react-native-vlc-media-player

react-native-vlc-media-player

Supported RN Versions

• 0.59 > 0.62 and up
• PODs are updated to work with 0.61 and up (tested in 0.61.5, 0.62 and 0.63)

Supported formats

Support for network streams, RTSP, RTP, RTMP, HLS, MMS. Play all files, in all formats, including exotic ones, like the classic VLC media player. Play MKV, multiple audio tracks (including 5.1), and subtitles tracks (including SSA!)

Sample repo

VLC Media Player test

Add it to your project

Run

npm i react-native-vlc-media-player --save

or

yarn add react-native-vlc-media-player

If not using Expo also run

react-native link react-native-vlc-media-player

Android

Should work without any specific settings. Gradle build might fail with More than one file was found with OS independent path 'lib/x86/libc++_shared.so' error.

If that happens, add the following block to your android/app/build.gradle:

tasks.whenTaskAdded((tas -> {
    // when task is 'mergeLocalDebugNativeLibs' or 'mergeLocalReleaseNativeLibs'
    if (tas.name.contains("merge") && tas.name.contains("NativeLibs")) {
        tasks.named(tas.name) {it
            doFirst {
                java.nio.file.Path notNeededDirectory = it.externalLibNativeLibs
                        .getFiles()
                        .stream()
                        // for React Native 0.71, the file value now contains "jetified-react-android" instead of "jetified-react-native"
                        .filter(file -> file.toString().contains("jetified-react-native"))
                        .findAny()
                        .orElse(null)
                        .toPath();
                java.nio.file.Files.walk(notNeededDirectory).forEach(file -> {
                    if (file.toString().contains("libc++_shared.so")) {
                        java.nio.file.Files.delete(file);
                    }
                });
            }
        }
    }
}))

Explanation

react-native and LibVLC both import libc++_shared.so, but we cannot use packagingOptions.pickFirst to handle this case, because libvlc-all:3.6.0-eap5 will crash when using libc++_shared.so, so we have to use libc++_shared.so from LibVLC.

Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74258902/how-to-define-which-so-file-to-use-in-gradle-packaging-options

Also to consider

libvlc-all:3.2.6 has a bug where subtitles won't display on Android 12 and 13, so we have to upgrade LibVLC to support it.

Reference: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-android/-/issues/2252

iOS

• cd to ios
• run pod init (if only Podfile has not been generated in ios folder)
• add pod 'MobileVLCKit', '3.3.10' to pod file (No need if you are running RN 0.61 and up)
• run pod install (you have to delete the app on the simulator/device and run react-native run-ios again)

Important

Starting from iOS 14, you are required to provide a message for the NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription key in Info.plist if your app uses the local network directly or indirectly.

It seems the MobileVLCKit library powering the VLC Player on iOS makes use of this feature when playing external media from sources such as RTSP streams from IP cameras.

Provide a custom message specifying how your app will make use of the network so your App Store submission is not rejected for this reason, read more about this here:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/information-property-list/nslocalnetworkusagedescription

Optional

In root project select "Build Settings", find "Bitcode" and select "Enable Bitcode"

Expo

This package works with Expo, Expo Go does not include custom native code so you must use a development build.

To enable just insert the react-native-vlc-media-player plugin to the "plugins" array from app.config.js or app.json:

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "expo-video",
        {
          "ios": {
              "includeVLCKit": false
          },
          "android": {
              "legacyJetifier": false
          }
        }
      ]
    ],
  }
}

Configuring the plugin is optional:

• Set ios.includeVLCKit to true if using RN < 0.61
• Set android.legacyJetifier to true if using RN < 0.71

Then rebuild your app as described in the "Adding custom native code" guide.

Usage

import { VLCPlayer, VlCPlayerView } from 'react-native-vlc-media-player';
import Orientation from 'react-native-orientation';

<VLCPlayer
  style={[styles.video]}
  videoAspectRatio="16:9"
  source={{ uri: "https://www.radiantmediaplayer.com/media/big-buck-bunny-360p.mp4" }}
/>

// Or you can use

<VlCPlayerView
  autoplay={false}
  url="https://www.radiantmediaplayer.com/media/big-buck-bunny-360p.mp4"
  Orientation={Orientation}
  ggUrl=""
  showGG={true}
  showTitle={true}
  title="Big Buck Bunny"
  showBack={true}
  onLeftPress={()=>{}}
/>

VLCPlayer Props

Prop	Description	Default
source	Object that contains the uri of a video or song to play eg {{ uri: "https://video.com/example.mkv" }}	{}
subtitleUri	local subtitle file path，if you want to hide subtitle, you can set this to an empty subtitle file，current we don't support a hide subtitle prop.
paused	Set to true or false to pause or play the media	false
repeat	Set to true or false to loop the media	false
rate	Set the playback rate of the player	1
seek	Set position to seek between 0 and 1 (0 being the start, 1 being the end , use position from the progress object )
volume	Set the volume of the player (number)
muted	Set to true or false to mute the player	false
audioTrack	Set audioTrack id (number) (see onLoad callback VideoInfo.audioTracks)
textTrack	Set textTrack(subtitle) id (number) (see onLoad callback- VideoInfo.textTracks)
playInBackground	Set to true or false to allow playing in the background	false
videoAspectRatio	Set the video aspect ratio eg "16:9"
autoAspectRatio	Set to true or false to enable auto aspect ratio	false
resizeMode	Set the behavior for the video size (fill, contain, cover, none, scale-down)	none
style	React native stylesheet styles	{}
autoplay	Set to true or false to enable autoplay	true

Callback props

Callback props take a function that gets fired on various player events:

Prop	Description
onPlaying	Called when media starts playing returns eg {target: 9, duration: 99750, seekable: true}
onProgress	Callback containing position as a fraction, and duration, currentTime and remainingTime in seconds   ◦  eg { duration: 99750, position: 0.30, currentTime: 30154, remainingTime: -69594 }
onPaused	Called when media is paused
onStopped	Called when media is stoped
onBuffering	Called when media is buffering
onEnded	Called when media playing ends
onError	Called when an error occurs whilst attempting to play media
onLoad	Called when video info is loaded, Callback containing VideoInfo
onRecordingCreated	Called when a new recording is created as the result of startRecording() stopRecording()
onSnapshot	Called when a new snapshot is created as the result of snapshot() - contains {success: boolean, path?: string, error?: string}

Methods props

Methods available on the VLC player ref

Prop	Description
startRecording(directory: string)	Start recording the current video into the given directory
stopRecording()	Stop recording the current video. The final recording file can be obtained from the onRecordingCreated callback
snapshot(path: string)	Capture a snapshot of the current video frame to the given file path

VideoInfo example:

 {
    duration: 30906,
    videoSize: {height: 240, width: 32},
    audioTracks: [
            {id: -1, name: "Disable"},
            {id: 1, name: "Track 1"},
            {id: 3, name: "Japanese Audio (2ch LC-AAC) - [Japanese]"}
    ],
    textTracks: [
        {id: -1, name: "Disable"},
        {id: 4, name: "Track 1 - [English]"},
        {id: 5, name: "Track 2 - [Japanese]"}
    ],
}

More formats

Container formats: 3GP, ASF, AVI, DVR-MS, FLV, Matroska (MKV), MIDI, QuickTime File Format, MP4, Ogg, OGM, WAV, MPEG-2 (ES, PS, TS, PVA, MP3), AIFF, Raw audio, Raw DV, MXF, VOB, RM, Blu-ray, DVD-Video, VCD, SVCD, CD Audio, DVB, HEIF, AVIF Audio coding formats: AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR, DTS, DV Audio, XM, FLAC, It, MACE, MOD, Monkey's Audio, MP3, Opus, PLS, QCP, QDM2/QDMC, RealAudio, Speex, Screamtracker 3/S3M, TTA, Vorbis, WavPack, WMA (WMA 1/2, WMA 3 partially). Capture devices: Video4Linux (on Linux), DirectShow (on Windows), Desktop (screencast), Digital TV (DVB-C, DVB-S, DVB-T, DVB-S2, DVB-T2, ATSC, Clear QAM) Network protocols: FTP, HTTP, MMS, RSS/Atom, RTMP, RTP (unicast or multicast), RTSP, UDP, Sat-IP, Smooth Streaming Network streaming formats: Apple HLS, Flash RTMP, MPEG-DASH, MPEG Transport Stream, RTP/RTSP ISMA/3GPP PSS, Windows Media MMS Subtitles: Advanced SubStation Alpha, Closed Captions, DVB, DVD-Video, MPEG-4 Timed Text, MPL2, OGM, SubStation Alpha, SubRip, SVCD, Teletext, Text file, VobSub, WebVTT, TTML Video coding formats: Cinepak, Dirac, DV, H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/MPEG HEVC, AV1, HuffYUV, Indeo 3, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, RealVideo 3&4, Sorenson, Theora, VC-1,[h] VP5, VP6, VP8, VP9, DNxHD, ProRes and some WMV.

Got a few minutes to spare? Please help us to keep this repo up to date and simple to use.

Our idea was to keep the repo simple, and people can use it with newer RN versions without any additional config.

• Get a fork of this repo and clone VLC Media Player test
• Run it for ios and android locally using your fork, and do the changes. (remove this package using npm remove react-native-vlc-media-player and install the forked version from git hub npm i https://git-address-to-your-forked-repo)
• Verify your changes and make sure everything works on both platforms. (If you need a hand with testing I might be able to help as well)
• Send PR.
• Be happy, Cause you're a Rockstar 🌟 ❤️

Known Issues

iOS 17 Simulator Crash

It is a known issue that apps can crash on playback in iOS simulator with EXEC_BAD_ACCESS errors. This appears to only be on certain iOS 17.x versions (17.4, 17.5). If this happens, try running on an iOS 18+ simulator instead.

TODO

• Android video aspect ratio and other params do not work (Events are called but all events come through a single event onVideoStateChange but the JS side does not implement it)

Credits

cornejobarraza ammarahm-ed Nghi-NV xuyuanzhou

Author - Roshan Milinda -> roshan.digital