H.265/HEVC Playback Fails on MediaTek Dimensity 700 / 900 / 1080 after Android 15 Upgrade

[akhilesh-dubey]

Version

Media3 1.6.0

More version details

Player: ExoPlayer v1.6.0
Observations:
After upgrading from Android 14 to Android 15, H.265/HEVC hardware decoding on MediaTek Dimensity 700, 900, or 1080 devices fails to render video. The decoder initializes without throwing errors, but the output surface remains black or frozen.

• No error entries in adb logcat during failure.
• Works normally on the same devices before Android 15 upgrade.
• Reproducible across multiple devices using Dimensity 700 / 900 / 1080 chipsets.

Please investigate as a potential MediaCodec hardware decoder regression affecting MediaTek Dimensity 700/900/1080 HEVC decoding on Android 15.

Devices that reproduce the issue

Device Brand & Model: Samsung Galaxy A34, Redmi Note 12S, etc.
Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 700 / 900 / 1080
Android Version: Android 15
Hardware Decoder Used: Yes (OMX.MTK.HEVC.Decoder or equivalent MediaTek HEVC hardware decoder)

Devices that do not reproduce the issue

Android phone with other chipset on Android 15.

Reproducible in the demo app?

Not tested

Reproduction steps

Play an H.265/HEVC-encoded video (hvc1.2.4.L90.90) in ExoPlayer v1.6.0 with hardware decoding enabled.
Observe playback behavior:

• Black screen while audio continues
• Stuck frame during playback Note: Play an H.264/AVC (avc1.64001f) file → works fine with hardware decoding.

Expected result

H.265/HEVC content should decode and render smoothly via the MediaTek HEVC hardware decoder.

Actual result

Black screen (audio continues) or frozen video frame.
No MediaCodec error callback or ExoPlaybackException is reported.

Media

Test Video Details:
Resolution: e.g., 1024×576
Frame Rate: e.g., 30 fps
Bitrate: e.g., 3 Mbps
Codec Profile & Level: hvc1.2.4.L93.90 (HEVC Main@L4.2)
DRM: Widevine L1 content.

Bug Report

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

[akhilesh-dubey]

@microkatz
To provide additional details on the investigation:

The Galaxy A34 received a software update on June 6th introducing Android 15 and One UI 7, with firmware version A346BXXU9DYE7 (reference link). From this timeframe onward, we began receiving customer complaints regarding the “No video” issue.

Prior to the update (on Android 14), the Galaxy A34 5G reported its model as SM-A346B [MT6877V/TTZA]. After the Android 15 update, the reported model changed to SM-A346B [MT6877].

Our analytics data shows users experiencing playback issues immediately after the Android 15 update on the Galaxy A34 5G. The problem occurs specifically with HEVC codec playback and does not throw any errors.

Since this issue impacts many users, we request urgent support to help resolve it as soon as possible.

[akhilesh-dubey]

In our initial investigation, it appears that the Non-DRM content plays without any issues using HEVC hardware decoder on same device.

[rrfrias]

We have escalated this to MediaTek. Are you able to reproduce with HEVC content using the demo Exoplayer apk?

Internal ref: 440680767

[rrfrias]

From the first comment

No error entries in adb logcat during failure.

I understand, but might you be able to share the logcat? And can you give us permission to share the logcat with MediaTek?

[akhilesh-dubey]

@rrfrias I am unable to locate any asset in the demo app that uses HEVC with the Main10 profile (eg. hvc1.2.4.L90.90 with DRM enabled. However with DRM enabled HEVC main profile(eg. hev1.1.6.L123.90) plays without any issue. I'm currently looking for open-source HEVC Main10 content with DRM enabled that I can use and confirm.

[rrfrias]

Opened an internal tracker 441087707 to add test content to Exoplayer and additional profile testing. If you can share a bugreport as mentioned two comments above, do let us know.

[akhilesh-dubey]

We have identified additional MediaTek Dimensity models that are affected by the same root cause:
MT6833 / MT6833V/NZA / MT6833V/PNZA / MT6833V/ZA
MT6853V / MT6853V/NZA / MT6853V/TNZA
MT6877 / MT6877V / MT6877V/TTZA
MT6781