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[Android] Playing local files

See original GitHub issue

I have tried this: <Video source={{uri: "/storage/emulated/0/test.mp4" }} .... to no avail, and I was wondering if anyone has had any success playing local files on Android. If so, I would like to know how or if this is currently only available for iOS.

@buhe Is your pull request trying to fix this?

Thanks.

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 8 years ago
Comments:14 (1 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

5reactions

bd-arccommented, Sep 28, 2021

For anyone stumbling upon this issue while trying to load local videos (i.e. native project assets rather than RN static resources), I have a few tips.

In my case, it was a matter of saving precious megabytes for CodePush updates. Indeed, when the videos are part of the RN project’s static resources, they will be included in the JS bundle sent to CodePush and retrieved by the users. I’ll let you do the calculation, but when you save more than 30 MB per update times 50k users, that counts! Not to mention the enhanced user experience.

To do so, you’ll first need to add the video files to your project:

Android: Save your mp4 files under the directory android/app/src/main/res/raw. Note that files in this directory must be lowercase and underscored (e.g. my_video.mp4) and that subdirectories are not supported by Android.
iOS: Open Xcode and add your mp4 files to the project (right-click the project and select “Add Files to [PROJECTNAME]”). Subdirectories are supported by iOS.

Then for the tricky part that cost me a lot of trials and errors:

Android: use the filename as the uri but don’t specify the file extension.
- Example: <Video source={{ uri: 'my_video' }} />
iOS: it’s the exact opposite, meaning you need to specify the file extension.
- Example: <Video source={{ uri: 'my_video.mp4' }} />

I didn’t find this info anywhere so I thought it could help a frustrated dev or two 😉

1reaction

ghostcommented, Aug 15, 2016

When I created Lumpen Radio iOS app using this module a year ago I was able to store local video files under the project root folder in src/assets/videos. I was happy with this as I envisioned one day being able to leverage the same location for Android.

During the Android support addition @isair mentioned video files for Android can be stored under android/app/src/main/res/raw/. While I’m extremely grateful for the Android support, the location specified seems less than ideal as it lends itself to duplication of video assets by platform.

Poking through the open PRs I noticed this promising gem, which appears to allow one to leverage the RN asset system to do the resolving and help prevent by-platform file duplication or any kind of funky “cross-the-streams” loading of files for iOS from the Android raw sources folder.

Keywords storage location where to store android video