Newpipe: Some 4k vertical videos don't play

[mobd]

Version

0.19.8

Steps to reproduce the bug

Go to a vertical 4k video and play it in 2160p (or sometimes 1440p too). It doesn't happen for all videos but here are some examples:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=izPbP1ByyBs
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwyr4Q6tD4Q (many videos on this channel give an error)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah0Ys50CqO8

Expected behavior

The video is played.

Actual behaviour

The video exits immediately and an error says "Unrecoverable player error occurred".

Screenshots/Screen recordings

[opusforlife2]

All three videos play for me at 2160p. However, I have a 1080p device, so I can't be sure my test is valid.

[opusforlife2]

But what the hell? 😆

The third link (Billie Eilish) gives me a _search suggestion_ when I enter it in the search field in Newpipe. The suggestion is the same URL, except all the capital letters are made small case.

@Stypox Any idea what's up here? Maybe Newpipe tries to identify it as a URL and suggest the exact same thing for the user to tap?

[mobd]

All three videos play for me at 2160p. However, I have a 1080p device, so I can't be sure my test is valid.

That's weird, my device has a 2400x1080 screen but I can't get them to play at all. If I use an external player they play fine so it's not an extractor problem.

[opusforlife2]

That does beg the question: _why_ are you watching higher resolutions when your device doesn't support them?

[mobd]

Haha fair enough, I guess that doesn't make too much sense. But 4k videos have a higher bitrate so they tend to still look a bit better in my experience.

[opusforlife2]

... now I'm wondering if there are things like ABX tests for videos.

[wb9688]

@mobd: What external player are you using?

[mobd]

I tried playing those videos with MX Player and VLC and they both work.

[wb9688]

@mobd: Ah, those both have their own players, could you try an external player that uses ExoPlayer?

[opusforlife2]

@wb9688 I think we should have a ready to suggest default app in such a case. Do you know of any?

[mobd]

I would like to know too, I can only find apps I have to build from source 😅

[opusforlife2]

@mobd A Play Store search had this result https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stream.video.exoplayer which doesn't have any ads. You could try this one.

[wb9688]

@opusforlife2: That one hasn't been updated for like 2 years plus I don't think it's a good idea to recommend proprietary stuff here.

[opusforlife2]

Then the only option I see is to build the default Google Exoplayer apk to hand out for testing.

[mobd]

I installed that app but it doesn't show up as an option to use, so I don't think it can handle the right intent. The same would probably be true for google's demo app.

[Stypox]

The third link (Billie Eilish) gives me a search suggestion when I enter it in the search field in Newpipe. The suggestion is the same URL, except all the capital letters are made small case.

I can't reproduce @opusforlife2, are you sure you copied the url correctly?

[opusforlife2]

Of course. If I enter the link directly, it takes me to the video. If I tap the suggestion, it says "Content unavailable".

If suggestions are provided by Youtube directly, then I think it's possible lots of people pasted that URL into the search box on Youtube and it just saved the URL in its database after formatting it or something.

[Stypox]

@opusforlife2 oh sorry, I misunderstood. I can't reproduce even now that I understand, but this is reasonable as until you press search newpipe does not know it is being fed a url, so it obviously tries to fetch search suggestions

[opusforlife2]

_Why_ doesn't Google provide a ready to install APK for Exoplayer/Simple Exoplayer/whatever?