Android Apps for Absolute Beginners

Chapter     11

Digital Video: Streaming Video, MediaPlayer, and MediaController classes

In the previous chapter on 2D Animation, we covered implementing motion graphics in Android and using digital image file formats such as PNG or JPEG in conjunction with XML constructs to create frame-based animation.

There is another way that you can play a series of frames in Android, called “digital video.” Digital video assets are especially well-suited for situations when you have hundreds or even thousands of frames, and cannot easily handle them all using an Android AnimationDrawable class. Additionally, digital video can be “streamed” over a network connection, which 2D animation assets cannot, and thus your new media can be external to your application. ...