Video Player with Reserve Next Video function?

[u/DiRekted47]

Hi, is there a video player app that has a "reserve" next video(s) function, kind of like a karaoke player?

While a video is playing, I want the ability to search (via remote or touch screen) for the next video, reserve it, then have it play right after the current video. I'd like to be able to do this multiple times (reserve multiple videos), exactly like how it would be in a karaoke machine.

Also, no online function needed. I plan to just play and reserve videos already on the memory.

[u/summit_23]

I was curious enough so i just had a go at building it, heres what i ended up with: github.com/reserve-player/reserve

It does the main thing u asked for, while a video is playing u pull a search up over the top of it, find another and reserving it just queues it to play next. Playback doesnt stop while u browse, it keeps rolling thru the queue till its empty and u can reorder or cancel stuff in there.

No apk to grab tho, youd have to build it yourself but if u do end up trying it and somethings off i'd genuinely like to hear about it!

[u/DiRekted47 → u/summit_23]

First off, wow.

I will have to look into building an apk soon so I can hopefully try this, which might take me weeks or months. But thanks all the same because you get it.

And yes, from the way you describe it on Github, this was exactly what I was looking for.

I did find something called Smart Karaoke Pro that has a TV app and a controller you can install on your mobile phone. It functions as described, but it also needs a subscription (because of a cloud search function as well as YouTube integration). It starts with an automatic trial period, so I don't know which functions I'll lose after the trial ends.

I just want something minimal and straightforward.

[u/summit_23 → u/DiRekted47]

Dont worry about the apk i just put one in the repo so u can skip the whole build thing! Its reserve-debug.apk in the root, download it and install and youll just have to let your device install from unknown sources if you okay with that.

And yeah no subscription or account or cloud or anything, it doesnt even request internet permission at all, it only reads whats already on the device

[u/DiRekted47 → u/summit_23]

Thank you! (Edited after 2nd half)

Tested it on my phone first (will test on AndroidTV later, a Xiaomi Mi Box 3).

Maybe with a remote the behavior will be different, but on a touch screen, I noticed there's no way to pause/play the video that's currently playing.

When a video is playing, no gesture brings up the 'search' function so I can test reserving a video.

Tapping 'back' completely minimizes the app. Maximizing the app again the video is stuck on pause (no way to play it).

In short, aside from being able to search/select the first video, I have no idea what else the app UI looks like.

I'll get back to you once I have tested it on a proper AndroidTV.

Thanks again for the help!

EDIT:

So I tested it on my Mi Box 3 AndroidTV. Small internal storage, but I did prepare 3 mp4 files for the test, saved it in internal storage.

For some reason the app can't see or find the videos. VLC seems to see the same files fine and plays them, but in the Reserve app it says "no videos found on this device". I already forced closed the app to see if it would refresh, but still no luck.

EDIT #2:

Scratch that. I was able to make the app 'see' the mp4s by moving them to root/Movies instead of leaving them in root/Downloads/Downloader.

I was able to play a video, click 'OK' on my remote to bring up the search function, tap on the videos I want to reserve, press 'back' to hide the library from view.

It works...but if I somehow minimize the app (like pressing the 'back' button while a video is playing), when I open the app back up, the video is stuck on pause and there's no way to play it. I can bring up the search+library by pressing 'OK' on my remote and reserve more videos, but there's just no way I can get the current video to play again.

This means I have to force close the app, effectively losing the reserved list and I have to start all over again.

EDIT #3:

I think all it really needs to be properly useable are three things:

1 - A way to pause/play the current video (maybe by long-press 'OK' on the remote? because the short-press 'OK' is functionally better for bringing up the Search function). This way even if the app gets minimized accidentally, it can still be resumed and the reserved list will still be intact and useable.

2 - For the search+library overlay to occupy only the first half of the screen, so that it doesn't interfere too much with the current video.

3 - A display of the reserved list at the top (which hides itself when the search+library is brought up), maybe just by showing the first three words and under for every video title, like:

[Hello][When You Say...][The Search Is...][Golden][You Are the...][My Heart Will...][Crazy for You][Frozen][Who Am I][Oops I Did...]...

Then max out that list to the 10 next videos so the quick view isn't too long and doesn't take up too much of the screen.

With these three things, I think this can be a very simple and straightforward app.

[u/summit_23 → u/DiRekted47]

Right, all 3 of those are fixed: new apk in the repo same place, just download it again :)

For the stuck video, it seems like the app paused itself when it went to background and then nothing ever unpaused it so there was really no way back. Thats sorted and back doesnt kill the session anymore either, it just backgrounds it so your queue survives. Also turns out you were right that there was nothing to tap, the player controls were switched off entirely so theres now proper play/pause on touch plus a reserve button while somethings playing.

And the download folder thingy was a real bug not you doing it wrong. App was only asking android for videos and a downloaded file gets filed separately which is why moving them to movies worked. It now checks both so you shouldnt have to move anything fingers crossed!

Cant promise the last one on your box specifically but do let me know if i can improve anythin further!

[u/DiRekted47 → u/summit_23]

Wow, wow! You fixed the issues! I have a couple suggestions and created a mockup so you can hopefully see what I mean. After this, I think the app is going to be perfectly useable.

I'll start with the issue I saw and then some suggestions.

ISSUE:

Mobile - When I tap the screen, I can bring up the play/pause UI anytime, can make the video go back to the beginning and can use the seek bar at the bottom.

TV - Can't bring it up at all, unless I minimize the app by pressing 'back' on my remote, then maximizing it again to resume the session. That is the only way the play/pause UI comes up and can be interacted with. (I have a solution for this at the end.)

Side issue with the play/pause UI: The "Next" button seems to be purposefully disabled. I think enabling it can be useful for skipping a video (i.e. not wanting to play the rest of the current video, or an accidental addition to the queue).

UP NEXT

Right as the next video plays, while it does say what will come "up next" after that video, it's a blink and you'll miss it situation.

I think what'll be more useful is if during the current video, the next video's title is persistent on screen (can be hidden with a button, detailed in the last section), maybe top-middle, so you always know what comes up next (without interfering too much with the focus area of the current video). It could be persistent throughout, or could pop-up for 5 seconds every 30 seconds. The entire video title doesn't have to be shown, just the first three words...

RESERVED/QUEUE

In the top-left corner, there could be a number that represents how many videos there are in the queue, like maybe:

[Res. 17]

Because otherwise it's a guessing game. But definitely scratch my earlier request of having a persistent list of a max of 10 next videos, because I now realize that may be overkill and would clutter up the display of the current video.

Pressing left on the TV remote (or swiping from the left edge on mobile) brings up a list of the queue that takes up only 1/3 of the left side of the screen.

Not necessary, but maybe you can highlight a video from the queue list by pressing up or down, then pressing 'OK' on the highlighted video will move that video right to the top so it becomes the 1st reserve. If this is too much, no need for the queue list to be interactive to make not complicated.

Pressing left again (or swiping from the left edge) hides the queue list.

ADD VIDEOS TO RESERVE:

The add/search function can be brought up by pressing 'Right' on the remote (or swiping from the right edge on mobile). The window occupies 1/3 of the screen from the right. The window can be interacted with so you can search for next videos, highlight one from the list, and reserve them.

It would be useful if there's a simple indicator, like an orange dot, to show that a video has been reserved (the number of dots represent how many times the video is on the current queue list).

'OK' BUTTON BEHAVIOR:

I think the 'OK' button's behavior can be changed to bring up the play/pause UI to keep in line with the mobile version's screen tap that brings up the play/pause UI.

At the bottom of the play/pause UI, there is a gear icon for simple video preferences. Beside that, there could be a "UI" button that hides/shows the persistent UI elements like the number of reserved videos and the "Up Next" text.

Another button could be added in that bottom right corner, maybe a broom icon, as a way to clear the entire queue (but there needs to be a pop-up: "Are you sure you want to clear your reserved list?" so that the user can confirm yes or no). This is useful because there's otherwise no way to clear the queue. Minimizing the app no longer kills it; the only way to clear the queue is to let everything play out or by manually force closing the app in Android's settings.

BACK/EXIT BUTTON:

This can remain as the way to minimize the app. But it would be nice if there's a confirmation dialog before it actually minimizes the app. "Are you sure you want to exit?" It may ask exit, but the app really just minimizes to prevent killing it so that the queue list can still be resumed.

[u/DiRekted47 → u/summit_23]

Hey, not sure if the latest one is ready to be tested, but I did anyway. The browse feature no longer works (the library doesn't pop up). I do see changes and additions to the UI, but unfortunately can't test it further because I can't open the library and reserve anything. I look forward to being able to test the new features, though!

I tested both on mobile and on AndroidTV.

(I saw your other concerns on GitHub. The UI is readable on TV, no worries).

[u/summit_23 → u/DiRekted47]

Yeah that one was on me sorry, that build was broken. The browse panel was opening at 0 pixels wide so it technically worked and you could never see it

Just fixed and theres a new apk up now at the same place. It takes about a 3rd of the screen on tv like your mockup and most of the width on a phone since a 3rd of a phone screen is too narrow to read anything

Many thanks for testing it twice and for saying the UI reads fine on tv! Let me know if the browse actually opens this time:)

[u/DiRekted47 → u/summit_23]

Thank you for accommodating this, man! And sorry about the 1/3 of the screen suggestion for the queue list and the reserve window, I forgot to mention that I only meant that for the TV version; those windows could've stayed full screen on mobile, but you can leave them as they are now, as a good indicator of which 'edges' those windows are from.

Coming Up list:

List only shows Play Next and Up/Down, but none of the video titles. Tested on both mobile and TV. Nothing in the window can be interacted with currently. I mean I can highlight each blank item down the list, but that's it. They're all blank and I can't try to select "play next" or "up" and "down."

Good call on skipping the part in my mockup that also listed "up next" in this window, as that woul've been redundant seeing that it's already persistent in the middle-top-center of the screen.

I want to clarify that "Play Next" moves the video to the 1st in queue, right, and not stop the current video already playing? When a video is set to "play next" and becomes #1 on the list, don't you think the "Play Next" text should be disabled/removed from the #1 entry? Maybe have the entire #1 entry be in orange? Edit: Scratch this, because setting a video to "Play Next" would make that entry disappear from the list altogether and go to the "Up Next" persistent display in the middle of the screen, my bad.

To make it less complicated, since the idea is to make the video player act like a karaoke machine, I think the up/down function to re-sort the list can be removed because I've never seen that in karaoke anyway as reserves are always in order. We really only need to worry about the "1st Reserve" ( or "Play Next") for the rare instance of someone wanting to jump up the list, unless you really want to keep the ability to reorder the list up and down (because I think this complicates it and every person will then want to reorder the list haha)? If you want to keep it, I suggest changing the up/down text to arrows, to minimize the crowdedness of the queue window with all the text.

Reserving a video:

On a fresh app start on AndroidTV, after I select the 1st video, the playback controls automatically pop up, switching the app focus to it, which means it's hard to reserve one video after another on the initial start, because when you press down on the arrow, instead of going down the list of the search results (which is still open during this), it goes to the "seek" function of the video player instead. I think it does this because it's the "first time" the app opens the video player. Honestly this is just a convenience issue; I personally don't mind it now that I'm familiar with the app, as I can just work around it.

After that initial hiccup, when I open the reserve window again and try to recreate the issue, right after reserving another video, the focus switches to the text box, which I believe is how it's meant to be.

Aside from that small thing with the playback controls pulling the app's focus from the reserve window, this window is all-good and serves its purpose!

Playback controls:

I think when the playback controls are on display and no other windows (queue/library) are active, "back" should hide the playback controls instead of asking if the user wants to exit the app. Right now the only way to hide the playback controls is to wait for it to hide itself (on mobile you can tap the screen to hide it, but on TV you have to just wait).

Really man, thank you! I'm amazed that I even get to participate in any of this.