After 1.5.0, Android 15 may experience screen flickering

[CarGuo]

Version

Media3 1.5.0

More version details

>= 1.5.0

Devices that reproduce the issue

Android 15 emulated device

Devices that do not reproduce the issue

Android OS Version < 15

Reproducible in the demo app?

Yes

Reproduction steps

demos/main ：

Delaying playerView.setPlayer(player); until video is successfully prepared, screen flickering

It works well in version 1.4.x , but after upgrading to 1.5.x, this scenario does not work properly on the Android 15 emulator

5000 milliseconds is only for the convenience of setting the surface scene after simulating video playback

Index: demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java
IDEA additional info:
Subsystem: com.intellij.openapi.diff.impl.patch.CharsetEP
<+>UTF-8
===================================================================
diff --git a/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java b/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java
--- a/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java	(revision 76088cd6af7f263aba238b7a48d64bd4f060cb8b)
+++ b/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java	(date 1737381685094)
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
 import android.os.Build;
 import android.os.Bundle;
+import android.os.Handler;
 import android.util.Pair;
 import android.view.KeyEvent;
 import android.view.View;
@@ -279,7 +280,7 @@
       player.addAnalyticsListener(new EventLogger());
       player.setAudioAttributes(AudioAttributes.DEFAULT, /* handleAudioFocus= */ true);
       player.setPlayWhenReady(startAutoPlay);
-      playerView.setPlayer(player);
+
       configurePlayerWithServerSideAdsLoader();
       debugViewHelper = new DebugTextViewHelper(player, debugTextView);
       debugViewHelper.start();
@@ -294,6 +295,12 @@
     if (repeatModeExtra != null) {
       player.setRepeatMode(IntentUtil.parseRepeatModeExtra(repeatModeExtra));
     }
+    new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {
+      @Override
+      public void run() {
+        playerView.setPlayer(player);
+      }
+    }, 5000);
     updateButtonVisibility();
     return true;
   }

Expected result

Work normally like version 1.4.x

Actual result

On Android 15, 1.5.x version, the screen will flicker

Media

When the problem is triggered in the demo

2025-01-20.22.06.37.mov

Bug Report

• You will email the zip file produced by adb bugreport to android-media-github@google.com after filing this issue.

[tonihei]

Is this only happening on the emulator? And if so, does it happen for all videos? I tried to use the same emulator, but don't see anything suspicious when playing one of the videos in the demo app.

[CarGuo]

Because I don't currently have a real Android 15 device, I only found this issue on the Android 15 emulator.

The problem occurs in all videos, mainly related to the timing of starting playback and the surface settings,

It can reproduce in demos/main, but some simple modifications are needed, such as modifying PlayerActivity. java:

Index: demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java
IDEA additional info:
Subsystem: com.intellij.openapi.diff.impl.patch.CharsetEP
<+>UTF-8
===================================================================
diff --git a/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java b/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java
--- a/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java	(revision 76088cd6af7f263aba238b7a48d64bd4f060cb8b)
+++ b/demos/main/src/main/java/androidx/media3/demo/main/PlayerActivity.java	(date 1737381685094)
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
 import android.os.Build;
 import android.os.Bundle;
+import android.os.Handler;
 import android.util.Pair;
 import android.view.KeyEvent;
 import android.view.View;
@@ -279,7 +280,7 @@
       player.addAnalyticsListener(new EventLogger());
       player.setAudioAttributes(AudioAttributes.DEFAULT, /* handleAudioFocus= */ true);
       player.setPlayWhenReady(startAutoPlay);
-      playerView.setPlayer(player);
+
       configurePlayerWithServerSideAdsLoader();
       debugViewHelper = new DebugTextViewHelper(player, debugTextView);
       debugViewHelper.start();
@@ -294,6 +295,12 @@
     if (repeatModeExtra != null) {
       player.setRepeatMode(IntentUtil.parseRepeatModeExtra(repeatModeExtra));
     }
+    new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {
+      @Override
+      public void run() {
+        playerView.setPlayer(player);
+      }
+    }, 5000);
     updateButtonVisibility();
     return true;
   }

It mainly occurs on Android 15. After the 1.5.0 version of the media player starts playing, set the surface to the player, such as playerView.setPlayer (player), then screen flickering

The above code mainly simulates the scenario of setting surface after the media player starts playing, by delaying by 5000 milliseconds and then calling playerView.setPlayer (player)

The scenario where the problem occurs is when we only set surface to the media player after it starts playing

In Android 15, this issue does not occur in versions 1.4.0 and below .

Comparison of videos in different scenarios

Right：

studio_video_1737784878273712.MOV

Error：

studio_video_1737784878273712.2.MOV

[tonihei]

Thanks, I can reproduce this as well now (didn't realize the delayed attachment of PlayerView is relevant).

This looks like a clear emulator bug (playback works fine on a real device). I've reported it to the emulator team internally (ref b/392540687).

[NoNews]

Observing very similar issue with flickering with 1.5.1:

Investigation showed:

• This issue also happens on a Xiaomi and OPPO devices
• Only Android 15

Question
Can it be related to this commit?