pytube takes too long to stream a video in Android

Question

I am using pytube to stream a video in Android, with the help of chaquopy.

videofile.py

from pytube import YouTube
def video(link):
    yt = YouTube(f'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=' + link)
    stream_url = yt.streams.get_highest_resolution().url
    return stream_url

VideoActivityPy.java

progressBar = findViewById(R.id.pro);
videoView = findViewById(R.id.videoview);
new Thread(() -> {
    try {
        if (!Python.isStarted()) {
            Python.start(new AndroidPlatform(VideoActivityPy.this));
        }
        python = Python.getInstance();
        pyScript = python.getModule("videofile");
        videoUri = pyScript.callAttr("video", MyData.videoLink);
        runOnUiThread(() -> {
            videoView.setSystemUiVisibility(
                                  View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE
                                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN
                                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN
                                | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE_STICKY);
            Uri uri = Uri.parse(videoUri.toString());
            videoView.setVideoURI(uri);
            MediaController mediaController = new MediaController(VideoActivityPy.this);
            mediaController.setAnchorView(videoView);
            mediaController.setMediaPlayer(videoView);
            videoView.setMediaController(mediaController);
            videoView.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
                @Override
                public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mediaPlayer) {
                    progressBar.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
                    videoView.start();
                }
            });
       });
    }
    catch (com.chaquo.python.PyException pyException) {
        progressBar.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
        Toast.makeText(VideoActivityPy.this, "Check your internet connection", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    } 
    catch (Exception e) {
        progressBar.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
        Toast.makeText(VideoActivityPy.this, e.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }
}).start();

At first, I had written the code without using Thread, but the app was not responding. So, I used Thread. Now the app works, the video loads, but it takes about 40-50 seconds to start the video (the video is 1.5 hours long though). Is there any way to reduce the loading time?

Note: I have downloaded .tar.gz file from PyPI, changed the built-in code of pytube, and then written the gradle as below:

python {
    buildPython "C:/Python38/python.exe"
    pip {
        install "pytube-15.0.0.tar.gz"
    }
}

I changed the var_regex in cipher.py

Answer 1

It looks like your code has two phases:

• Getting the URL with pytube
• Streaming from the URL to the videoView (pytube and Python are not involved)

It's not possible to guess which of these is causing the delay, so try adding some Log statements within your code (or in Python, print statements). Then the timestamps in the log will reveal which lines are taking the most time.