Creating a simple instance of ExoPlayer

Question

I am currently looking to develop an application that utilises Dash through the ExoPlayer in Android.

To begin with I am going through the demo project however am having trouble with even creating a simple working instance of ExoPlayer that can stream mp3 or similar.

Would really appreciate any help anyone can give relating to getting a very simple exoplayer instance working from which i can adapt and build upon or if anyone has any leads for more references or guides which I can follow as there seems to be very little documentation available.

Thanks very much for all and any help!

Answer 1

Today while working on a project, I found that this.myExoPlayer = ExoPlayerFactory.newSimpleInstance(getActivity()); and some others are now deprecated and Android studio suggested to use new way. So I did a quick Google for it but everywhere I found the old way. So I looked into the SimpleExoPlayer.java file, read some methods. So this is how you initialize simpleExoPlayer:

  Activity activity = getActivity(); // if you are in a fragment
  // Or,   activity = YourActivity.this;      if you are in an Activity
  SimpleExoPlayer simpleExoPlayer = new SimpleExoPlayer.Builder(activity).build();

I hope this is helpful.

Answer 2

First of all instantiate your ExoPlayer with this line:

exoPlayer = ExoPlayer.Factory.newInstance(RENDERER_COUNT, minBufferMs, minRebufferMs);

If you want to play audio only you can use these values:

RENDERER_COUNT = 1 //since you want to render simple audio
minBufferMs = 1000 
minRebufferMs = 5000

Both buffer values can be tweaked according to your requirements

Now you have to create a DataSource. When you want to stream mp3 you can use the DefaultUriDataSource. You have to pass the Context and a UserAgent. To keep it simple play a local file and pass null as userAgent:

DataSource dataSource = new DefaultUriDataSource(context, null);

Then create the sampleSource:

ExtractorSampleSource sampleSource = new ExtractorSampleSource(
                    uri, dataSource, new Mp3Extractor(), RENDERER_COUNT, requestedBufferSize);

uri points to your file, as an Extractor you can use a simple default Mp3Extractor if you want to play mp3. requestedBufferSize can be tweaked again according to your requirements. Use 5000 for example.

Now you can create your audio track renderer using the sample source as follows:

MediaCodecAudioTrackRenderer audioRenderer = new MediaCodecAudioTrackRenderer(sampleSource);

Finally call prepare on your exoPlayer instance:

exoPlayer.prepare(audioRenderer);

To start playback call:

exoPlayer.setPlayWhenReady(true);

Answer 3

Here is how you would do it using the new ExoPlayer 2 API, and the SimpleExoPlayer.

First create the player:

DefaultBandwidthMeter bandwidthMeter = new DefaultBandwidthMeter();
DataSource.Factory dataSourceFactory = new DefaultDataSourceFactory(context, bandwidthMeter);

TrackSelection.Factory videoTrackSelectionFactory = new AdaptiveTrackSelection.Factory(bandwidthMeter);
DefaultTrackSelector trackSelector = new DefaultTrackSelector(videoTrackSelectionFactory);
LoadControl loadControl = new DefaultLoadControl();

SimpleExoPlayer player = ExoPlayerFactory.newSimpleInstance(context, trackSelector, loadControl);

player.addListener(...); // To receive events from the player

Then create your MediaSource. For MP3 you can use ExtractorMediaSource:

ExtractorsFactory extractorsFactory = new DefaultExtractorsFactory();
Uri uri = Uri.parse(mp3UriString);
Handler mainHandler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());
MediaSource mediaSource = new ExtractorMediaSource(uri, dataSourceFactory, extractorsFactory, mainHandler, mediaSourceListener); // Listener defined elsewhere

Then prepare and play when ready:

player.prepare(mediaSource);
player.setPlayWhenReady(true);

For DASH you would use DashMediaSource instead of ExtractorMediaSource.