Comparing top video player for Android

VLC for Android

VLC media player is a cross-platform open source multi-media player. VLC for Android supports audio and video playback as well as network streams, DVD ISOs, network shares and drivers. It is similar to the desktop version of VLC.

Rating & Reviews – 4.2, 1.7M reviews

“Excellent app but the only thing that I found bugging me is that in some long videos (~2h-3hr) we can not jump to a certain position and the video automatically stops playing. Even if we play video from the beginning and when it reaches this certain point, it stops playing. I even tried to change h/w acceleration options but it didn’t work. Hope this gets fixed asap.” – Play Store review

MX Player: Video Player & OTT

MX Player supports all popular video formats and offers MX Silver Ad-Lite subscription. MX Player app supports seamless 8K / 4K Ultra HD / HD video playback. Additionally , you get access to a vast collection of free multilingual movies, TV shows, MX Originals, music videos, and much more.

Rating & Reviews – 4, 12.3M reviews

“Best app, Add 1.25 speed on video player” – Play Store review

BSPlayer

BSPlayer is a hardware accelerated video player, suited for older Android devices. It supports multi-core (dual and quad-core) HW decoding and it’s also known for its automatic subtitle finding functionality.

Rating & Reviews – 4, 145K reviews

“Used this app for the past decade but now Too many ads, switched to VLC” – Play Store review

Kodi

Kodi is an open-source software media player for digital media for Home Theatre PCs (HTPCs). It’s ideal for users who want to integrate their video, music, and gaming experiences in one platform.

Rating & Reviews – 3.2, 328k reviews

“Powerful app. Has a lot of features and functionalities and still runs smooth. Can not only convert your phone to a server can also act as an intermediate device to boost functionalities of other devices. Like if your router only has ftp or smb can use this phone as a upnp middle man. Lots of other stuff too.” – Play Store review

KMPlayer – All Video Player

KMPlayer caters to all forms of HD videos, music and subtitle files. Features include bookmark, quick button, chromecast support, and play speed settings.

Rating & Reviews – 3.6, 388K reviews

“Impressive. First app giving all the desired options after over 10 attempts with other players. Flawless. Good songs management, can play in background without blocking the screen, sound amplifier… even cool options like wifi broadcast. Probably the BEST AND MOST USEFUL app on google play.” – Play Store review

XPlayer (Video Player All Format)

XPlayer is a highly popular online video player, supporting all video formats and 4K/Ultra HD video files. The player supports password for your private album and Night Mode, Quick Mute & Playback Speed.

Rating & Reviews – 4.7, 1.56M reviews

“Have been using this video player app for a while now, and it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. On the positive side, all my videos play seamlessly, and the interface is user-friendly. However, I’ve encountered an issue with song detection. Not all my songs are being picked up by the app, which can be frustrating when I want to create playlists including both videos and music. I appreciate the smooth video playback, but I hope the developers can address the song detection issue in future updates.” – Play Store review

Must have features in a custom video player for Android App

Multi-Format Support – support for various video formats (FLV, MKV, MP4 and AVI) and codecs. This ensures video availability and playback on a variety of video files on devices.

Adaptive Streaming – adaptive streaming auto adjusts the video quality as per the viewer’s internet speed, thus ensuring smooth playback. The video player has to support adaptive streaming protocols like DASH and HLS.

User-Friendly Interface – The player must have an easy to navigate and intuitive interface. This improves the viewing experience and accessibility for the viewers.

Responsive and Efficient Playback Controls – Various controls like play, pause, seek must be responsive and smooth, giving the viewer complete control over the video playback.

Subtitle Support – subtitle support makes the content accessible to non-native speakers and people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The player should have support for various subtitle formats.

Hardware Acceleration – This involves utilizing the device hardware tor video decoding, which improves the performance. High-resolution videos have a smooth playback and at the same time, battery life is conserved.

Customizable Playback Speed – Without disturbing the audio quality, the player must have the option to alter playback speed. It is highly useful in education videos or watching videos at preferred speeds.

Aspect Ratio and Zoom Controls – changing aspect ratio and zoom in/out allows viewers to adjust the video display as per their preference or screen size.

Error Handling and Reporting – There will be instances of playback errors and a proper clarification and potential solution should be displayed to the viewer.

Security and DRM Support – VdoCipher custom video player for Android offers the highest level of video security i.e, DRM support to protect copyrighted content and ensure compliance.

Analytics and Reporting – Gathering data on viewer’s viewing behavior and preferences make it easy to improve and personalize their viewing experience.

Integrations – with Native, Flutter, React Native SDK

Offline download & playback – Ability to support offline download and secure playback.

Play Integrity Integration – To prevent app cloning and prevent hacking attempts. Check out our play integrity apk documentation to know more.

Picture in Picture Option – multi-window mode to shrink a video to a small player so that you can keep using other apps on your smartphone.

Background playback possibility – play videos in background

Creating custom video player for Android

Most developers, while creating a custom video player for Android, rely on two primary options provided by Google, MediaPlayer and ExoPlayer. MediaPlayer is a customizable open source library, part of android SDK and suited for simple playback video requirements. On the other hand, ExoPlayer offers more features and flexibility. Developers use it for advanced features like adaptive streaming.

MediaPlayer

The framework supports various common media type playbacks, allowing easy integration of images, video and audio into your applications. Audio and video media files stored in application’s resources can be played from standalone files or using MediaPlayer APIs to play from a data stream arriving over a network connection. MediaPlayer is easy to integrate, making it a popular choice for developers who do not need extensive customizations.

Following classes are used to play sound and videos in the Android framework:

• MediaPlayer – primary API to play sound and video. It supports various media sources such as Local resources, Internal URIs and External URLs (streaming)
• AudioManager – manages audio sources and audio output on a device

MediaPlayer has limited support for adaptive streaming protocols like HLS or DASH and doesn’t provide as much control over buffering, rendering, and track selection.

Media3 ExoPlayer

Jetpack Media3 has a Player Interface which defines basic functionalities such as pause, play, seek and display track information. The default implementation of this interface in Media3(a powerful media playback library by Google ) is ExoPlayer. Compared to MediaPlayer, it provides support for multi streaming protocols, default media renderers, and components to handle media buffering. ExoPlayer is highly customizable and can be updated via Play Store application updates.

• Add ExoPlayer as a dependency to your project.
• Create an ExoPlayer instance.
• Attach the player to a view (for video output and user input).
• Prepare the player with a MediaItem to play.
• Release the player when done.

Comparison between MediaPlayer and ExoPlayer Framework

VdoCipher Security and DRM in video players for Android

VdoCipher has mastered the art of delivering encrypted video content to Android devices, leveraging the power of ExoPlayer/Media3. Let’s dive into the four key components that make this possible:

• The Client’s Role – At the heart of the process is the client, eagerly attempting to play content. This is where the user’s journey begins.
• VdoCipher’s License Server – This is the brains of the operation. The license server responds to client requests by generating decryption keys, ensuring that only authorized users can access the content.
• Provisioning for Unique Credentials – Some scenarios require unique credentials for specific devices. Here, a provisioning server steps in to ensure that each device gets what it needs for a seamless streaming experience.
• The Content Server – The final piece of the puzzle is the content server, which safely serves the encrypted content to the client.

Now, let’s look at how these components interact at the client-side

• Playing Protected Content – The client attempts to play protected content from the content server. This is done using a DashMediaSource, paired with a DrmSessionManager.
• The Role of DRMSessionManager – The DRMSessionManager, a pivotal element, implements the MediaDRMCallback. It’s further enhanced by the HttpMediaDrmCallback, which adds layers of functionality, such as wrapping/unwrapping license requests and responses, and throwing custom exceptions to pinpoint issues.
• Device Provisioning – If a device needs provisioning, a request is made to the provisioning server. This is seamlessly handled via a callback.
• License Acquisition and Playback – Once the MediaDRM client secures the license, it’s passed to ExoPlayer, kickstarting media playback. This process is a must for each media playback request, especially for non-persistent licenses.
• Handling Persistent Licenses – The application smartly saves and reuses persistent licenses until they expire. Plus, persistent license requests are pre-fetched before video playback begins, using OfflineLicenseHelper. This ensures video initialization is smooth, regardless of the success of the license fetch operation.

FAQs

What is the best video player for Android?

Some of the best-rated video player for Android based on customer reviews are MX Player, VLC for Android, and ExoPlayer.

Is MX Player allowed in India?

Yes, MX Player services are accessible in India.

Is VLC better than MX Player?

Each of these Android video players have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some reddit reviews find MX Player having better customizations and preference for pc, laptop unlike VLC which is recommended by many for smartphones.

Can the interface of Android video players be customizable?

Video players for Android like VdoCipher custom video player offer a high level of customizations like theme and layout change.

Do video player for Android have adaptive streaming?

VdoCipher video player supports adaptive bitrate streaming which means the video quality dynamically adjusts based on the viewer’s internet connection and playback device. The feature is highly useful in times of low internet connectivity or for those living in tier 2,3 cities. Learn more about VdoCipher’s Android video SDK  for adaptive streaming

References:

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/platform/mediaplayer

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/exoplayer

Jyoti

Jyoti began her career as a software engineer in HCL with UNHCR as a client. She started evolving her technical and documentation writing skills to become a full-time Content Marketer at VdoCipher.

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