[Question] Performance for high resolution video on android mobile devices

[aryansaurav]

AVPro Video Version

3.3

Which platform is your question for?

Android

Your question

Hello,

We are using AVPro for video playback. It works pretty well except for some stuttering on android mobile devices.
We are looking for ways to improve the performance.

The video is in Full HD resolution @ 30-60 FPS from streaming url in HLS format (m3u8 playlists)

The video plays just fine on android device but is not really smooth.. could potentially cause headache to the end-users if watched for a bit long.

Based on what I read in documentations and issues on github, there is an OES option that could improve performance on android platform by exploiting GPU's power. However, there was a note of caution that it was meant for advanced developer. Also, most issues regarding OES are related to XR environment.

But we are not using any XR.. and merely for video playback.

• Could OES still help us in our case? We don't need to use Vulkan API.
• Any other alternatives to improve the playback from streaming urls?

we are using material for rendering video. we have core edition version 3.3.

[Chris-RH]

Stuttering can be down to various issues:

• Poor network (slow internet speed, issues with WiFi, poor mobile signal)
• Server issues (caching, video encoding issues, large chunk size, poor setup)
• Device limitations (underpowered hardware - struggling to decode the frames fast enough, too much else going on in the project using up resources)
• Software issues (sub optimal player settings)

If you play the stream using the phones built in player, how does it run?
Have you got several streams available within your HLS, with different resolutions etc? Also, smaller chunk sizes with be decoded quicker.
I would go back to basics and just open a new project and run one of our demo scenes with your stream.
Adjusting the buffering settings may help.
OES rendering should improve performance. Its not that difficult to set up, you just need to follow the documentation. Sadly, its not available in the trial version of AVPro Video.

[aryansaurav]

Thanks @Chris-RH for the possible indications.

We do have licensed Core Mobile Edition V3. Will try out the OES for Android this week.

iPhone plays same videos pretty smoothly on the same network (wifi broadband high speed ).. seems more related to the Android platform or device issues than the server or network issues (without ruling them out completely).

We haven't tried it yet on phone with built-in player.
But, it does seem to play more smoothly with Av Pro standalone demo scenes on android phone.

I guess, it's multiple other components in our project scenes. That makes everything altogether heavy (for android) leading to the performance drop - stuttering video playback. Just trying to optimise a bit further somehow for the android platform.

Indeed, we do have multiple streams within the HLS.

1. We have two resolutions :

• 1080p @ 6 Mbps bit-rate and
• 720p @ 3 Mbps

2. HLS chunk size (.ts files) : 2 seconds

We thought this kind of video encoding settings would help with on-device performance. It does not seem possible to select one stream or another based on network conditions.

Could this by any chance actually lead to stuttering? (2 seconds, too small for chunk size may be?)

Also, for buffering settings, would higher values for buffer help fix stuttering? Or lower values? Or, we just test different values randomly?

[MorrisRH]

Have you modified Application.targetFrameRate from the default on Android. If not then I would recommend setting it to 60.

[MorrisRH]

We thought this kind of video encoding settings would help with on-device performance. It does not seem possible to select one stream or another based on network conditions.

We provide an API for selection video variants. You can find an example of this in our MediaPlayer demo scene. Just tap the cog icon in the mediaplayer interface and you can choose the variants from the popup menu.

Also, for buffering settings, would higher values for buffer help fix stuttering? Or lower values? Or, we just test different values randomly?

I wouldn't recommend changing the defaults unless there is definitely an issue. You will get buffering events triggering if this is an issue with playback.

[aryansaurav]

Yes, we have Application.targetFrameRate set @ 60..
Thanks for pointing out about the selection of video variants.
Could it be controlled programatically using the scripts?

Also, we tested the OES playback on Android. It works great with AvPro demo scene and AVPro demo video (mp4 format).

But, it didn't work at all when we replace av pro demo video with our streaming url of hls video. In the same AvPro OES demo scene.
Have you tested if OES works well with HLS format streaming URL?

We would be happy to prepare a streaming url hls video in case your team need it for testing it in OES demo scene.

[Chris-RH]

How does it work if you use this stream: https://stream.mux.com/4XYzhPXzqArkFI8d1vDsScBLD69Gh1b2.m3u8

[MorrisRH]

We would be happy to prepare a streaming url hls video in case your team need it for testing it in OES demo scene.

That would be very helpful, thanks.

[aryansaurav]

ok thanks again for your inputs @Chris-RH and @MorrisRH .

We were able to successfully play the hls video in the link provided by Chris in a new build with av pro demo scene using OES texture. Perhaps, we need to try, test and debug our setup a bit more before seeking any further support from your team.