not exist.</p>
<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong>
If you're passing a URL to an online media file, the file must be capable of 
progressive download.</p>

<h2>Recording Media Resources</h2>
<p>Recording media is a little more involved than playing it back, as you would
probably expect, but it is still fairly simple. There is just a little more set
up to do</p>
<ol>
  <li>Create a new instance of {@link android.media.MediaRecorder 
  android.media.MediaRecorder} using <code>new</code></li>
  <li>Create a new instance of {@link android.content.ContentValues 
  android.content.ContentValues} and put in some standard properties like
  <code>TITLE</code>, <code>TIMESTAMP</code>, and the all important 
  <code>MIME_TYPE</code></li>
  <li>Create a file path for the data to go to (you can use {@link
  android.content.ContentResolver android.content.ContentResolver} to
  create an entry in the Content database and get it to assign a path
  automatically which you can then use)</li>
  <li>Set the audio source using {@link android.media.MediaRecorder#setAudioSource
  MediaRecorder.setAudioSource()}. You will probably want to use
  <code>MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC</code></li>
  <li>Set output file format using {@link 
        android.media.MediaRecorder#setOutputFormat MediaRecorder.setOutputFormat()}
  </li>
  <li>Set the audio encoder using 
        {@link android.media.MediaRecorder#setAudioEncoder MediaRecorder.setAudioEncoder()}
  </li>
  <li>Finally, {@link android.media.MediaRecorder#prepare prepare()} and
  {@link android.media.MediaRecorder#start start()} the recording.
  {@link android.media.MediaRecorder#stop stop()} and
  {@link android.media.MediaRecorder#release release()} when you are done</li>
</ol>
<p>Here is a code example that will hopefully help fill in the gaps:</p>
<p><strong>Start Recording</strong></p>
<pre>
    recorder = new MediaRecorder();
    ContentValues values = new ContentValues(3);

    values.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.TITLE, SOME_NAME_HERE);
    values.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.TIMESTAMP, System.currentTimeMillis());
    values.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.MIME_TYPE, recorder.getMimeContentType());
    
    ContentResolver contentResolver = new ContentResolver();
    
    Uri base = MediaStore.Audio.INTERNAL_CONTENT_URI;
    Uri newUri = contentResolver.insert(base, values);
    
    if (newUri == null) {
        // need to handle exception here - we were not able to create a new
        // content entry
    }
    
    String path = contentResolver.getDataFilePath(newUri);

    // could use setPreviewDisplay() to display a preview to suitable View here
    
    recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
    recorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);
    recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
    recorder.setOutputFile(path);
    
    recorder.prepare();
    recorder.start();
</pre>
<p><strong>Stop Recording</strong></p>
<pre>
    recorder.stop();
    recorder.release();
</pre>