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I am making a live tv streaming application for android just like dopool or IMDB or LIVE TV.I have some questions i want to ask?

Q 1: Is live tv streaming possible in android 2.1?

Q 2: Can i use default android web browser to streaming live tv By just passing the URL? If yes then i don't want to show the url in browser just want the full screen playing. and can i add option like add to favourite while playing live tv.

Q 3: Should i write the code for video player for streaming live tv? instead of using browser

Q 4: My friend made a application for window which use the crome brwoser to stream live tv in .net and he hide the address tab from brwoser so that only video will be show. so i am confused?

Q 5: Can i play flash video streaming? if yes any link or example would be great.

Q 6: I don't know how to go for this, they just give me links for tv channels and said stream it I don't know how?

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Sunny
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1 Answers1

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A1: Yes, rtsp/rtp streaming is suported under 2.1 (I recall it's been there since 1.6). To see some rtsp streams (not live though, but they could be) go to http://m.youtube.com

A2: If streams is rtsp, then browser will open it in the external video player. Flash (rtmp) streams play in flash in browser (if flash is available). HTTPS progressive streams (apple) are only supported under 3.0+.

A3: No need. There is already a video player in android: MediaPlayer

A4: Yes, desktop browsers alloy opening NEW windows via javascript that have no address bar: Open new popup window without address bars in firefox & IE. There are tricks to do this in Android: Removing address bar from browser (to view on Android)

A5: Yes, if flash is installed on a particular device. But you can not rely on this as Flash is a separate product available via Market (although often comes bundled with device).

A6: What kind of links did you get? If links are rtsp:// then you can easily use MediaPlayer. Try something like this:

MediaPlayer m = new MediaPlayer(); 
m.setDataSource("rtsp://host.name.com/stream/name"); 
m.prepare(); 
m.start();
Community
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Peter Knego
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  • Live streaming only differs to VoD on the server side, for the client both are the same. Check my previous post about streaming [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/8373281/801913) – momo Dec 10 '11 at 17:35
  • @ Peter thanks for your answer i want to streaming video from http://www.unlimitedtv.com/channels/9750.html link. This is a live tv show i tried it using videoView and it say video can't be played. and also try from passing url webView but it is not streaming. – Sunny Dec 12 '11 at 10:44
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    This page uses Flash to play video, most probably in Flash-proprietary `rtmp` protocol. Android SDK does not support `rtmp` protocol. – Peter Knego Dec 12 '11 at 11:07
  • so it will not work on sdk2.1.? am i right? one thing i want to know how these tv apps play livr tv also in 1.6+. Are they encode their streaming in specific codec like H264.? please guide me. – Sunny Dec 12 '11 at 11:34
  • As described above, before 2.1 the only way is to use `rtsp` protocol. That means also server must provide video streams via this protocol. – Peter Knego Dec 12 '11 at 13:21
  • what about http flash or mjpeg? And also ws links – Amt87 Aug 30 '12 at 06:17
  • RTMP Flash - no. HTTP Flash (FLV file) - no. HTTP MJPEG does not seem to be supported: http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html – Peter Knego Aug 30 '12 at 08:25