Media3 1.6.0 — what’s new?

Posted by Andrew Lewis – Software program Engineer

This text is cross-published on Medium

This launch features a host of bug fixes, efficiency enhancements and new options. Learn on to seek out out extra, and as at all times please try the full launch notes for a complete overview of adjustments on this launch.

Playback, MediaSession and UI

ExoPlayer now helps HLS interstitials for advert insertion in HLS streams. To play these advertisements utilizing ExoPlayer’s built-in playlist assist, cross an HlsInterstitialsAdsLoader.AdsMediaSourceFactory because the media supply manufacturing unit when creating the participant. For extra info see the official documentation.

This launch additionally contains experimental assist for ‘pre-warming’ decoders. With out pre-warming, transitions from one playlist merchandise to the subsequent might not be seamless in some circumstances, for instance, we might have to modify codecs, or decode some video frames to succeed in the beginning place of the brand new media merchandise. With pre-warming enabled, a secondary video renderer can begin decoding the brand new media merchandise earlier, giving near-seamless transitions. You may do this function out by enabling it on the DefaultRenderersFactory. We’re actively engaged on additional enhancements to the best way we work together with decoders, together with including a ‘quick in search of mode’ so keep tuned for updates on this space.

Media3 1.6.0 introduces a brand new media3-ui-compose module that comprises performance for constructing Compose UIs for playback. You will discover a reference implementation within the Media3 Compose demo and be taught extra in Getting began with Compose-based UI. At this level we’re offering a primary set of foundational state courses that hyperlink to the Participant, along with some primary composable constructing blocks. You should use these to construct your personal personalized UI widgets. We plan to publish default Materials-themed composables in a later launch.

Another enhancements on this launch embody: shifting system calls off the applying’s essential thread to the background (which ought to scale back ANRs), a brand new decoder module wrapping libmpegh (for bundling object-based audio decoding in your app), and a repair for the Solid extension for apps focusing on API 34+. There are additionally fixes throughout MPEG-TS and WebVTT extraction, DRM, downloading/caching, MediaSession and extra.

Media extraction and body retrieval

The brand new MediaExtractorCompat is a drop-in substitute for the framework MediaExtractor however applied utilizing Media3’s extractors. In the event you’re utilizing the Android framework MediaExtractor, contemplate migrating to get constant habits throughout units and scale back crashes.

We have additionally added experimental assist for retrieving video frames in a brand new class ExperimentalFrameExtractor, which might act as a substitute for the MediaMetadataRetriever getFrameAtTime strategies. There are just a few advantages over the framework implementation: HDR enter is supported (by default tonemapping all the way down to SDR, however with the choice to provide HLG bitmaps from Android 14 onwards), Media3 results could be utilized (together with Presentation to scale the output to a desired measurement) and it runs quicker on some units on account of shifting coloration area conversion to the GPU. Here is an instance of utilizing the brand new API:

val bitmap =
    withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
        val configuration =
            ExperimentalFrameExtractor.Configuration
                .Builder()
                .setExtractHdrFrames(true)
                .construct()
        val frameExtractor =
            ExperimentalFrameExtractor(
                context,
                configuration,
            )

        frameExtractor.setMediaItem(mediaItem, /*results*/ listOf())

        val body = frameExtractor.getFrame(timestamps).await()
        frameExtractor.launch()
        body.bitmap
    }

Enhancing, transcoding and export

Media3 1.6.0 contains efficiency, stability and purposeful enhancements in Transformer. Highlights embody: assist for transcoding/transmuxing Dolby Imaginative and prescient streams on units that assist this format and a brand new MediaProjectionAssetLoader for recording from the display screen, which you’ll be able to check out within the Transformer demo app.

Take a look at Widespread media processing operations with Jetpack Media3 Transformer for some code snippets displaying the best way to course of media with Transformer, and tricks to scale back latency.

This launch additionally features a new Kotlin-based demo app showcasing Media3’s video results framework. You may choose from quite a lot of video results and preview them through ExoPlayer.setVideoEffects.

Get began sith Media3 1.6.0

Please get in contact through the Media3 situation Tracker when you run into any bugs, or if in case you have questions or function requests. We sit up for listening to from you!