I was able to get this to work and since it is still an open question I will include the complete solution here.
Although the idea of changing the file extension to prevent the compression is nice, but I prefer to copy the srt file from the resources to the app local directory on the device, but anyways for the sake of completeness here is a list of extensions that won't be compressed.
".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", ".gif", ".wav", ".mp2", ".mp3", ".ogg", ".aac",
".mpg", ".mpeg", ".mid", ".midi", ".smf", ".jet", ".rtttl", ".imy", ".xmf", ".mp4", ".m4a", ".m4v", ".3gp", ".3gpp", ".3g2", ".3gpp2",".amr", ".awb", ".wma", ".wmv"
The solution steps are simple:
Create a MediaPlayer instance and prepare it by either calling MediaPlayer.create() or player.setDataSource() then player.prepare()
If the subtitle files does not already exists on the android device, copy it from the resource folder to the device
Call player.addTimedTextSource() with the first argument a String that contains the full path of the subtitle file on the device and MediaPlayer.MEDIA_MIMETYPE_TEXT_SUBRIP as the second argument
Select the TimedText track by calling player.selectTrack() and pass the index of timedTextType by searching the TrackInfo[] returned from player.getTrackInfo() (I find it usually 2)
Set up a listener with player.setOnTimedTextListener() and then start playing the media file player.start()
Here is the complete class:
To run this exact class you will need two files under your res/raw folder sub.srt and video.mp4 (or whatever extensions). Then define a TextView with the id txtDisplay. Finally your project/device/emulator must support API 16
public class MainActivity extends Activity implements OnTimedTextListener {
private static final String TAG = "TimedTextTest";
private TextView txtDisplay;
private static Handler handler = new Handler();
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
txtDisplay = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtDisplay);
MediaPlayer player = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.video);
try {
player.addTimedTextSource(getSubtitleFile(R.raw.sub),
MediaPlayer.MEDIA_MIMETYPE_TEXT_SUBRIP);
int textTrackIndex = findTrackIndexFor(
TrackInfo.MEDIA_TRACK_TYPE_TIMEDTEXT, player.getTrackInfo());
if (textTrackIndex >= 0) {
player.selectTrack(textTrackIndex);
} else {
Log.w(TAG, "Cannot find text track!");
}
player.setOnTimedTextListener(this);
player.start();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private int findTrackIndexFor(int mediaTrackType, TrackInfo[] trackInfo) {
int index = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < trackInfo.length; i++) {
if (trackInfo[i].getTrackType() == mediaTrackType) {
return i;
}
}
return index;
}
private String getSubtitleFile(int resId) {
String fileName = getResources().getResourceEntryName(resId);
File subtitleFile = getFileStreamPath(fileName);
if (subtitleFile.exists()) {
Log.d(TAG, "Subtitle already exists");
return subtitleFile.getAbsolutePath();
}
Log.d(TAG, "Subtitle does not exists, copy it from res/raw");
// Copy the file from the res/raw folder to your app folder on the
// device
InputStream inputStream = null;
OutputStream outputStream = null;
try {
inputStream = getResources().openRawResource(resId);
outputStream = new FileOutputStream(subtitleFile, false);
copyFile(inputStream, outputStream);
return subtitleFile.getAbsolutePath();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
closeStreams(inputStream, outputStream);
}
return "";
}
private void copyFile(InputStream inputStream, OutputStream outputStream)
throws IOException {
final int BUFFER_SIZE = 1024;
byte[] buffer = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE];
int length = -1;
while ((length = inputStream.read(buffer)) != -1) {
outputStream.write(buffer, 0, length);
}
}
// A handy method I use to close all the streams
private void closeStreams(Closeable... closeables) {
if (closeables != null) {
for (Closeable stream : closeables) {
if (stream != null) {
try {
stream.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}
@Override
public void onTimedText(final MediaPlayer mp, final TimedText text) {
if (text != null) {
handler.post(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
int seconds = mp.getCurrentPosition() / 1000;
txtDisplay.setText("[" + secondsToDuration(seconds) + "] "
+ text.getText());
}
});
}
}
// To display the seconds in the duration format 00:00:00
public String secondsToDuration(int seconds) {
return String.format("%02d:%02d:%02d", seconds / 3600,
(seconds % 3600) / 60, (seconds % 60), Locale.US);
}
}
And here is the subtitle file I am using as example:
1
00:00:00,220 --> 00:00:01,215
First Text Example
2
00:00:03,148 --> 00:00:05,053
Second Text Example
3
00:00:08,004 --> 00:00:09,884
Third Text Example
4
00:00:11,300 --> 00:00:12,900
Fourth Text Example
5
00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:16,700
Fifth Text Example
6
00:00:18,434 --> 00:00:20,434
Sixth Text Example
7
00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:23,700
Last Text Example
Here are few screenshots from the test app showing that the TextView is changing automatically (i.e. reading from the subtitle file) as the media file progresses
![TimedText Example]()
Edit:
Here is the code for an example project
