Android intent for playing video?

I'm trying to play video's on Android, by launching an intent. The code I'm using is:

tostart = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
tostart.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(movieurl), "video/*");
startActivity(tostart); 

This works on most phones, but not on the HTC Hero. It seems to load a bit different video player. This does play the first video thrown at it. However, every video after that it doesn't respond. (it keeps in some loop).

If I add an explicit

tostart.setClassName("com.htc.album","com.htc.album.ViewVideo");

(before the startactivity) it does work on the HTC Hero. However, since this is a HTC specific call, I can't run this code on other phones (such as the G1). On the G1, this works:

tostart.setClassName("com.android.camera","com.android.camera.MovieView"); //g1 version

But this intent is missing from the hero. Does anybody know a list of intents/classnames that should be supported by all Android devices? Or a specific one to launch a video? Thanks!

Use setDataAndType on the Intent

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(newVideoPath));
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(newVideoPath), "video/mp4");
startActivity(intent);

Use "video/mp4" as MIME or use "video/*" if you don't know the type.

Edit: This not valid for general use. It fixes a bug in old HTC devices which required the URI in both the intent constructor and be set afterwards.

From now onwards after API 24, Uri.parse(filePath) won't work. You need to use this

final File videoFile = new File("path to your video file");
Uri fileUri = FileProvider.getUriForFile(mContext, "{yourpackagename}.fileprovider", videoFile);
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setDataAndType(fileUri, "video/*");
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION);//DO NOT FORGET THIS EVER
startActivity(intent);

But before using this you need to understand how file provider works. Go to official document link to understand file provider better.

I have come across this with the Hero, using what I thought was a published API. In the end, I used a test to see if the intent could be received:

private boolean isCallable(Intent intent) {
    List<ResolveInfo> list = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(intent, 
        PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);
    return list.size() > 0;
}

In use when I would usually just start the activity:

final Intent intent = new Intent("com.android.camera.action.CROP");
intent.setClassName("com.android.camera", "com.android.camera.CropImage");
if (isCallable(intent)) {
    // call the intent as you intended.
} else {
    // make alternative arrangements.
}

obvious: If you go down this route - using non-public APIs - you must absolutely provide a fallback which you know definitely works. It doesn't have to be perfect, it can be a Toast saying that this is unsupported for this handset/device, but you should avoid an uncaught exception. end obvious.

---

I find the Open Intents Registry of Intents Protocols quite useful, but I haven't found the equivalent of a TCK type list of intents which absolutely must be supported, and examples of what apps do different handsets.

following code works just fine for me.

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(movieurl));
startActivity(intent);

from the debug info, it seems that the VideoIntent from the MainActivity cannot send the path of the video to VideoActivity. It gives a NullPointerException error from the uriString. I think some of that code from VideoActivity:

Intent myIntent = getIntent();
String uri = myIntent.getStringExtra("uri");
Bundle b = myIntent.getExtras();

startVideo(b.getString(uri));

Cannot receive the uri from here:

public void playsquirrelmp4(View v) {
    Intent VideoIntent = (new Intent(this, VideoActivity.class));
    VideoIntent.putExtra("android.resource://" + getPackageName()
        + "/"+   R.raw.squirrel, uri);
    startActivity(VideoIntent);
}

First you need to convert path to real path. For example if you have path like content://folder/123 You need to convert it to path like foldername/fil.mp4 with Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()

So your path string will be: String path = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + "foldername/file.mp4"; Then you need to convert it to file:

File file = new File(path);

And in the end use this in the line:

intent.setDataAndType(Uri.fromFile(file), "video/*");