Add boundary time observer similar to iOS AVPlayer SDK

[velocitysystems]

We love MediaPlayerExtended and use it extensively in our app!
Recently, we have a new use case where we wish to play clips or segments from full-length media files.

One of the challenges however, is detecting when the end of the clip occurs.
MediaPlayer has OnCompletionListener but this only fires at the end of full-length playback.

What is the feasibility of adding something similar to addBoundaryTimeObserver on iOS?
Apple SDK Documentation

ie. While MPE is decoding frames, you can set a time point at which you want the player to fire an event. You could then use this to listen for the end time for a video clip and respond accordingly.

[protyposis]

This is a great idea, will be added to the next version :)

[velocitysystems]

Thanks Mario - that's brilliant! Along a similar line is the ability to play clips within a media file.
ie. Specify a custom start time and duration/end point.

iOS and UWP both support this with the native players, but not Android afraid unfortunately.
Will give this some further thought and perhaps suggest in a separate issue.

[protyposis]

Yes setting the start and end point is not explicitly implemented as a feature but will easily be achievable with the Cue API in the upcoming version:

// Start at the 5 second mark
final int clipStartTime = 5000;
// End at the 10 second mark
final int clipEndTime = 10000;

mediaPlayer.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
    @Override
    public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
        // Seek to the start time when player is ready
        mp.seekTo(clipStartTime);
        
        // Add a cue marker for the end time
        mp.addCue(clipEndTime);
        
        mp.setOnCueListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCueListener() {
            @Override
            public void onCue(MediaPlayer mp, Cue cue) {
                // Once the end time cue is reached we stop playback.
                // We don't need to use the cue object in this case because we know that we only 
                // added a single cue so when the event is triggered we can be sure that this is 
                // the end time cue.
                mp.stop();
            }
        });

      // Start playback
      mp.start();
    }
});

[protyposis]

Working with multiple cues could look like this:

Cue clipEndTimeCue = mp.addCue(clipEndTime);
Cue someOtherCue = mp.addCue(someOtherTime);

mp.setOnCueListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCueListener() {
    @Override
    public void onCue(MediaPlayer mp, Cue cue) {
        // We make use of the Cue object returned by addCue
        if (cue == clipEndTimeCue) {
            mp.stop();
        } else {
            // Do something else with other cues
            ...
        }
    }
});

Or like this:

Object clipEndTimeMarkerData = ...;

mp.addCue(clipEndTime, clipEndTimeMetadata);
mp.addCue(someOtherTime);

mp.setOnCueListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCueListener() {
    @Override
    public void onCue(MediaPlayer mp, Cue cue) {
        // We make use of the optional data carried by the Cue object
        if (cue.getData() == clipEndTimeMarkerData) {
            mp.stop();
        } else {
            // Do something else with other cues
            ...
        }
    }
});

[protyposis]

Released in v4.4.0.

[velocitysystems]

@protyposis Brilliant work! We can't wait to test this out next week.
Thank you so much for implementing this so quickly. Look forward to working with the modified API.