[video_player_avfoundation] Flickering on macOS

[cbenhagen]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues
• I have read the guide to filing a bug

Steps to reproduce

Run the example in video_player_avfoundation on macOS

Expected results

No flickering

Actual results

Background flickering through the video at random times and always at the end of the video [Edit: as of PR 5078 landing the "always at the end of video" part of this should no longer be true]. Most likely due to returning NULL here:

https://github.com/flutter/packages/blob/c070b0a7a80a54d5fad254fecdfd98ffe764bd4e/packages/video_player/video_player_avfoundation/darwin/Classes/FVPVideoPlayerPlugin.m#L560-L567

While on iOS the last frame would be repeated, on macOS the underlying widget will be visible which results in the flashing effect.

Code sample

Code sample

Use the example in video_player_avfoundation on macOS

Screenshots or Video

Screenshots / Video demonstration

Screen.Recording.2023-10-04.at.21.12.13.mov

Logs

No response

Flutter Doctor output

Doctor output

[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.13.6, on macOS 14.0 23A344 darwin-arm64, locale en-US)
    • Flutter version 3.13.6 on channel stable at /Users/ben/development/flutter
    • Upstream repository https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
    • Framework revision ead455963c (8 days ago), 2023-09-26 18:28:17 -0700
    • Engine revision a794cf2681
    • Dart version 3.1.3
    • DevTools version 2.25.0

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 31.0.0)
    • Android SDK at /Users/ben/Library/Android/sdk
    • Platform android-33, build-tools 31.0.0
    • Java binary at: /Users/ben/Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jbr/Contents/Home/bin/java
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.6+0-17.0.6b829.9-10027231)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 15.0)
    • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    • Build 15A240d
    • CocoaPods version 1.13.0

[✓] Chrome - develop for the web
    • Chrome at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome

[✓] Android Studio (version 2022.3)
    • Android Studio at /Users/ben/Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents
    • Flutter plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9212-flutter
    • Dart plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6351-dart
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.6+0-17.0.6b829.9-10027231)

[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2023.2.2)
    • IntelliJ at /Users/ben/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.app
    • Flutter plugin version 75.1.4
    • Dart plugin version 232.9559.10

[✓] VS Code (version 1.82.2)
    • VS Code at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents
    • Flutter extension version 3.70.0

[✓] Connected device (4 available)
[redacted]

[✓] Network resources
    • All expected network resources are available.

[cbenhagen]

/cc @stuartmorgan

[stuartmorgan-g]

There's a race in the time handling there that I didn't consider when writing the update driver, which is probably the cause of the flicker.

[stuartmorgan-g]

Please let me know if https://github.com/stuartmorgan/packages/tree/video-player-macos-fallback-frame resolves this for you. I see a lot less flickering than it sounds like you do (I was only seeing one flicker when it loops, and even then only sometimes), but this resolved that for me. (It's not a PR yet since I still need to unit test it, and won't have time to add that today.)

[cbenhagen]

Thanks for the fast response! Yes that branch resolves the flickering. However the texture is not updated on seek while paused anymore. It could also be smoother on seek when playing.

[stuartmorgan-g]

However the texture is not updated on seek while paused anymore.

It looks like it updates every other seek, both with and without that change, so it seems to be unrelated. We'll need to file that to investigate separately.