Efficient way to update mm:ss from a playing MP3 file

Question

I'm re-inventing the wheel here, but as I'm a beginner programmer I'm curious as to the best way to do this...

As part of an Android app, I'm developing a very simple media player. It plays the file, and I want a m:s timer, so the user can see how far into the file they are (e.g. "04:56"). I'm probably missing the obvious, but what's the best way to do this?

One way would be to generate a new thread which sleeps for 1000ms, then calls MediaPlayer.getCurrentPosition() and updates the UI. However, this seems slightly ridiculous - my thread isn't guaranteed to come back every second, so I'm going to be displaying an inaccurate time. There must be a better way of doing this?

Educate me (or link for me).

Answer 1

One alternative might be to start an independent timer when the music starts. Have it "sync" by calling MediaPlayer.getCurrentPosition() once every five seconds or so to ensure that the time remains accurate.

Answer 2

Just use Handler#postDelayed() or View#postDelayed() to do your once-a-second updates. This saves you from having to fork a thread, let alone clean up after it.

Here is a project using that specific technique for your desired purpose: updating a time counter based on MediaPlayer progress.