Android player cannot rewind at end of video... (new hint?)

General Discussions
, , , ,
1

So, there has been a long-time bug in any android-based video player, in which the video appears to hang at the end of the video if you attempt to rewind. It looks like it was reported back in April 2018 in the beta of the product, but immediately dismissed by the developers for not being reproducible.

So, quick reminder: If you attempt to rewind near the end of a video file, the video freezes on the frame it last displayed, but nothing else happens. If you bring up the interface, you see the video (TIME UNTIL END) time slowly count down to zero, starting at the time-code you rewound to. If you rewind 10 minutes, then the timer counts down from the new location, but no audio, and the video is still frozen on the frame. The only fix is to exit the video, and resume. If you are close enough to the end, of course Plex will mark it as “done” and won’t allow a resume, forcing you to skip forward to where you left off.

Well, I’m out of house here, using my Plex server remotely. My home upload is not the best, so I’ve been trying to scale back my player qualities. I’ve got a Fire tablet, set to 2 Mbps 720p. I’ve got an Nvidia Shield, set to automatic. Both of these are android devices, and both exhibit this bug, and it is really frustrating. Especially when watching movies or anime with mid/post-credit shots. I must skip forward, but if I overshoot then the playback breaks.

Well, I think I found a way to reproduce this issue. As above, I am limited at how fast I can get video files, and I noticed that only videos in which have been playing for some time cause this issue. In other words, videos without significant amounts of pre-queued video do not cause this issue. If you start up a video, and skip forward to the end, you are able to rewind to your hearts content because it hasn’t queued up the remainder of the video to the end of the file. Once the video fully pre-loads to the end, it appears that the server shuts down and refuses to send any more data to your player, even if you rewind (which requires data to be resent, because your player dumps any played video as soon as it plays).

This seems to explain why the player shows the timer counting down to zero, yet isn’t playing. Somehow, the player seems to think you ought to already have the video, and “plays”, but there is nothing to display.

Could we get a revisit of this issue, and possibly a fix? Android is a VERY common player, I’d wager, and to have such a bug exist for so long is demoralizing.

2 Likes
2

For me this is always a problem when watching videos with hardcodes ASS subtitles. I can replicate it at will.

3

Interesting. I will definitely do some more investigating when I get home, but it sounds more like this happens only if you are transcoding the file (often happens with subtitles, or when remote if your net isn’t very good).

My videos tend to pre-load a lot of time here. I thought it was limited to a few minutes, but i’ve often been in the middle of a 20 minute episode and had this happen, because the video queue buffer on my shield has filled up to the file end.

4

Yes, the ASS subtitles do cause the video and audio to be transcoded, so perhaps transcoding is the common denominator. I’ll have to find another video that transcodes for some other reason to verify this.

FWIW, here is a link to another thread that deals with this same problem. It doesn’t appear anything is being done. TBH, I’m getting a bit tired of reporting stuff like this, knowing I can replicate the problem at will, and not seeing any useful response. :disappointed:

5

Ah yes, I looked for that thread but didn’t find it. I see I had chimed in to that post back in May, having experienced it to my detriment when i was out of town (again). I wasn’t looking for it too hard however. I felt that since I was providing new “evidence” or reproducible steps, a new thread might draw renewed attention to it.

6

Glad you did. More visibility can’t hurt.

7

I also have the same issue as the OP. I couldn’t have written it out better myself. Exact same issues

8

I confirmed it here. If I set the video to Direct Play, this issue does not happen. If you transcode to use advanced subtitles, or transcode to use lower quality remotely/locally, then the issue happens.

So to reproduce:
-Force a transcode.
-Skip to near end of video.
-Allow buffer to fill to end of file.
-Attempt to rewind.
-Observe video freezes. Notice the ETA to file end in lower right still ticking down to zero.
-Try to rewind or fast forward, no change in video progress.

9

Just chiming in to say I also have this issue. Across multiple devices, not just Android. It’s definitely a transcoding problem when subtitles are burned in.

10

This issue is still pretty frustrating. Especially when the client loves to pre-load 10 or so minutes, meaning I am incapable of rewinding when in the last half of some TV shows.

11

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.