Android VideoView black screen

I have been looking for a way to get rid of the nasty black initial screen on a VideoView before the start() method is run.

I have tried with background image on the widget but it doesn't work as expected at all. I have also tried putting an image of the first frame in the video on top of the VideoView and hiding it after the start() method. Adding an onPrepared listener to start the video and then hide the image. This works but there is a horrible flicker in the transition and I don't know how to get rid of it.

---

Adding the MediaController had no effect at all. The problem persists (I still see the black flicker) and I don't want to have the video controls visible at all. My code looks like this:

    VideoView vSurface= (VideoView) findViewById(R.id.surfaceView1);
    vSurface.setVideoURI(Uri.parse("android.resource://com.mypackage/" + R.raw.video1));
    vSurface.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    vSurface.setOnPreparedListener(this);
    vSurface.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
    vSurface.setOnErrorListener(this);

I meet the same problem, and solve it with the accepted solution above plus this:

  @Override
  public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
    mp.setOnInfoListener(new MediaPlayer.OnInfoListener() {
      @Override
      public boolean onInfo(MediaPlayer mp, int what, int extra) {
        Log.d(TAG, "onInfo, what = " + what);
        if (what == MediaPlayer.MEDIA_INFO_VIDEO_RENDERING_START) {
          // video started; hide the placeholder.
          placeholder.setVisibility(View.GONE);
          return true;
        }
        return false;
      }
    });

I think onPrepared just means the video is ready to play, but not means video started playing. If hide placeholder in onPrepared, the screen still show a black screen.

On my Note3 and Nexus, this solution works well.

I had the same problem on Galaxy tab 2, Android 4.1.1.

Do videoView.setZOrderOnTop(true); and next videoView.start()

It works fine for me.

I got the same problem and i found a solution. Its a little bit hacky but it do the trick. So basically you need to put your VideoView into a FrameLayout. Over the videoview you need to add another FrameLayout with the background of your video and when your video is loaded and ready to play you hide the placeholder.

<FrameLayout
  android:id="@+id/frameLayout1"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="fill_parent"
  android:layout_gravity="center"
  android:layout_marginTop="50dip" >
  
  <VideoView
    android:id="@+id/geoloc_anim"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="172dip" android:layout_gravity="top|center" android:visibility="visible"/>

  <FrameLayout
      android:id="@+id/placeholder"
      android:layout_width="fill_parent"
      android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:background="@drawable/fondvert_anim">
  </FrameLayout>
  

In your activity you need to implements OnPreparedListener and add this

//Called when the video is ready to play
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
	
	View placeholder = (View) findViewById(R.id.placeholder);
	
	placeholder.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}

So when the video is ready we hide our placeholder and that trick avoid the black flicker screen.

Hope this help someone.

I had same problem and this has worked for me ..

When you want to show video, make videoView.setZOrderOnTop(false); and when you want to hide video, just make videoView.setZOrderOnTop(true);

I 've got same problem I just used videov.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE) and then onprepare i used Color.TRANSPARENT) white is still better than black for me

By extending a TextureView, I get no black screens in the beginning or end. This is if you want to avoid using ZOrderOnTop(true).

public class MyVideoView extends TextureView implements TextureView.SurfaceTextureListener {
  private MediaPlayer mMediaPlayer;
  private Uri mSource;
  private MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener mCompletionListener;
  private boolean isLooping = false;


  public MyVideoView(Context context) {
      this(context, null, 0);
  }

  public MyVideoView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
      this(context, attrs, 0);
  }

  public MyVideoView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
      super(context, attrs, defStyle);
      setSurfaceTextureListener(this);
  }

  public void setSource(Uri source) {
      mSource = source;
  }

  public void setOnCompletionListener(MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener listener) {
      mCompletionListener = listener;
  }

  public void setLooping(boolean looping) {
     isLooping = looping;
  }

  @Override
  protected void onDetachedFromWindow() {
     // release resources on detach
     if (mMediaPlayer != null) {
         mMediaPlayer.release();
         mMediaPlayer = null;
     }
     super.onDetachedFromWindow();
   }

   /*
    * TextureView.SurfaceTextureListener
    */
    @Override
   public void onSurfaceTextureAvailable(SurfaceTexture surfaceTexture, int width, int height) {
     Surface surface = new Surface(surfaceTexture);
     try {
         mMediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
         mMediaPlayer.setOnCompletionListener(mCompletionListener);
         mMediaPlayer.setOnBufferingUpdateListener(this);
         mMediaPlayer.setOnErrorListener(this);
         mMediaPlayer.setLooping(isLooping);
         mMediaPlayer.setDataSource(getContext(), mSource);
         mMediaPlayer.setSurface(surface);
         mMediaPlayer.prepare();
         mMediaPlayer.start();
     } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
     } catch (SecurityException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
     } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
         mMediaPlayer.reset();
     } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
     }
   }

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

  @Override
  public boolean onSurfaceTextureDestroyed(SurfaceTexture surface) {
     surface.release();
     return true;
  }

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

None of the Above worked for me. In my case, onPrepared gets called BEFORE the black frame went away, so I would still see the black frame.

I needed a solution where the video appeared shortly after the first frame.

So what I did was set the VideoView alpha to 0 in xml:

android:alpha="0"

and then before I start the video I animate the alpha back to 1:

videoView.animate().alpha(1);
videoView.seekTo(0);
videoView.start();

alternatively, you can just post a delayed Runnable to set the alpha to 1, instead of animating it.

This worked for me:

videoView.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE); // Your color.
videoView.start();
videoView.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
	@Override
	public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
		videoView.setBackgroundColor(Color.TRANSPARENT);
	}
});

At least two years later, but I hope that was helpful.

This is definitely hacky, but better than overlaying an image (IMO).

boolean mRestored = false;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    mRestored = savedInstanceState != null;
}

@Override
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {

    if (!mRestored) vSurface.seekTo(1);
}

Assuming you are putting things into savedInstanceState in onSaveInstanceState.

Just show a frame from the video as preview.

vSurface.SeekTo(100);

Just use VideoView#setBackgroundDrawable(), I think.

1. initial settings.

    VideoView.setBackgroundDrawable(yourdrawableid);
   

2. start video

    VideoView.start();
    VideoView.setBackgroundDrawable(0);
   

For people still looking for answer for this, calling VideoView.start() and VideoView.pause() in succession inside onPrepared worked for me. I know this may not be the ideal way of achieving this however it might be the one with minimal workaround required in the code. Hope this works for you too.

@Override
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
    mVideoView.start();
    mVideoView.pause();
}

This one works for me :

In XML : VideoView hide behind a Relative layout with white Background

    <VideoView
      android:id="@+id/myVideo"
      android:layout_below="@+id/logo_top"
      android:layout_width="200dp"
      android:layout_height="200dp"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" 
    />
    <RelativeLayout
      android:id="@+id/mask"
      android:background="#FFFFFF"
      android:layout_below="@+id/logo_top"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:layout_width="200dp"  android:layout_height="200dp"
    >
    </RelativeLayout>

and in Activity : onCreate

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.acceuil);
    myVideo = (VideoView)  findViewById(R.id.myVideo);
    mask = (RelativeLayout)  findViewById(R.id.mask);
    String path = "android.resource://" 
      + getPackageName() + "/" + R.raw.anim_normal;
    myVideo.setVideoURI(Uri.parse(path));
    myVideo.start();
}

onStart :

 public void onStart() { 
    final long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
    super.onStart();
    new CountDownTimer(5000, 100) { 
    @Override
        public void onTick(long l) {

            long time2 = System.currentTimeMillis();
            if((time2 - time) > 500) {
                mask.setVisibility(View.GONE);
            }
        }

}.start();

Hope this helps.

Use svVideoView.seekTo(position).

Give Position within 5 (ms).

onPause():
position=svVideoView.getCurrentPosition()

onResume():
svVideoView.seekTo(position);

It works for me on both Activity and Fragment.

VideoView mVideo = (VideoView) findViewById(R.id.yourViewViewId);
          mVideo.setVideoURI(mUri);
          mVideo.setZOrderOnTop(false);

SurfaceHolder surfaceholder = mVideo.getHolder();
surfaceholder.setFormat(PixelFormat.TRANSPARENT);

For me setting the setZOrderOnTop did not completely remove the initial black frame while playing an mp4 video. It, however, did reduce the time for which the black frame appears. I wanted to remove the initial black frame completely, so I played around and found that seeking the video forward by 100ms did the trick for me.

As a note, I am using the video in a loop, so if you do not want to loop the video just remove
mp.isLooping = true

Following is the snippet which I used to fix the issue:

val path = "android.resource://" + packageName + "/" + R.raw.my_video
videoView.setVideoURI(Uri.parse(path))
videoView.setZOrderOnTop(true)
videoView.seekTo(100)
videoView.start()

videoView.setOnPreparedListener { mp ->
   videoView.setZOrderOnTop(false)
   mp.isLooping = true // Loops the video 
}

It would still be great if I get an exact explanation of why the above worked if someone finds it helpful.

It's a little late for this answer, but maybe other users have the same problem and find this question..

I have dealt with it, by setting a BackgroundResource initially and then, when starting the video, i have set the background to an invisible color..

VideoView myView = findViewById(R.id.my_view);
myView.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.some_resource);
// some stuff

// this is when starting the video
myView.setVideoUri(someUri);
// also set MediaController somewhere...
//...
// now set the backgroundcolor to be not visible (first val of Color.argb(..) is the alpha)
myView.setBackGroundColor(Color.argb(0, 0, 0, 0));
//...
myView.start();

This is a nice solution:

package com.example.videoviewpractice;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.MediaController;
import android.widget.VideoView;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    VideoView myVideoView;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
	super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
	setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
	initVideo();
}

private void initVideo() {
	myVideoView = (VideoView) findViewById(R.id.videoView1);
	String url = "http://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/3DF00EB7001110633055418310656_1e50d6d9a65.3.2.mp4?" + 
			"versionId=KVMUFFGqe6rYRrGKgl8hxL6eakVAErPy";
	myVideoView.setVideoURI(Uri.parse(url));
	myVideoView.setMediaController(new MediaController(this));
	myVideoView.requestFocus();
}

public void gone(View v){
	myVideoView.setZOrderOnTop(true);
	View placeholder = (View) findViewById(R.id.placeholder);

    placeholder.setVisibility(View.GONE);
    myVideoView.start();
}

}

activity_main.xml:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/LinearLayout1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
tools:context="${relativePackage}.${activityClass}" >

<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/frameLayout1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="center"
    android:layout_marginTop="50dip" >

    <VideoView
        android:id="@+id/videoView1"
        android:layout_width="300dp"
        android:layout_height="300dp"
        android:layout_gravity="top|center"
        android:visibility="visible" />

    <FrameLayout
        android:id="@+id/placeholder"
        android:layout_width="300dp"
        android:layout_height="300dp"
        android:layout_gravity="top|center"
        android:background="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:onClick="gone" >
    </FrameLayout>
    
</FrameLayout>

</LinearLayout>

To avoid annoying flickering and black screen issues I wrote FrameVideoView.

It takes benefits from 'placeholder solution' and (if your device is running API level 14 or higher) from TextureView, which is much more efficient than VideoView.

I wrote article on our blog to cover what it actually does.

It's simple to use:

Add FrameVideoView to layout:

<mateuszklimek.framevideoview.FrameVideoView
    android:id="@+id/frame_video_view"
    android:layout_width="@dimen/video_width"
    android:layout_height="@dimen/video_height"
  />

find its instance in Activity and call corresponding methods in onResume and onPause:

public class SampleActivity extends Activity {

  private FrameVideoView videoView;

  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.simple);

    String uriString = "android.resource://" + getPackageName() + "/" + R.raw.movie;
    videoView = (FrameVideoView) findViewById(R.id.frame_video_view);
    videoView.setup(Uri.parse(uriString), Color.GREEN);
  }

    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
      super.onResume();
      videoView.onResume();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPause() {
      videoView.onPause();
      super.onPause();
    }
  }

I had the same issue. I found that the main reason for that was the use of FrameLayout as the parent layout. Use RelativeLayout as the parent layout of the VideoView

Modifying @emmgfx's answer worked for me:

videoView.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE)
videoView.start()
Timer().schedule(100){
  videoView?.setBackgroundColor(Color.TRANSPARENT)
}

Trick is to delay the video view untill video loads. PS : It's kotlin.

I found a great solution to this problem. ( in Kotlin )

Create an imageview over top of your videoview. Create a function with a handler, and check if ( videoview.duration > 0 )

if the duration is greater than zero, then set the imageview.visibility to INVISABLE, and immediately follow by handler.removeCallbacks(this)

Call the above function after you have called videoview.start

Code below:

fun showVideoView() {

    val handler = Handler()

    handler.postDelayed(object : Runnable {
        override fun run() {
            try {
                if (videoplayer_topthree.currentPosition > 0) {
                    videoview_topthreeloadingimage.visibility = View.INVISIBLE
                    videoview_topthreeprogressbar.visibility = View.VISIBLE
                    videoview_topthreefullname.visibility = View.VISIBLE
                    videoview_topthreeviews.visibility = View.VISIBLE
                    videoview_topthreedate.visibility = View.VISIBLE
                    videoview_topthreedescription.visibility = View.VISIBLE
                    videoview_topthreedimview.visibility = View.VISIBLE
                    handler.removeCallbacks(this)
                }
                handler.postDelayed(this, 250)
            } catch (e: Exception) {
                println("SHOW VIDEOVIEW CATCH WAS CAUGHT")
            }
        }

    }, 0)

}

and this is where I call this function..

videoplayer_topthree.setOnPreparedListener {

        prepareSizing(it)
        initializeProgressBar()
        showVideoView()
        
    }

Trying to play a mostly white video on a mostly white layout shows these glitches in a very obvious and annoying way, particularly during Activity transitions. The only way I managed to completely get rid of the glitches was to mash together a few different answers from this thread and elprl's answer at https://stackoverflow.com/a/9089245/3997253.

Create a solid colour View that covers the VideoView

<View
android:id="@+id/coverView"
android:background="@color/white"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" />

In onCreate

...
coverView = findViewById(R.id.coverView)
videoView = findViewById(R.id.videoView)

videoView.setZOrderOnTop(false)
val surfaceHolder = videoView.holder
surfaceHolder.setFormat(PixelFormat.TRANSPARENT)

In onStart

...
videoView.setOnPreparedListener { mp ->
    // Fade out cover View to show VideoView once rendering has started
    mp.setOnInfoListener { _, what, _ ->
        if (what == MediaPlayer.MEDIA_INFO_VIDEO_RENDERING_START) {
            coverView.animate().alpha(0F)
            return@setOnInfoListener true
        }
        return@setOnInfoListener false
    }
    mp.isLooping = true
    videoView.start()
    videoView.requestFocus()
}

When done with the VideoView

// Fade in cover View to hide the VideoView
coverView.animate().alpha(1F)

see this

VideoView videoView = (VideoView) findViewById(R.id.VideoView);
		MediaController mediaController = new MediaController(this);
		mediaController.setAnchorView(videoView);
		Uri video = Uri.parse("android.resource://your_package_name/"+R.raw.monkeysonthebed_video);
		
		videoView.setMediaController(mediaController);
		videoView.setVideoURI(video);
		videoView.start();