[BUG] Video rendering artifacts on certain MediaTek Android devices after Media3 upgrade

[jillellamudisurya]

Steps to reproduce

Bug Description

After upgrading video_player_android from legacy ExoPlayer to Media3-ExoPlayer, we're experiencing video rendering artifacts (green lines) on certain Android devices. The issue appears to be device and video-specific.

Environment

• Flutter Version: 3.32.8
• video_player: 2.10.0
• Platform: Android
• Video Format: HLS streams (.m3u8)

Issue Details

• Symptom: Green line artifacts appear on the right edge of videos
• Scope: Affects specific Android devices with certain video resolutions
• Regression: Issue appeared after Media3 upgrade, worked fine with legacy ExoPlayer
• Content sensitivity:
  Some videos (e.g. 1280×720, 544×968) render correctly.
  Others (e.g. 848×478, 688×1040) show artifacts.
• Other Players: Same videos play correctly in other video player apps on the same devices (eg: whatsapp)

Reproduction

• Upgrade to video_player_android (Media3-based).
• Play HLS video with resolution not aligned to 16px macroblocks (e.g. 848×478) OR with certain color/VUI metadata.
• On MediaTek Dimensity device, observe vertical green line at the right side.

Additional Context

• Only reproducible on MediaTek hardware decoders (c2.mtk.avc.decoder) when selected by Media3.
• Legacy ExoPlayer often used OMX or SW paths that avoided this.
• Appears to be related to decoder selection changes in Media3 + videos with certain width/height or VUI/crop metadata.

Expected results

Videos should render without any visual artifacts (no green lines or corruption) across all supported Android devices.

• Playback should be consistent regardless of video resolution or device chipset.
• Media3 upgrade should maintain feature parity with legacy ExoPlayer (no regressions in rendering quality).

Actual results

• On certain Mediatek Dimensity devices, videos show a green diagonal line artifact across the frame.
• The artifact appears only with some videos (depends on resolution/encoding).
• Same videos play correctly on other devices and in other player apps.
• Issue started only after migration to Media3-ExoPlayer; no artifacts in the legacy ExoPlayer build.

Code sample

Code sample

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:video_player/video_player.dart';

class VideoTestPage extends StatefulWidget {
  const VideoTestPage({super.key});

  @override
  State<VideoTestPage> createState() => _VideoTestPageState();
}

class _VideoTestPageState extends State<VideoTestPage> {
  late VideoPlayerController _controller;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    _controller = VideoPlayerController.networkUrl(
      Uri.parse(
        // Replace with a problematic HLS or MP4 sample
        // Example: "https://example.com/failing-video.m3u8"
        "https://example.com/example.mp4",
      ),
    )
      ..initialize().then((_) {
        setState(() {});
        _controller.play();
      });
  }

  @override
  void dispose() {
    _controller.dispose();
    super.dispose();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('Media3 Artifact Repro')),
      body: Center(
        child: _controller.value.isInitialized
            ? AspectRatio(
                aspectRatio: _controller.value.aspectRatio,
                child: VideoPlayer(_controller),
              )
            : const CircularProgressIndicator(),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Screenshots or Video

Screenshots / Video demonstration

VID-20250819-WA0005.online-video-cutter.com.mp4

Logs

Logs

[Paste your logs here]

Flutter Doctor output

Doctor output

[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.32.8, on macOS 15.4.1 24E263 darwin-arm64, locale en-IN) [375ms]
    • Flutter version 3.32.8 on channel stable at /Users/suryajillellamudi/flutter_working/flutter
    • Upstream repository https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
    • Framework revision edada7c56e (4 weeks ago), 2025-07-25 14:08:03 +0000
    • Engine revision ef0cd00091
    • Dart version 3.8.1
    • DevTools version 2.45.1

[!] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 35.0.1) [411ms]
    • Android SDK at /Users/suryajillellamudi/Library/Android/sdk
    ✗ cmdline-tools component is missing.
      Try installing or updating Android Studio.
      Alternatively, download the tools from https://developer.android.com/studio#command-line-tools-only and make sure to set the ANDROID_HOME environment variable.
      See https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line for more details.
    ✗ Android license status unknown.
      Run `flutter doctor --android-licenses` to accept the SDK licenses.
      See https://flutter.dev/to/macos-android-setup for more details.

[!] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 16.3) [973ms]
    • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    • Build 16E140
    ! CocoaPods 1.15.2 out of date (1.16.2 is recommended).
        CocoaPods is a package manager for iOS or macOS platform code.
        Without CocoaPods, plugins will not work on iOS or macOS.
        For more info, see https://flutter.dev/to/platform-plugins
      To update CocoaPods, see https://guides.cocoapods.org/using/getting-started.html#updating-cocoapods

[✗] Chrome - develop for the web (Cannot find Chrome executable at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome) [98ms]
    ! Cannot find Chrome. Try setting CHROME_EXECUTABLE to a Chrome executable.

[✓] Android Studio (version 2024.3) [97ms]
    • Android Studio at /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents
    • Flutter plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9212-flutter
    • Dart plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6351-dart
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.6+-13368085-b895.109)

[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2025.1.2) [96ms]
    • IntelliJ at /Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app
    • Flutter plugin version 85.3.2
    • Dart plugin version 251.25410.28

[✓] VS Code (version 1.101.2) [10ms]
    • VS Code at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents
    • Flutter extension can be installed from:
      🔨 https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Dart-Code.flutter

[✓] Connected device (1 available) [6.0s]
    • A142 (mobile) • 00055346H000030 • android-arm64 • Android 15 (API 35)
    ! Error: Browsing on the local area network for Praja’s iPhone. Ensure the device is unlocked and attached with a cable or associated with the same local area network as this Mac.
      The device must be opted into Developer Mode to connect wirelessly. (code -27)

[✓] Network resources [427ms]
    • All expected network resources are available.

[jillellamudisurya]

One insight:
This thing is mostly related to the aspect ratio. I downloaded a video of 1080 × 1920 and resized it to 720x1100. The original video is working fine, but the resized version is having the above issue.

btw, it is reproducible every time.

Steps:

• Download a video and add it to assets.
• Now use the video_player package's latest version.
• Play the original video that is downloaded. It is working fine
• Now crop the video to a 720x1100 aspect ratio. And add it to the assets and play the video. Here we are seeing the issue.
• Please use a Mediatek Dimensity 7200 device. There are some other Mediatek processors also facing the issue. But I am using a 7200 device.

[darshankawar]

• Please use a Mediatek Dimensity 7200 device. There are some other Mediatek processors also facing the issue. But I am using a 7200 device.

This seems to be specific to this range of device or variants which we currently don't have to verify properly. Does the artifact persists without impeller ? Can you try and confirm ?

[jillellamudisurya]

• Please use a Mediatek Dimensity 7200 device. There are some other Mediatek processors also facing the issue. But I am using a 7200 device.

This seems to be specific to this range of device or variants which we currently don't have to verify properly. Does the artifact persists without impeller ? Can you try and confirm ?

No, it's working fine when I run by disabling impeller

[darshankawar]

No, it's working fine when I run by disabling impeller

@jillellamudisurya Ok, so that indicates the reported behavior could be specific to impeller. Can you also do one more test of verifying with latest master version to confirm if the issue persist or not ?

flutter channel master -> flutter upgrade.

[jillellamudisurya]

@darshankawar Tried, issue exists on latest master.

[darshankawar]

Thanks for verifying. I tried the same on S10+ device running Android 11 but was unable to replicate the reported behavior. Seems it is specific to the device mentioned, so I'll label the issue based on reported behavior.

• Please use a Mediatek Dimensity 7200 device. There are some other Mediatek processors also facing the issue. But I am using a 7200 device.