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[Q] Video never starts playing

I just purchased MX Player Pro from the Google Play store and have v1.7.40 (neon)installed on my Nexus 6. Since I have a lot of video files with AC3 audio, I installed the custom AC3 codec found here on XDA (automatic restart applied). After that, I configured MX Player Pro to use HW+ decoding and failover to HW decoding.
I can't seem to get videos to play at all. I open a video and it sits there like it's on pause. I've tried multiple video files and get the same result. Most are x.264, one is x.265. I've tried changing it to HW decoding as well as SW decoding but get the same result. I've force stopped the app and tried again after clearing the app data and telling it NOT to use the custom codec but still get the same result. Am I doing something wrong? I really like MX Player Pro but I'm going to need to refund it if I can't get it to work.
EDIT: On some videos that I start, if I manually fast forward, I don't see any video at all. On the x.265 video, I can manually fast forward and see the video frame of where it's at in the timeline but it just never plays.
END EDIT
On a side note, after launching MX Player Pro for the first time, I was not prompted to install the codec package so I installed it manually.
Thanks so much to anyone who takes the time to read this and/or assist with this matter.

Well, assuming by "codec package" you mean the ARMv7 Codec package on the Play Store, you don't need these codec packages by default. On the contrary, the fact that you installed the custom codec may be what's causing the playback issue.
The Custom Codec on XDA here is purely for AC3 and DTS audio compatibility, and generally shouldn't affect video playback.
To be certain, are you using the stock Nexus 6 ROM? If yes then which build in particular?
Also, if you could collect an error log after it freezes, that would help.
How-to MX Log Collector - Error Logs

@phoney_stuff
H/W+ may cause issues with certain videos. I don't recommend it to use it as default.
Just try to start the video in S/W decoder (log press the video & from menu > play using > SW decoder.)
Don't resume if it asks.
Let me know the results.
If you still have issues, kindly collect the logs immediately after playing the video & upload here.
@CDB-Man
As you know Custom codec is same as the inbuilt ffmpeg which comes with mx player itself. But, ac3 & dts support is enabled. So, it may not be the issue.
Both H/W+ & S/W decoders use ffmpeg. If the issue is there in S/W it might be an issue related to ffmpeg itself.

Gentlemen,
Thanks for the reply!
I'm running stock Android 5.1.1 on a non-rooted device, latest version, screenshot attached.
My first attempt was without the codec that's is available on the Play store, but with the custom AC3 codec. When that failed, I installed the codec from the Play store and got the same result. Then I tried it again after removing the custom AC3 codec (leaving the codec available from the Play store in place) and, again, got the same result. In a past experience of playing videos in MX Player with AC3 audio without the custom codec, the video would play without audio which is what I was hoping to achieve as a troubleshooting step (to see if the custom codec was causing a problem).
Currently, I have MX Player Pro installed with the codec that is available on the Play store as well as the custom codec to play AC3 audio. This is the config which we're basing our tests on as of now. Please let me know if I should remove the codec that I downloaded from the Play store. Also, I deleted the x.265 video that I mentioned in my previous post and obtained another video encoded in x.264. Regardless of this, it's important to note that I get the same result with ANY video I attempt to play. I'm attaching my loss for your review as requested. In this test, I have HW+ fully disabled in settings and SW decoding fully enabled. I also choose to start the video from the beginning rather than resume. Again, thanks so much for the help. Please let me know if there is anything else I can provide to help troubleshoot this issue.

@phoney_stuff
The issue is not with MX Player.
MX Player is not getting audio focus.
Looks like some other app is trying to keep the audio focus. That's why mx player is not playing any video.
Goto Settings > Player & Disable "Play Alone"
Then try again.
Note:
If you disable the option "Play Alone" MX Player will keeps on playing the video regardless of the status. For e.g it won't pause if you receive a call. So, best solution is that find the app that is stealing the audio focus & uninstall it or if there is any particular Settings in that app kindly adjust it.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk

@ktsamy
That did the trick, or it could be that I'm not currently using the phone that did the trick.... or both. VIC works while I'm on the phone so I guess I was expecting MX Player to do the same.
I'm going to leave Play Alone disabled since I like the option of playing audio our video when I'm on the phone.
Would it be too much for me to request an feature (toggle-able) to have MX Player to pause when it loses audio focus?

ktsamy said:
@CDB-Man
As you know Custom codec is same as the inbuilt ffmpeg which comes with mx player itself. But, ac3 & dts support is enabled. So, it may not be the issue.
Both H/W+ & S/W decoders use ffmpeg. If the issue is there in S/W it might be an issue related to ffmpeg itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm yeah, which is what I meant by:
CDB-Man said:
The Custom Codec on XDA here is purely for AC3 and DTS audio compatibility, and generally shouldn't affect video playback
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As in, using your version shouldn't in and of itself cause playback issues! As in, the issue is likely not caused by the fact that you are using the custom codec, but probably something else!
phoney_stuff said:
Would it be too much for me to request an feature (toggle-able) to have MX Player to pause when it loses audio focus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enabling "Play Alone" does precisely just that? As in, make MX stop playing when it loses audio focus if another app plays...

@CDB-Man enabling Play Alone also prevents it from playing when it doesn't have a audio focus to begin with.

phoney_stuff said:
@CDB-Man enabling Play Alone also prevents it from playing when it doesn't have a audio focus to begin with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what the issue is.
Just find out the app that steals/keeps audio focus. Disable it or uninstall it.
You can now play even when "Play Alone" is enabled.
This is used to pause MXPlayer when you loose audio focus (like call or notification or alarm or Playback from another player). That's why it's enabled by default.
It's not the fault of MX Player.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk

@ktsamy
Thanks be to you, I found the app that's keeping audio focus is the phone. I like the feature of Play Alone that pauses MX Player when it loses audio focus. However, I it would also be nice if MX Player allowed me to play audio our video) while I'm currently in a call without having to toggle Play Alone on/off all of the time.

[Q] MX Player Network Stream

Hello,
I hope someone knows a solution for the following.
I am using MX player on my NVIDIA Shield TV.
And I mainly use MX player to play video files that are stored on my network disk.
I am required to use the HW+ mode to get Dolby Atmos audio working.
This is all working fine, the only thing that is not working is fast forwarding and rewinding.
When I am using the same file on a USB stick it works fine, so it seems to be a issue when playing the files with the HW+ decoder over the network.
Does someone know a solution for this ?
I already installed the customer codecs btw.
Thanks in advance !

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=51915844&postcount=1
Network playback buffering in general is a known issue, not specific to any of the playback methods. The developer aims to fix it in version 1.8 whenever that's ready.

Can you collect the logs immediately after reproducing the problem & upload here.?
Sent using XDA One

ktsamy said:
Can you collect the logs immediately after reproducing the problem & upload here.?
Sent using XDA One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the late reply, I was very busy with some family matters.
I made one mistake in my first post, I was using the normal HW decoder.
The HW+ decoder does fast forward and rewind, but does not give me the dolby Atmos sound I described earlier.
I don't know if this changes the situation or answer ?
I will reproduce the issue and upload the logs when I'm back home from work.
Thanks for all the help !
PS. I already tried the alpha version (1.8.0) of MX Player, but the issue persisted.

triphoenix1991 said:
Sorry for the late reply, I was very busy with some family matters.
I made one mistake in my first post, I was using the normal HW decoder.
The HW+ decoder does fast forward and rewind, but does not give me the dolby Atmos sound I described earlier.
I don't know if this changes the situation or answer ?
I will reproduce the issue and upload the logs when I'm back home from work.
Thanks for all the help !
PS. I already tried the alpha version (1.8.0) of MX Player, but the issue persisted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HW uses android's native mediaplayer api.
Seems that your system doesn't have native dolby decoders. But, your audio system supports dolby decoding. In HW decoder audio might be passed to audio system. But, in H/W+ it will use system decoders to decode. So, if your device doesn't support that codec, it will use ffmpeg to decode (i.e, SW audio). If you use cutom codec you will get stereo output. Else you won't get any audio.
Only solution is to get audio pass through feature. It's expected in further minor updates to 1.8. (i.e 1.8.x).
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk

ktsamy said:
HW uses android's native mediaplayer api.
Seems that your system doesn't have native dolby decoders. But, your audio system supports dolby decoding. In HW decoder audio might be passed to audio system. But, in H/W+ it will use system decoders to decode. So, if your device doesn't support that codec, it will use ffmpeg to decode (i.e, SW audio). If you use cutom codec you will get stereo output. Else you won't get any audio.
Only solution is to get audio pass through feature. It's expected in further minor updates to 1.8. (i.e 1.8.x).
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that is a very good explanation !
I did not really understand the difference between the 3 different decoders, but now I do, so thank you very much for that !
I noticed when I use the native video player on my Shield TV it does play Dolby atmos, but it has the same issue with rewinding/fast forwarding.
So because HW on MX Player uses the native media player API the buffering is not working ?
I suppose I just have to wait till audio passthrough is available in 1.8.
Or buffering will be available in the native media player.

Freezing image on H264 with HW+ decoder

Hi, I've recently started using MX Player on my Android TV as its HW+ decoder plays very high bitrate 4K HDR H265 very smoothly whereas VLC player stutters. Really liking it so far.
However, I started to notice an issue with the HW+ decoder on H264: a lot of times, somewhere at the start of the video, the image freezes. Meanwhile, audio and subtitle tracks continue. This is easily resolved by just skipping a few seconds forwards or backwards, but it happens so often that it is a bit annoying. So I'm wondering if this is a known issue and if it has a known solution, despite that I can't seem to find anything about it after searching the forums.
I haven't bothered with providing custom codecs as I figure that isn't needed unless MX Player asks you to, but I did notice that MX Player uses the Neon codecs on my Android TV.
Things I've tried so far:
- Use the alternate HW+ decoder. Unfortunately this seems to perform not as good on high bitrate videos, and wide color gamut support seems absent on HDR videos, so I figured this one has more downsides than the original one.
- Disable H264 support on the HW+ decoder, so that it uses the HW decoder by default for H264. This works quite well, but for some reason, HW decoder seems to fail on many of my videos, causing MX player to fall back to SW, which gives noticeably worse performance and picture quality on my Android TV.
If I can't solve the freezing image on the HW+ decoder, I'd be interested to know how to best debug failures of the HW decoder so I can more reliably fall back to HW for H264.

shvklatch said:
- Disable H264 support on the HW+ decoder, so that it uses the HW decoder by default for H264. This works quite well, but for some reason, HW decoder seems to fail on many of my videos, causing MX player to fall back to SW, which gives noticeably worse performance and picture quality on my Android TV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably the issue is either with your videos or system decoders.
H264 is supported on most of the devices. HW decoder is basically a wrapper for Android mediaplayer implemented on your device.
So, Most of the issues on HW decoder is from the device firmware itself.
HW+ decoder also uses the decoders available on the system. From the symptoms, it looks like your system decoder freezes or fails to decode the video frames.
Can you connect your device to a system in debugging mode & collect the logs while reproducing the issue?
It will give better insight into the issue.

Hi! Thank you for your reply. I figured you might be right about any HW decoder issues being caused by the system or the videos themselves, so I tried some stuff out. For instance, forcing VLC player to use hardware acc., the same videos play without issue, over and over again. Puzzled with this, I removed MX player completely from the Android TV device, and then installed it again. To my surprise, this fixed the HW decoder issues. The same H264 videos could now be played effortlessly with the HW decoder. In fact, I don't have any issue with H264 videos on the HW decoder at all anymore. This is great, but unfortunately also means I can no longer produce logs of the HW decoder issue I experienced. Not sure what happened there.
The HW+ decoder issue remains however. I'm still seeing the video track getting stuck on a single frame close at the start of H264 videos, until I skip forward or backward. Audio and subtitle tracks continue as normal. This behavior is completely inconsistent, seemingly random and not always occurring, even on the same video. This happened not even once during all my tests with the HW decoder, nor on any H265 video with the HW+ decoder. I will attempt to collect logs while reproducing and report back here once I succeed. (this could take a while)

shvklatch said:
Hi! Thank you for your reply. I figured you might be right about any HW decoder issues being caused by the system or the videos themselves, so I tried some stuff out. For instance, forcing VLC player to use hardware acc., the same videos play without issue, over and over again. Puzzled with this, I removed MX player completely from the Android TV device, and then installed it again. To my surprise, this fixed the HW decoder issues. The same H264 videos could now be played effortlessly with the HW decoder. In fact, I don't have any issue with H264 videos on the HW decoder at all anymore. This is great, but unfortunately also means I can no longer produce logs of the HW decoder issue I experienced. Not sure what happened there.
The HW+ decoder issue remains however. I'm still seeing the video track getting stuck on a single frame close at the start of H264 videos, until I skip forward or backward. Audio and subtitle tracks continue as normal. This behavior is completely inconsistent, seemingly random and not always occurring, even on the same video. This happened not even once during all my tests with the HW decoder, nor on any H265 video with the HW+ decoder. I will attempt to collect logs while reproducing and report back here once I succeed. (this could take a while)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks in advance. If you can provide the device logs, we will definitely look into the issue.

Thirumalai.K said:
Thanks in advance. If you can provide the device logs, we will definitely look into the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any logs yet, but I came in to report what I believe to be relevant in case anyone else has the same issues: I think you were right about something being off with the system's decoders.
My Android TV device, a Philips 65PUS8102/12 TV, had performance issues with 4k videos and some very high bitrate Full HD videos. I grew fond of MX Player because its HW+ decoder was still capable of running 4k videos smoothly, where nothing else could. It was still a lot to process and skipping forward/backwards was pretty much impossible on these 4k videos because of it. Then there were the h264 issues I reported here, like the frozen frames. Oddly enough, while performance and skipping worked perfectly on both the HW+ and HW decoder for h264 videos, every player using HW acceleration including MX did stutter on some of the very high bitrate ones full hd videos (that still came nowhere near the 4k video bitrates).
A few days ago, Philips issued a massive software update that included both an Android update from 6.0.1 to 7.1.1, and bugfixes resolving 4k performance and some decoding issues. Right now, MX Player's HW+ decoder is no longer the only way for me to play 4k videos smoothly. What's more, skipping works perfectly on them now, and any reproducible issue I had on h264 (both performance-related and freezing frames) I haven't been able to reproduce since.
So if anyone faces the same issues as mine with my particular TV or another from Philips sharing the same software-base, make sure you're fully updated to the Android 7 release to presumably resolve at least several of these issues.

shvklatch said:
I don't have any logs yet, but I came in to report what I believe to be relevant in case anyone else has the same issues: I think you were right about something being off with the system's decoders.
My Android TV device, a Philips 65PUS8102/12 TV, had performance issues with 4k videos and some very high bitrate Full HD videos. I grew fond of MX Player because its HW+ decoder was still capable of running 4k videos smoothly, where nothing else could. It was still a lot to process and skipping forward/backwards was pretty much impossible on these 4k videos because of it. Then there were the h264 issues I reported here, like the frozen frames. Oddly enough, while performance and skipping worked perfectly on both the HW+ and HW decoder for h264 videos, every player using HW acceleration including MX did stutter on some of the very high bitrate ones full hd videos (that still came nowhere near the 4k video bitrates).
A few days ago, Philips issued a massive software update that included both an Android update from 6.0.1 to 7.1.1, and bugfixes resolving 4k performance and some decoding issues. Right now, MX Player's HW+ decoder is no longer the only way for me to play 4k videos smoothly. What's more, skipping works perfectly on them now, and any reproducible issue I had on h264 (both performance-related and freezing frames) I haven't been able to reproduce since.
So if anyone faces the same issues as mine with my particular TV or another from Philips sharing the same software-base, make sure you're fully updated to the Android 7 release to presumably resolve at least several of these issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are pleased to know that your issue is resolved.
As I have mentioned earlier, many of the issue with hardware accelerations are usually from the firmware itself. It can affect each app in a different manner based on their implementation. And finding a workaround without an actual device is also very difficult.
Thanks for providing the information about the firmware update. It will help us to guide our users if they are unaware of it.

DTS pass-through to a DTS capable receiver from nVidia Shield (MX Player Pro)

Hi,
I am facing one problem with the subject.
I set the following settings in MX Player Pro
1. Remove (or do not install external codecs (modified ffmpeg library)
2. Turn off HW+
3. Select all Hardware accelerated codecs in HW+ video and HW+ audio codecs.
Then pass-through DTS works but basically not watchable too much distorted audio, video pauses, freezing etc..
4. Turn off HW audio track selectable
Then pass-through DTS works. video sort of watchable but video seeking is not working anymore + it pauses every few seconds
Is it possible somehow to fix video seeking on nvida shield with Turned off HW audio track selectable or to fix DTS audio distortion with HW audio track selectable on?
Thank you in advance.

I cannot believe that passthorugh is working for everyone but me or nobody uses it at all with MX Player?
come on people! )
HW accell AC3 + DTS passthrough. DTS doesn't work!
plus broken time seek (fast forward, rewind) on all streams.

Makcum said:
I cannot believe that passthorugh is working for everyone but me or nobody uses it at all with MX Player?
come on people! )
HW accell AC3 + DTS passthrough. DTS doesn't work!
plus broken time seek (fast forward, rewind) on all streams.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kindly collect a bug report immediately after reproducing the issue & share with us. It will help us to understand the issue better.

Thirumalai.K said:
Kindly collect a bug report immediately after reproducing the issue & share with us. It will help us to understand the issue better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for your reply.
I hope I did it right.

Makcum said:
Thank you very much for your reply.
I hope I did it right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have already replied to your mail. Can you check whether it happens with local playback or not?

Thirumalai.K said:
I have already replied to your mail. Can you check whether it happens with local playback or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply.
I am preparing a test case right now (copying the same media to the flesh drive). I will update you with info soon.
Thank you again for taking care of it.

yes. It is the same issue if i Play local files.
broken DTS plus broken fast forward and rewind on HW.

MX Nightmare ( seeking and audio passthrough )

I am facing a frustrating problem as whatever option I choose I face one problem!
I am using MX Player to watch my movies on my Nvidia shiled from a local server
(Emby) on my PC. The file is a DTS-HD.MA.5.1.X264.MKV
If I choose HW+ the image is perfect, I can seek and go backward
and forward on the video with no problem, but the DTS sound dose not passthrough
to my home theater.
If I choose HW then audio passthrough works perfect but seeking dose not work! I can
no longer go back and forth on the video file
Can anyone tell me if this is a normal (Known) restriction or if there is anyway to fix at
least one of the options to work (HW or HW+). It would also be kind if you tell me which
decoder would give the best result on a Nvidia shield as I with no knowledge tend to
believe that HW+ is the best option!

Seems there is no support on the forum from developers maybe should try on playstore?!
In the faq they mention:
Video position is not changing and resets to the start whenever I return to video.
Some videos can not be "sought" properly. This may happen due to one of the following reasons;
Corrupted File - File can be damaged during copy process to the device even if original file is not corrupted.
File Configuration - Some video files do not have position information, which is need for changing position. Seeking these files may take longer or not even possible.
Decoder Bug - Both HW and SW codec have more bugs than their desktop siblings. Many people are working on improving Android codecs.
My problem is certainly Decoder Bug and not the other two!
So in my case mx player become worthless as I don't get audio passthrough on SW and HD+ and if I use HD which dose the audio passthrough
correctly then I better not decide to seek and go back or forth in a movie else I need to restart from beginning!
Let's hope I am doing something wrong and there is a workaround to get both audio passthrough + seeking to work at the same time!

rezpower said:
Seems there is no support on the forum from developers maybe should try on playstore?!
In the faq they mention:
Video position is not changing and resets to the start whenever I return to video.
Some videos can not be "sought" properly. This may happen due to one of the following reasons;
Corrupted File - File can be damaged during copy process to the device even if original file is not corrupted.
File Configuration - Some video files do not have position information, which is need for changing position. Seeking these files may take longer or not even possible.
Decoder Bug - Both HW and SW codec have more bugs than their desktop siblings. Many people are working on improving Android codecs.
My problem is certainly Decoder Bug and not the other two!
So in my case mx player become worthless as I don't get audio passthrough on SW and HD+ and if I use HD which dose the audio passthrough
correctly then I better not decide to seek and go back or forth in a movie else I need to restart from beginning!
Let's hope I am doing something wrong and there is a workaround to get both audio passthrough + seeking to work at the same time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We regret the inconveniences caused by the delay in our response. Some of the items in our FAQs may not be up to date.
HW decoder heavily relies on the android mediaplayer framework implementation on your device. MX Player doesn't have much control over it. If you can seek with HW+ and SW, then it must be a bug on mediaplayer framework implementation on your device. If you are on a TV device, HW decoder may automatically use the passthrough mode based on the configuration done by the manufacturer. Whereas in HW+ and SW decoders, MX Player depends on the Android APIs to detect the capabilities of the connected audio device. So, audio passthrough mode will be used only when it is reported by the system.

Thank you very much for you reply. however I am still hoping that there could be a way the get around this problem. I do not have
enough knowledge on this subject but the question I have is that the default player for Kodi can play all my video files and the
passthrough is working on everyone of these files and there is no seeking problem either! The same thing with VLC. So MXPlayer
should certainly be able to do as much on the same system. It would really bee nice if you could check this and see if there is a
workaround. MX is a great player and for me a must have player on andoid TV and it's certainly worth making it more compatible.

I just replace MXPlayer with VLC and everything works perfectly fine. I can seek through movies and audio passthrough is working
as well with no problems. So please stop blaming Android OS everytime a user report a problem and fix your software!

Almost a year later I still have this issue with a shield 2017, and 2019.. VLC works fine.
MX player pro wont seek, or wont passthrough. wasted $6

Same issue
Reported this issue 3 years ago and I can't believe you have fixed it...I have to use VLC on my main TV to watch a movie on surround sound! MX has it beat on smoothness but that's pointless without surround sound.
Come, on give us Pro purchasers a simple pass through function like everyone one elses media player!