B4A Library FFmpeg_b4a - a FFmpeg library for b4a (decoding/streaming)

FFmpeg_b4a

EDIT: As of August 2019, this library is not compliant with Google Play store's latest requirements which require native 64bits libs. It is still useable for apps not being distributed on Google Play Store though.

Personally I would probably use the ExoPlayer (search the forum) these days unless you have codec-issues. Alternatively, you can use my Vitamio5 library/wrapper which is compliant with Google Play store's latest requirements.

FFmpeg_b4a wraps the IJKPlayer library. Before FFmpeg_b4a, the only FFmpeg library available for B4A was Vitamio (for which I wrote a wrapper library back in 2012 - see here). My library for Vitamio was later enhanced by @warwound to support more recent versions of Vitamio - see here.

What is so special with FFmpeg and these libraries?
-Well, these libraries work like Android's default MediaPlayer and VideoView (see b4a's Audio-library) except that they include much more powerful features. They include a collection of media demuxers, decoders, filters - with FFmpeg you can decode many formats which are not supported natively by Android.

Why this new FFmpeg_b4a wrapper when there is already Vitamio?
- Good question! I wrote this library mainly due to licensing costs. As long as you develop personal and free apps (and with no ads) with Vitamio integrated, you can use Vitamio for free if I have understood things correctly. However, if you publish a pay app, an app with ads or develop an app for a third party where Vitamio is integrated, then you need a license which of course is fair enough. However, when I contacted Vitamio asking for license costs, I was informed the license costs were in thousands USD per app and per year! Well, this may be OK for larger companies but for a hobby programmer like myself (and probably others here on the forum), it is far too expensive. With the FFmpeg_b4a wrapper I believe the license costs are not any longer necessary. Please refer to the "read-me" in the link I cited above for IJKPlayer where the author of IJKPlayer explains licensing issues. I think the important thing here is that the author wrote the C++ code and the JAVA wrapper code himself and that his work may be used also in commercial projects. Please note that I am not a lawyer so I cannot be certain about this so don't blame me if you run into any licensing problems. However, personally I feel more confident to include this library in commercial projects compared to Vitamio.

Any disadvantages with FFMpeg_b4a compared to Vitamio?
-well, Vitamio is very mature and exposes more methods and attributes than FFmpeg_b4a. However, the only things that I personally miss in FFmpeg_b4a are support for subtitles and multiple audio tracks. Some other things missing in FFMmeg_b4a are: possibility to select video-quality (for now I believe all streams are "highest quality" only), no support for MIPS, you cannot set buffer-size and some other minor things. However, most methods and attributes available in Vitamio are available also in FFmpeg_b4a. The implementation of the methods are similar and use mostly the same syntax so replacing Vitamio should be rather easy and straight-forward. Hopefully the author of IJKPlayer will continue improving the library and add missing features.

How to use FFmpeg_b4a?

-Requirements:
a) You need B4A v3.20 or later to compile your app.
b) Min SDK version is API level 9 (Android 2.3–2.3.2 Gingerbread)

-Instructions:
1)In your B4A-project (refer to the included demo in the attached zip-file), under Project attributes, add 2 lines as follows:

#AdditionalRes: C:\testingb4a\testffmpeg\ijkmediaplayer\res, tv.danmaku.ijk.media.player
#AdditionalRes: C:\testingb4a\testffmpeg\ijkmediawidget\res, tv.danmaku.ijk.media.widget

IMPORTANT - Replace "C:\testingb4a\testffmpeg\ijkmediaplayer\res" and "C:\testingb4a\testffmpeg\ijkmediawidget\res" with the path to your folder where you saved the supplied res-folders on your PC.
The res-folders are included in the attached zip-file. Please note that the res-folder for ijkmediaplayer is empty. I am unsure if B4A still needs the path when compiling so I included it anyway.

2) Copy the libraries (ijkmediaplayer.jar and ijkmediawidget.jar) included in the attached zip-file to your B4A extra-library folder.

3) The wrapper with the necessary FFmpeg-library (support for armeabi, armeabi-v7a and x86) is available here:
- FFmpeg_B4A - first version
- FFmpeg_B4A_v2 - added support for rtsp and some extra codecs
- FFmpeg_B4A_v3 - added support for some speech codecs suitable for IP-cams (https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5fqvgkl4be4dtk/FFMpeg_B4A_v3.zip?dl=0)

Extract and copy the library (jar-file and xml-file) into your B4A extra-library folder.

4) In B4A (in the the libs-tab), remember to tick the FFmpeg_b4a library.

Notes:
-armeabi, armeabi-v7a and x86 architecture are supported while ARMv5, ARMv6, MIPS are not.
-If the author of the IJKPlayer adds new features and I think it would be a worthwhile upgrade, I will try to include them and release an updated version of the wrapper.

Important final notes:
-Compared to the original FFmpeg build by bbcallen, I built and recompiled the basic FFmpeg-configuration by adding some codecs which I needed. I built the FFmpeg-library according to my needs but I think the FFmpeg_b4a wrapper should now work with most containers and video/audio decoders. This means that the FFmpeg-library is also rather light-weight compared to others.
-If you have problems with some streams or with playback of some video/audio-files, you can check the unfiltered logs in B4A and look for a line similar to the following: "No codec could be found with id XXX".
If you see this, then it is likely you need a codec which is not included the FFmpeg-library. Further down in the unfiltered log, you should see an indication which codec is missing. You can then add the missing containers, demuxers, muxers and codec by building and recompiling the FFmpeg-libraries yourself and then replace the existing FFmpeg-libraries (so-files) in the FFmpeg_B4A wrapper with the ones you generated (you can use 7Zip for that). In this way, you are independent as long as there are no major changes in the wrapper itself which could break the code.
-The wrapping of the library itself was not tricky. The difficult and time-consuming part was actually learning how to set up everything on a Linux-box, configure everything (dependencies, system environments etc.), get some basic understanding of FFmpeg in order to create and/or modify the FFmpeg-libraries, trouble-shooting errors and make sure that everything worked. I spent quite some time on this to get a better understanding. Most projects which can be found on the Internet are not supplying the FFmpeg-libraries while I actually decided to furnish a basic working set.
-If you need help with adding missing codecs, then I might be able to help you but you need to contact me by PM for further discussion.

Credits/Thanks:
-to the author of IJKPlayer: Zhang Rui (bbcallen)
-to @warwound (Martin) for permission to use (and modify) wrapper code for MediaController and OutlineTextView. The wrapper code for VideoView is based on code by myself and Martin.

PS: FFmpeg is actually a solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. It is used also for video and audio creation and manipulation. You can for instance download a YouTube-video and extract the audio-file. The version posted cannot do this since it only handles decoding/streaming. However, if I find some time later on, I will try to wrap a FFmpeg-library which will permit you to do other things and not only streaming(decoding).

Good luck!

 

[victormedranop]

Hi everyone, interesting case. and working apk with ffmpeg. really nice, but when i change the orientation
stop playing.

any ideas?

Victor

 

[victormedranop]

Is so frustrating, I cant control the application when buffer is equal to 0.
Some help please, will go for coffee.

Sub FFMpegVideoView1_Prepared
Log("FFMpegVideoView1_Prepared")
Log("PLAYING")
Log("Buffer" & FFMpegVideoView1.GetBufferPercentage)
If FFMpegVideoView1.GetBufferPercentage = 0 Or FFMpegVideoView1.GetBufferPercentage < 0 Then
         ToastMessageShow("Invalid Connection to internet prepared",True)
          FFMpegVideoView1.Invalidate
         FFMpegVideoView1.Visible = False
         ListView1.Visible = True
          Return
End If

End Sub

Thanks,

Victor

 

[moster67]

I don't have B4A available now but if I remember correctly, when the Prepared event triggers, buffering has already ended.
Try to do something in the Info-event. Take a look the sample code I posted here although it was meant for the standard VideoView. Maybe you can adapt it and get it to work? It really depends on if FFmpeg sends the same "what" info....

 

[moster67]

when i change the orientation
stop playing.

Does this happen with the sample app too?

 

[victormedranop]

i think is the network delay, but how can i handle the start video with buffer 50 or something like that.
yes, sample app too.

Victor

 

[moster67]

I tried it with the sample app and the video stops indeed when changing orientation but then it restarts (at least for me). This is normal since the Activity is recreated. You could try checking if video is playing like this in the Activity_Create sub:

If FFMpegVideoView1.IsPlaying = False Then
        FFMpegVideoView1.SetVideoPath("http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/gear1/prog_index.m3u8")
End If

However, the best solution would be to implement the solution I posted here.

If you have network delay, then it is not easy for me to simulate. However, you can use the below code to detect when buffering is starting and when it has finished.

Sub FFMpegVideoView1_Info(What As Int, Extra As Int) As Boolean
    If What = 701 Then 'buffering starting
        Log("we are buffering")
        'show and start a progressbar with spinning circle or do what you want.....
    Else if What = 702 Then 'buffering finished
        Log("Buffering has finished")
        'stop and hide progressbar
    End If
    Return False
End Sub

 

[victormedranop]

Moster67, have you try to port this amazon lib to B4i?

Victor

 

[moster67]

@victormedranop
There are FFmpeg-frameworks for iOS as well but my knowledge of Objective C is very limited. Even with the new version of B4i which should support Swift and if there was a framework in Swift, I still would need to wrap it in Objective C. So for now, I doubt I will do it.

 

[Almora]

This video is not playing..

FFMpegVideoView1_Error -10000

 

[moster67]

This video is not playing..

Maybe the codec is not supported? In the first post, I have written how you can check the logs and see if this is the case...

 

[Almora]

I think the decoder problem ..

 

[Almora]

message_loop
FFP_MSG_FLUSH:
ijkmp_prepare_async()=0
SDL_RunThread: [27963] ff_read
Protocol not found
FFP_MSG_ERROR: 0
netId is 0

 

[moster67]

Yes, probably a protocol or codec issue (or both) for that URL/stream. Maybe it works with VLC or Vitamio?

 

[Almora]

Yes, probably a protocol or codec issue (or both) for that URL/stream. Maybe it works with VLC or Vitamio?

exo : no working
vlc : no working
vitamio 5.0.2 : its working..

 

[Almora]

Vitamio 5 is the best.

 

[Swissmade]

Hi Guys somebody know to use this in B4J with JavaFX?

Thanks for help

 

[moster67]

This is for b4a.
For b4j, you could let the user install ffmpeg and then you use a shell and ffplay.

 

[Swissmade]

a shell and ffplay

Yes this is possible but I never have find the way to get the output to a B4J app.
Maybe somebody know how.
Thanks monster67

 

[victormedranop]

It's possible to made an playlist without using
FFMpegVideoView1_Complete function ?


Thanks

victor

 

[moster67]

Yes this is possible but I never have find the way to get the output to a B4J app.
Maybe somebody know how.
Thanks monster67

You could try the VLC wrapper I wrote for B4J...