Develop Reference

How to play an mp3 file between a range of milliseconds using android MediaPlayer?

I am able to play an mp3 file using android's MediaPlayer object. But I would like to play between a range of milliseconds for example between 30000 ms to 40000 ms ( 10 seconds only ). How can I achieve this?
Currently the following code is what I have,
private MediaPlayer mPlayer;
public void play() {
try {
mPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(getApplicationContext(), R.raw.mp3_file);
if (mPlayer != null) {
int currentPosition = mPlayer.getCurrentPosition();
if (currentPosition + 30000 <= mPlayer.getDuration()) {
mPlayer.seekTo(currentPosition + 30000);
} else {
mPlayer.seekTo(mPlayer.getDuration());
}
mPlayer.start();
}
}
catch(Exception e) {
}
}
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

You can use the method:
public int getCurrentPosition ()
to obtain the current time in milSeconds maybe inside a Handler that runs every 1000 milSeconds and tests to see:
if(mPlayer.getCurrentPosition() >= (mPlayer.getDuration + 40000));
Dont forget to release the media file when you're done using it:
public void release();
mPlayer.release();
Releases resources associated with this MediaPlayer object. It is
considered good practice to call this method when you're done using
the MediaPlayer. In particular, whenever an Activity of an application
is paused (its onPause() method is called), or stopped (its onStop()
method is called), this method should be invoked to release the
MediaPlayer object, unless the application has a special need to keep
the object around. In addition to unnecessary resources (such as
memory and instances of codecs) being held, failure to call this
method immediately if a MediaPlayer object is no longer needed may
also lead to continuous battery consumption for mobile devices, and
playback failure for other applications if no multiple instances of
the same codec are supported on a device. Even if multiple instances
of the same codec are supported, some performance degradation may be
expected when unnecessary multiple instances are used at the same
time.

The best approach is to use a Handler to time the stopping of the playback. Start the player and then use the Handler's postDelayed to schedule the execution of a Runnable that will stop the player. You should also start the player only after the initial seek completes. Something like this:
public class PlayWord extends Activity implements MediaPlayer.OnSeekCompleteListener {
Handler mHandler;
MediaPlayer mPlayer;
int mStartTime = 6889;
int mEndTime = 7254;
final Runnable mStopAction = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
mPlayer.stop();
}
};
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
final TextView tv = new TextView(this);
tv.setText("Playing...");
setContentView(tv);
mHandler = new Handler();
mPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.nicholas);
mPlayer.setOnSeekCompleteListener(this);
mPlayer.seekTo(mStartTime);
}
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
mPlayer.release();
}
#Override
public void onSeekComplete (MediaPlayer mp) {
mPlayer.start();
mHandler.postDelayed(mStopAction, mEndTime - mStartTime);
}
}
Note also that the MediaPlayer.create method you are using returns a MediaPlayer that has already been prepared and prepare should not be called again like you are doing in your code.on the screen. I also added a call to release() when the activity exits.
Also, if you want to update the UI when the seek completes, be aware that this method is usually called from a non-UI thread. You will have to use the handler to post any UI-related actions.
I'm copied this from: Android: How to stop media (mp3) in playing when specific milliseconds come?

Android Media Player Release won't stop playing

Here's my scenario:
I have a timer that counts down from 20 seconds. At 13 seconds, a sound starts playing. At 0 seconds, I stop the current sound, load up a new sound and play that new sound. Once that sounds finishes, I load up the previous sound, set it to loop, and start it.
This is the logic for hitting 0 seconds:
mp.stop();
mp = MediaPlayer.create(mActivity, R.raw.second_sound);
mp.start();
mp.setOnCompletionListener(new OnCompletionListener() {
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp = MediaPlayer.create(mActivity, R.raw.first_sound);
mp.setLooping(true);
mp.start();
}
});
Once the last sound starts playing, calling mp.release() doesn't stop the player. Any ideas as to how to stop the player?
Note: mp.release() works during the first time I start playing and during the second sound but not during the looping sound.
Solution: My global MediaPlayer is also named "mp". Oops.

You're getting the mp MediaPlayer objects mixed up a little. If mp.release() is being called outside of the onCompletion() method, it is not referring to the looping instance created there. Change the identifiers in onCompletion() to refer to the "outer" mp. For example, if your code is in MainActivity:
mp.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener()
{
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp)
{
MainActivity.this.mp = MediaPlayer.create(MainActivity.this, R.raw.chirp);
MainActivity.this.mp.setLooping(true);
MainActivity.this.mp.start();
}
}
);

Why are you creating new media player every time and not releasing old one onCompltion? did you try setDataSource?

Android: Playing two sounds one after the other

I am trying to play two sound items, one after the other
MediaPlayer mp = null;
protected void produceErrorSound(int index) {
if (mp != null) {
mp.reset();
mp.release();
}
mp = MediaPlayer.create(this, index);
mp.start();
}
public void correctAnswerAndNext(){
produceErrorSound(R.raw.right1) ;
produceErrorSound(R.raw.right1) ;
}
but only second sound is produced.
is there any alternative approach?

I can't see any wait mechanism in your code.
You can use an onCompletionListener to receive a callback when your first MediaPlayer has finished playback. At that point you can start the second MediaPlayer.
An alternative way in Jellybean (and later versions) is to use the audio chaining functionality (i.e. setNextMediaPlayer) to automatically start another MediaPlayer as soon as the current one has finished playing. Something like this (I've omitted the calls to setDataSource etc for brevity):
mediaPlayer1.prepare();
mediaPlayer2.prepare();
mediaPlayer1.start();
mediaPlayer1.setNextMediaPlayer(mediaPlayer2);

Mediaplayer error (-19,0) after repeated plays

I have a game in which a sound plays when a level is completed. Everything works fine to start with but after repeating a level 10 or 20 times the logcat suddenly reports:
"MediaPlayer error (-19,0)" and/or "MediaPlayer start called in state 0" and the sounds are no longer made.
I originally had the all sounds in mp3 format but, after reading that ogg may be more reliable, I converted them all to ogg, but the errors appeared just the same.
Any idea how I can fix this problem?

I was getting the same problem, I solved it by adding the following code to release the player:
mp1 = MediaPlayer.create(sound.this, R.raw.pan1);
mp1.start();
mp1.setOnCompletionListener(new OnCompletionListener() {
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.release();
};
});

I think you are not releasing the mediaplayers you are using to play the sound..
You need to release() the media players otherwise the resources are not released , and you soon get out of memory (since you allocate them again next time). so,I think you can play twice or even thrice... but not many times without releasing the resources

MediaPlayer is not a good option when you are playing small sound effects as the user can click on multiple buttons very soon and you will have to create a MP object for all of them which doesnt happen synchronously. That is why you are not hearing sounds for every click. Go for the SoundPool Class which allows you to keep smaller sounds loaded in memory and you can play them any time you want without any lag which you would feel in a mediaplayer. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/SoundPool.html Here is a nice tutorial : http://www.anddev.org/using_soundpool_instead_of_mediaplayer-t3115.html

I solved both the errors (-19,0) and (-38,0) , by creating a new object of MediaPlayer every time before playing and releasing it after that.
Before :
void play(int resourceID) {
if (getActivity() != null) {
//Using the same object - Problem persists
player = MediaPlayer.create(getActivity(), resourceID);
player.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
player.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
player.release();
}
});
player.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
#Override
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.start();
}
});
}
}
After:
void play(int resourceID) {
if (getActivity() != null) {
//Problem Solved
//Creating new MediaPlayer object every time and releasing it after completion
final MediaPlayer player = MediaPlayer.create(getActivity(), resourceID);
player.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
player.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
player.release();
}
});
player.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
#Override
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.start();
}
});
}
}

This is a very old question, But this came up first in my search results So other people with the same issue will probably come upon this page eventually.
Unlike what some others have said, you can in fact use MediaPlayer for small sounds without using a lot of memory. I'll put in a little modified snippit from my soundboard app to show you what I'm getting at.
private MediaPlayer mp;
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.your_layout);
mp = new MediaPlayer();
}
private void playSound(int soundID){
mp.reset();
AssetFileDescriptor sound = getResources().openRawResourceFd(soundID);
try {
mp.setDataSource(sound.getFileDescriptor(),sound.getStartOffset(),sound.getLength());
mp.prepare();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
mp.start();
}
with the way I set it up, you create on MediaPlayer object that you reuse everytime you play a sound so that you don't use up too much space.
You call .reset() instead of .release() because .release() is only used if you are disposing of an object, however you want to keep your MediaPlayer Object.
You use an assetfiledescriptor to set a new soundfile for your mediaplayer to play instead of setting a new object to your mediaplayer address because that way you are creating new objects within the method that aren't being handled properly and you will eventually run into the same error as you described.
This is only one of many ways to use MediaPlayer but I personally think it is the most efficient if you are only using it for small sound applications. The only issue with it is that it is relatively restrictive in what you can accomplish, but that shouldn't be much of an issue if you are indeed using it for small sound applications.

i try delete emulator and new create emulator for remove error of (-19,0) media player.

Android MediaPlayer is preparing too long

Hey,
I'm using MediaPlayer to play a regular ShoutCast stream. The code is straightforward with prepareAsync() and a handler to start the playback. While it works flawlessly with some streams like DI.FM or ETN.FM (http://u10.di.fm:80/di_progressive), with others (http://mp3.wpsu.org:8000/) it won't go past the prepare state. No other listeners are called either.
//Uri streamUri = Uri.parse("http://u10.di.fm:80/di_progressive"); /* works */
Uri streamUri = Uri.parse("http://mp3.wpsu.org:8000/"); /* stuck on prepare state */
MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
mediaPlayer.setOnPreparedListener(new OnPreparedListener() {
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.start();
}
});
mediaPlayer.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
mediaPlayer.setDataSource(this.getBaseContext(), streamUri);
mediaPlayer.prepareAsync();
Any feedback is appreciated!

I think that there are some compatibility problems with the server end.
This is rather strange since the emulator handles it ok in my case - just not on my Froyo Galaxy S, even though it is the same API version.
It could be a codec issue, http streaming issue, I do not know.
But all the servers that fail tend to be old ones, with "Copyright 1998 - 2004" at the bottom... Not exactly recent or up to date you would think.
One potential workaround (which I have not tried yet) would be to use the StreamProxy, which would also make your code compatible with 2.1 and possibly earlier versions too. At the cost of extra work, extra code, and without doubt extra bugs...
In case you are not aware of it, there is another player bug report for 2.2 which may be relevant too:
Basic streaming audio works in 2.1 but not in 2.2

I'm facing an issue when MP "hangs" at preparing state too long (stream) and i'm trying to stop it using reset(). This causes MP to hang and thus my whole app freezes. Seems like there is no way to stop MP at preparing state. Im thinking on use prepare() wrapped in thread instead of prepareAsync(). Then i'll be able to kill that thread. As for now i did it in following way:
private void actionCancel(){
try {
mp.setDataSource(new String());
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
android.util.Log.d(TAG,"actionCancel(): mp.setDataSource() exception");
mp.reset();
}
}
and it works 4me.
Additionally i have a following counter:
#Override
public void onBufferingUpdate(final MediaPlayer mp, final int percent) {
if (!mp.isPlaying()){
// android.util.Log.d(TAG,"onBufferingUpdate(): onBufferingUpdateCount = "+onBufferingUpdateCount);
if (onBufferingUpdateCount>MAX_BUFFERING_UPDATES_AT_PREPARING_STATE)
restartMP();
onBufferingUpdateCount++;
return;
}
}
i'd discover this listener always triggers at preparing state. So if it triggers more than 10 times and MP is still not playing i'm just restarting it:
private void restartMP(){
if (mp!=null)
if (mpState==MediaPlayerState.Preparing)
actionCancel();
else
mp.reset();
else
mp = new MediaPlayer();
mpState = MediaPlayerState.Idle;
onBufferingUpdateCount=0;
//isRequestCancelled=false;
requestTrackInfoStartedAt=0;
requestPlay();
}
note MediaPlayerState is my custom enum which has "Preparing" value. Also mpState is a class property/field which holds current MediaPlayerState state. Before starting prepareAsync() im setting mpState to MediaPlayerState.Preparing after it completes im setting it to MediaPlayerState.Started or other corresponding value.