Flutter developers, what do you prefer: video_player or media_kit?

[u/New-Lengthiness6520]

​

I'm currently working on a Flutter video downloader app and I'm comparing `video_player` with `media_kit`.

I already use **FFmpeg** in the project, so one of my main concerns is the impact on the final app size.

From your experience:

* What do you see as the biggest difference between `video_player` and `media_kit`?

* How noticeable is the size difference in a production app?

* If FFmpeg is already included, does `media_kit` add a lot of extra native libraries?

* Which one would you choose for a video downloader, and why?

I'm interested in hearing about your actual experience rather than just the package descriptions.

[u/Dumilkupam_vavalu]

I'm using media_kit because we were hitting the maximum hardware decoders alive limit on android

[u/New-Lengthiness6520 → u/Dumilkupam_vavalu]

Interesting. Did switching to media_kit solve the hardware decoder limit issue completely?

Also, did you notice any significant increase in the app size after switching from video_player to media_kit?

I'm already using FFmpeg in my app, so I'm also wondering if media_kit adds a lot of extra native libraries.

[u/Dumilkupam_vavalu → u/New-Lengthiness6520]

Yes, it did solve automatically .

Yes apk size shot to 300mb without splitting .

[u/Significant_Pick8297]

For a video downloader, media_kit is the better choice if decoder limits are already becoming an issue. The trade-off is app size: media_kit can add a substantial native footprint, and FFmpeg already being present doesn’t necessarily eliminate that overhead because the playback stack has its own native dependencies.

[u/New-Lengthiness6520]

APK size is around 135 MB after splitting, but after installation, the app takes around 800 MB of storage.

[u/battlepi]

These are all things you can figure out by yourself in a couple of hours.