Android intent for playing video?

I'm trying to play video's on Android, by launching an intent. The code I'm using is:

tostart = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
tostart.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(movieurl), "video/*");
startActivity(tostart); 

This works on most phones, but not on the HTC Hero. It seems to load a bit different video player. This does play the first video thrown at it. However, every video after that it doesn't respond. (it keeps in some loop).

If I add an explicit

tostart.setClassName("com.htc.album","com.htc.album.ViewVideo");

(before the startactivity) it does work on the HTC Hero. However, since this is a HTC specific call, I can't run this code on other phones (such as the G1). On the G1, this works:

tostart.setClassName("com.android.camera","com.android.camera.MovieView"); //g1 version

But this intent is missing from the hero. Does anybody know a list of intents/classnames that should be supported by all Android devices? Or a specific one to launch a video? Thanks!


Use setDataAndType on the Intent

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(newVideoPath));
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(newVideoPath), "video/mp4");
startActivity(intent);

Use "video/mp4" as MIME or use "video/*" if you don't know the type.

Edit: This not valid for general use. It fixes a bug in old HTC devices which required the URI in both the intent constructor and be set afterwards.


From now onwards after API 24, Uri.parse(filePath) won't work. You need to use this

final File videoFile = new File("path to your video file");
Uri fileUri = FileProvider.getUriForFile(mContext, "{yourpackagename}.fileprovider", videoFile);
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setDataAndType(fileUri, "video/*");
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION);//DO NOT FORGET THIS EVER
startActivity(intent);

But before using this you need to understand how file provider works. Go to official document link to understand file provider better.