Shaka-player: configure() shouldn't switch tracks unless needed

[kocoten1992]

Have you read the FAQ and checked for duplicate issues: yes (with keywork buffer and switch)

What version of Shaka Player are you using: on the demo

Can you reproduce the issue with our latest release version: yes

Can you reproduce the issue with the latest code from master: not try yet

Are you using the demo app or your own custom app: in both your demo and my app

What browser and OS are you using: Chrome, ubuntu 17.10

What did you do? (there is a snippet on comment below)

1. go to https://shaka-player-demo.appspot.com/demo/#asset=//storage.googleapis.com/shaka-demo-assets/sintel/dash.mpd;lang=en-US;noadaptation
2. press Load, open info section
3. switch between 256x110 and 1920x818, just do it normally, nothing special here, like
4. click on 256x110 and wait for it to play
5. then click on 1920x818 and wait for it to play
6. then click on 256x110 and wait for it to play
   ... (repeat as many times as needed until you see the bug, less than 5 times in average case, 15 at most)

What did you expect to happen?

• calling selectVariantTrack(track, true) should clear current buffer, video pause briefly and new resolution apply immediately

What actually happened?

• When we are at 1920x818, calling 256x110 always work.
• When we at 256x110, calling 1920x818 doesn't always work.

It happen in my application as well, it worth notice this: my app have 5 resolution: 1080, 720, 480, 360, 240, calling for 720 or less work, just 1080 doesn't work
I set streaming bufferGoal 120s which mean, I have to endure 120s of lower resolution until it actually switch to 1080

[kocoten1992]

I try it on https://nightly-dot-shaka-player-demo.appspot.com/demo/#asset=//storage.googleapis.com/shaka-demo-assets/sintel/dash.mpd;lang=en-US;noadaptation , same thing happen

[TheModMaker]

@kocoten1992 Are you manually calling selectVariantTrack in your case, or are you selecting tracks in the drop-down menu on the demo? If you call selectVariantTrack, do you call configure before it?

I believe the fact it only happens on 1080p is a red herring. I can reproduce something similar during startup on 1080p, but not after a bit of playback. I think the problem is that the demo app calls player.configure() when we change tracks. This causes a track switch because of how we handle language changes. This configure call selects the 1080p track because ABR thinks it is the best track (even when ABR is disabled). Then when you select the 1080p track manually, it is already "selected", so we don't clear the buffer.

When someone calls player.configure(), we should only switch tracks if the current track selection doesn't match the new configuration. This may be related to #856.

[kocoten1992]

@TheModMaker thank for the word 'red herring' (new word), I've create snippet serve at backup and easier debug for this problem

http://jsbin.com/veginugace/edit?html,console,output

(On this snippet, change between 110p and 546p to see the bug)

[kocoten1992]

yep, that exactly what happen, when I tried to call

shakaPlayer.configure(...)

It will trigger shaka.media.StreamingEngine.prototype.switchInternal_ , and then when I call selectVariantTrack it call switchInternal_ again, fishy thing can happen!

I think I'll fix the demo, I want the badge contributor :smile:, the fix gonna be like:

// from
shakaPlayer.configure({abr: {enabled: false}})

// to
if (shakaPlayer.getConfiguration().abr.enabled) {
  shakaPlayer.configure({abr: {enabled: false}})
}

[kocoten1992]

P/s: but should we guard again this, I think this is a trap, at first use, I didn't know call configure would mess with selectVariantTrack at all

P/s: On the other hand, if dev try the demo and find out result diff from their, they will dig up the demo, so maybe not needed to guard.........?

[TheModMaker]

Thanks for the offer to fix, but that would not be the preferred fix. An app should be able to call configure() like that without changing tracks. We need to change configure() to not always switch tracks. Specifically it should only switch tracks when the new configuration forbids playing the current stream (e.g. due to Restrictions).

[joeyparrish]

Fix cherry-picked for v2.2.8.