Basic Integration¶

The PlayerView is a visual Android component that you can add to your layouts.

<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
             xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
             android:layout_width="match_parent"
             android:layout_height="match_parent"
             android:background="#000000"
             tools:context="com.castlabs.sdk.demos.SimplePlaybackDemo">

    <com.castlabs.android.player.PlayerView
        android:id="@+id/player_view"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent">
    </com.castlabs.android.player.PlayerView>
</FrameLayout>

The view supports two different surface types: the default SurfaceView and a TextureView. This is configurable through an attribute setting in the layout file:

<FrameLayout>
    <com.castlabs.android.player.PlayerView
        app:surface="textureView">
        ...
    </com.castlabs.android.player.PlayerView>
</FrameLayout>

The possible values are textureView to select a TextureView or surfaceView to use a SurfaceView.

Alternatively, you can also configure the surface type programmatically using the view’s PlayerView.setSurfaceType(int) method.

The surface type that you choose here has a direct implication on the content that you can play. While a TextureView integrates nicely with other user interface elements and allows smooth animations and transitions, it is not secure. If your DRM system enforces a secure media path, only the SurfaceView will be able to render video. In general, we encourage you to always use the SurfaceView setting, which is also the default, for playback of DRM protected content.

Hiding the Surface¶

As mentioned before, SurfaceView is required for DRM protected content playback, but it is a heavy component that does not play nicely with other components, specifically other SurfaceView instances.

If you need to overlay another SurfaceView over the current player, for example when you are implementing ad insertion, the PlayerView allows you to hide or remove its current surface.

The best option is to use the view’s PlayerView.setSurfaceVisibility(boolean) method to hide or show the current surface. This method will not remove the surface from the scene but rather resize it to become invisible. This has the benefit that the surface will not be detached from the player and, once made visible again, video playback and video rendering will start immediately.

If you cannot use the PlayerView.setSurfaceVisibility(boolean) method, or you want to completely detach and remove the surface, you can use PlayerView.removeSurface() and PlayerView.prepareSurface() to remove and prepare a new surface. The downside of this method is that video rendering can only continue at the next i-frame.

Scaling Mode¶

By default, the PlayerView will scale its surface to match the aspect ratio of the video. You can, however, change that using PlayerView.setScalingMode(int). The supported modes are:

PlayerView.SCALING_MODE_FIT

This is the default mode. The video will be scaled using its original aspect ratio to fit inside the player view.

PlayerView.SCALING_MODE_CROP

The video will be displayed in its original size. If the video is larger than the screen size, any overflow will not be visible and cut off (“cropped”).

PlayerView.SCALING_MODE_STRETCH

The video will be scaled to fully utilize the available screen size. The original aspect ratio of the video will not be kept.

PlayerView Plugins¶

The PRESTOplay SDK for Android provides a set of PlayerViewPlugins. These Plugins act as an interface between some PlayerControllerPlugins, such as the SubtitlesPlugin or the ThumbsPlugin and a PlayerView.

If you use one of such Plugins, the corresponding PlayerViewPlugin will also be enabled and the PlayerView will handle the creation and lifecycle of the required Views.

You can get access to the underlying Views created by the PlayerViewPlugins and ultimately used by the PlayerControllerPlugins with the PlayerView.getComponentView(int) method, or through PlayerController.getComponentView(int).

If you want finer control over any of these Plugins please check the corresponding section for each plugin.