Android VideoView black screen

I had the same problem on Galaxy tab 2, Android 4.1.1.

Do videoView.setZOrderOnTop(true); and next videoView.start()

It works fine for me.

I had same problem and this has worked for me ..

When you want to show video, make videoView.setZOrderOnTop(false); and when you want to hide video, just make videoView.setZOrderOnTop(true);

I got the same problem and i found a solution. Its a little bit hacky but it do the trick. So basically you need to put your VideoView into a FrameLayout. Over the videoview you need to add another FrameLayout with the background of your video and when your video is loaded and ready to play you hide the placeholder.

<FrameLayout
  android:id="@+id/frameLayout1"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="fill_parent"
  android:layout_gravity="center"
  android:layout_marginTop="50dip" >

  <VideoView
    android:id="@+id/geoloc_anim"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="172dip" android:layout_gravity="top|center" android:visibility="visible"/>

  <FrameLayout
      android:id="@+id/placeholder"
      android:layout_width="fill_parent"
      android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:background="@drawable/fondvert_anim">
  </FrameLayout>

In your activity you need to implements OnPreparedListener and add this

//Called when the video is ready to play
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {

    View placeholder = (View) findViewById(R.id.placeholder);

    placeholder.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}

So when the video is ready we hide our placeholder and that trick avoid the black flicker screen.

Hope this help someone.

I meet the same problem, and solve it with the accepted solution above plus this:

  @Override
  public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
    mp.setOnInfoListener(new MediaPlayer.OnInfoListener() {
      @Override
      public boolean onInfo(MediaPlayer mp, int what, int extra) {
        Log.d(TAG, "onInfo, what = " + what);
        if (what == MediaPlayer.MEDIA_INFO_VIDEO_RENDERING_START) {
          // video started; hide the placeholder.
          placeholder.setVisibility(View.GONE);
          return true;
        }
        return false;
      }
    });

I think onPrepared just means the video is ready to play, but not means video started playing. If hide placeholder in onPrepared, the screen still show a black screen.

On my Note3 and Nexus, this solution works well.