How to display text underneath playing video in android?

Question

I am developing an application in which I used VideoView to play a video. What I want is I need to display some text underneath the playing video and the text should be changed as the video plays I mean depending on elapsed time. Like SRT. So, How to get elapsed time of video in android? And when we pause the video according text should be paused as well and after that when we resume video the text and the following text should be displayed.

Any help would be appreciated.

---

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
    getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
    setContentView(R.layout.playing);

    mVideoView = (VideoView)findViewById(R.id.VideoView);
    uri = Uri.parse("android.resource://com.abhan.video/" + R.raw.abhan);

    Date dt = new Date();
    mHours = dt.getHours();
    mMinutes = dt.getMinutes();
    mSeconds = dt.getSeconds();
    String curTime = mHours + ":"+ mMinutes + ":" + mSeconds;

    mVideoView.setVideoURI(uri);
    mVideoView.start();

    Runnable runnable = new CountDownRunner();
    myThread= new Thread(runnable);   
    myThread.start();

    mVideoView.setOnPreparedListener(new OnPreparedListener() {
        @Override
        public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
            Log.i("TAG", "On Prepared");
        }
    });

    mVideoView.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
        @Override
        public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
        Log.v("TAG", "On Completion");
        myThread.stop();
        Intent i = new Intent(Playing.this, VideoPlay.class);
        startActivity(i);
        finish();
        }
    });
}

class CountDownRunner implements Runnable {
    public void run() {
        while(!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
            try {
                doWork();
                Thread.sleep(1000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch(Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

public void doWork() {
    runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
        public void run()  {
            try {
                mText = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.SetText);
                Date dt = new Date();
                int hours = dt.getHours();
                int minutes = dt.getMinutes();
                int seconds = dt.getSeconds();
                String curTime = hours + ":"+ minutes + ":" + seconds;
                if(minutes == mMinutes && seconds == mSeconds) {
                    mText.setText(getString(R.string.one));
                } else if(minutes == mMinutes && seconds == mSeconds+20) {
                    mText.setText(getString(R.string.two));
                } else if(minutes == mMinutes && seconds == mSeconds+38) {
                    mText.setText(getString(R.string.three));
                } else if(minutes == mMinutes && seconds == mSeconds+47) {
                    mText.setText(getString(R.string.four));
                } else if(minutes == mMinutes+1 && seconds == mSeconds2+2) {
                    mText.setText(getString(R.string.five));
                } else if(minutes == mMinutes+1 && seconds == mSeconds2+22) {
                    mText.setText(getString(R.string.six));
                } else if(minutes == mMinutes+2) {
                    mText.setText(getString(R.string.seven));
                } else if(minutes == mMinutes+2 && seconds == mSeconds2+2) {
                    mText.setText("");
                }
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    });
}

@Override
public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
    if ((!(android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT > android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.DONUT) 
            &&keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK && event.getRepeatCount() == 0))
    {
        onBackPressed();
    }
    return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
}

public void onBackPressed() {
    Intent intent = new Intent(Playing.this, VideoPlay.class);
    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_EXCLUDE_FROM_RECENTS);
    startActivity(intent);
    finish();
    return;
}

Thanks.

Answer 1

Isn't it VideoView's getCurrentPosition() what you are looking for?

To change the contents of your TextView (or whatever yo want to use), I would set a Timer, with enough frecuency to update your "subtitle". Its TimerTask could get the playback time with that getCurrentPosition(), and use a Map to store messages values and the time as the key.

Here it's and example of what I'm thinking:

00 - "Video begins!"
05 - "something funny happens"
12 - "Video ends!"

class MySubtitlePoster extends TimerTask{
    private VideoView video;
    private TreeMap <Integer, String> messages; // populate it somewhere

    public MySubtitlePoster(VideoView v) {
        video = v;
    }

    public void run() {
        int videoPos = video.getCurrentPosition();
        String messageToDisplay = messages.floorKey(new Integer(videoPos));
        // If all this is right, now you can get the message and post it, probably using a Handler
    }
}

==========================================

After seeing your complete code, I can give you more detailed tips, but the coding thing is your job, so...

To create the map:

messages = new TreeMap();
messages.put(new Integer(0), getString(R.string.one));
messages.put(new Integer(20), getString(R.string.two));
...
messages.put(new Integer(62), getString(R.string.four));

To do the work:

public void doWork(){
    runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            try{
                mText = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.SetText);
                //If it returns  milliseconds, divide by 1000
                int playTime = mVideoView.getCurrentPosition();  
                String textValue = messages.ceilingEntry(new Integer(playtime)).getValue();
                mText.setText(textValue);
            }catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    });
}

And finally, use a Timer instead of this (There is an article here about Timers and UI):

public void run() 
{
    while(!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted())
    {
        try 
        {
            doWork();
            Thread.sleep(1000);
        }catch (InterruptedException e) 
        {
            Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
            e.printStackTrace();
        }catch(Exception e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

It is really ugly and inefficient .

So, happy coding, and please if you find some inccurancy try to solve it yourself, not because I'm not kind on helping, but it's your best chance to improve your skills.

Regards, Manuel.