Playback progress tracking on external player

[Altereno]

Not sure if this is already a post but when playing a video using the external player (VLC) error pops up after closing the stream. (No valid external player selected. Playback tracking disabled)

[CarlosOlivo]

I assume that then you can play multimedia correctly. Could you share the following data?

• Your Android Versión
• Application ID / Package Name of VLC
• Version of VLC Installed

Also can you try with MX Player to see if the same happens?

[Altereno]

I assume that then you can play multimedia correctly. Could you share the following data?

• Your Android Versión
• Application ID / Package Name of VLC
• Version of VLC Installed

Also can you try with MX Player to see if the same happens?

Android 10, on the Tab s5e (also happens on my note 9)
Not sure on the package name, can you point me towards where to find it?
VLC version 3.3.1

Worked fine on MX player.

[CarlosOlivo]

Not sure on the package name, can you point me towards where to find it?

See here. I'm not sure if is the same as the mobile versión.

[Altereno]

Not sure on the package name, can you point me towards where to find it?

See here. I'm not sure if is the same as the mobile versión.

Thanks for the info, not sure if it notifies people when I edit my response so I'll just reply.

org.videolan.vlc

[CarlosOlivo]

Thanks for the info, not sure if it notifies people when I edit my response so I'll just reply.

Yep, they do

org.videolan.vlc

Ok, is the same for mobile & tablet

Can you try this?, download jellyfin-android.zip, extract and try to install jellyfin-android-v0.0.0-dev.1-debug.apk then

• Login
• Go to client settings
• Choose External Player for Video Player Type
• Choose VLC Player for External player app

See if there is any improvement

[Altereno]

Thanks for the info, not sure if it notifies people when I edit my response so I'll just reply.

Yep, they do

org.videolan.vlc

Ok, is the same for mobile & tablet

Can you try this?, download jellyfin-android.zip, extract and try to install jellyfin-android-v0.0.0-dev.1-debug.apk then

• Login
• Go to client settings
• Choose External Player for Video Player Type
• Choose VLC Player for External player app

See if there is any improvement

The option to choose which external player is not there for me. It played the video through VLC though. Still says that playback tracking is disabled.

[CarlosOlivo]

The option to choose which external player is not there for me.

Sorry, wrong link, try this.

[Altereno]

The option to choose which external player is not there for me.

Sorry, wrong link, try this.
That worked, when do these small get released(on the play store or github)?

[CarlosOlivo]

when do these small get released?

No ETA, soon™, maybe...

About why this happens

VLC doesn't always return an activity result unless the correct activity is called, this doesn't always happens, on some devices like mine this works as-is, in others it's required to specify the full activity class VideoPlayerActivity

jellyfin-android/app/src/main/java/org/jellyfin/mobile/bridge/ExternalPlayer.kt

Line 213 in 87c4dc1

ExternalPlayerPackage.VLC_PLAYER -> ComponentName(packageName, "$packageName.gui.video.VideoPlayerActivity")

Maybe we need to add a warning somewhere about this and that VLC doesn't support external subtitles either, what do you think @Maxr1998 ?

[Ferk]

Maybe this should be discussed with the VLC team at https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-android/-/issues ?

If VLC is behaving in a non-standard way for the video player to play nicely with other android apps on some devices when using it via Intents I'd say it's something that VLC itself could benefit from fixing on their side.

Both for the Playback Tracking and the Subtitles (do the subtitles also work in MX Player?). It would be a pitty to not have proper support for a fully open source external player like VLC. And it has features that both the web and exo players are missing (like modifying the playback speed)

[CarlosOlivo]

Note: libVLC != VLC Android Port

Maybe this should be discussed with the VLC team at https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-android/-/issues ?

Unfortunately the VLC (Android) team decided that the MX Player API is "half insane". But they haven't fixed/improved their API either.

https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/17133
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/14705
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/18736

And I don't really like the attitude they take, but you can try discuss with them if you want.

https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-android/-/issues/502

If VLC is behaving in a non-standard way for the video player to play nicely with other android apps on some devices when using it via Intents I'd say it's something that VLC itself could benefit from fixing on their side.

(Un)fortunately in Android there is no such standard, so the implementation depends on each player.

• MX Player
• VLC Android

Both for the Playback Tracking and the Subtitles (do the subtitles also work in MX Player?).

Yep

It would be a pitty to not have proper support for a fully open source external player like VLC.

mpv-android is supported.

[jellyfin-bot]

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[Doc-4]

This problem still exists between current releases of VLC and Jellyfin Android. It also seems to exist between VLC and other 3rd party clients, so it seems to be some kind of VLC
android problem.