Google TV Streamer - Playback freezes after rewinding 5 seconds

[dhongt]

Version

Media3 1.8.0

More version details

No response

Devices that reproduce the issue

Google TV Streamer

Devices that do not reproduce the issue

Chromecast running Android 12

Reproducible in the demo app?

Yes

Reproduction steps

1. Play a specific clear stream in demo app for 60 seconds (the stream url can be shared in private chat if required)
2. Rewind 5 seconds
3. Observe the playback

Expected result

The media plays from rewinding position successfully

Actual result

Playback freezes after rewinding.
In attached video, rewinding was triggered at 2025-12-08 11:15:11.331

Google_TV_Streamer_Rewinding_Freeze_Screen_recording_20251208_111507.mp4

Media

The media url will be emailed to android-media-github@google.com after filling this issue.

Bug Report

• You will email the zip file produced by adb bugreport to android-media-github@google.com after filing this issue.

[dhongt]

The media url and bug report have been emailed to android-media-github@google.com

[tonihei]

Thanks for reporting! As far as I can tell from the bugreport, it looks like the video codec got stuck in a non-recoverable state where it doesn't produce new output buffers.

Interestingly, we already have a workaround for this codec for what sounds like the same problem, but it only applies when video effects are enabled at the moment:

media/libraries/exoplayer/src/main/java/androidx/media3/exoplayer/video/MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java

Line 1503 in bfe5930

&& (codecInfo.name.equals("c2.mtk.avc.decoder")

Your playback seems to be using a SurfaceView as well (not a SurfaceTexture). If you can reproduce, would you be able to test if changing MediaCodecVideoRenderer.shouldReleaseCodecInsteadOfFlushing to always return true solves the problem? You'd need to use a local build of Media3 to test this out because the method is final unfortunately. If that helps, we can extend the workaround to always apply for this codec.

[dhongt]

Tested with the following change:
protected final boolean shouldReleaseCodecInsteadOfFlushing() { return true; }
Unfortunately, it doesn't solve the problem, it still freezes after rewinding.

[tonihei]

Can you play any other video after this point (e.g. going back to the selection page in the demo app, or programmatically calling player.stop() + player.prepare())? I'm surprised that releasing the codec completely can't unfreeze the output, which suggests the codec is somehow permanently blocked.

[dhongt]

Without any changes, I can even play the same video when I fast forward to the live point.

[dhongt]

If you have a Google TV Streamer device, I can share the video url with you so that you verify and debug easily.