Adaptive Video doesn't work with AVPro Video on Windows

[AndrewRH]

Describe the issue

When selecting the adaptive option and using AVPRo Video on Windows, the stream doesn't open (may be PC configuration / OS version specific).

It seems to be related this method GetAdaptiveVideoFileURL() which returns an HLS stream for Apple, and a DASH stream for everything else (Windows and Android mainly).

A possible fix

Perhaps there should be an option to rather expose the HLS stream for Windows+Android? They both have pretty good HLS support and it would be very handy to be able to select either. HLS probably even has better support as it is more widely used, so it could be the default.

    public string GetAdaptiveVideoFileURL() 
    {
        switch (Application.platform)
        {
            case RuntimePlatform.Android:
            case RuntimePlatform.WindowsPlayer:
            case RuntimePlatform.WindowsEditor:
            case RuntimePlatform.OSXPlayer:
            case RuntimePlatform.OSXEditor:
            case RuntimePlatform.IPhonePlayer:
            case RuntimePlatform.tvOS:
                return files["hls"]["link"];

            default:
                return files["dash"]["link"];
        }
    }  

[caseypugh]

Thanks for filing this @AndrewRH - this is a known issue on Windows and is a problem with the way Vimeo has structured its DASH manifest files. We are working on a fix.

And that is probably a good idea re: exposing HLS & DASH. We just wanted to make it simple for people to not have to worry about which adaptive type to select.

[caseypugh]

FYI, we added new methods to support fetching whatever kind of adaptive stream you want: #61

[vector3]

FYI, we added new methods to support fetching whatever kind of adaptive stream you want: #61

This doesn't actually fix the issue of adaptive streams not working on Android and Windows, correct?
At least it didn't work for me when I tested it.

As I need to evaluate video solutions for a project, is there any quick/dirty fix to this problem?

[caseypugh]

Hi @vector3 - correct, it does not fix it.

After doing more debugging with the AVPro team, we discovered that the issue is with AVPro which is using a very old Windows library for adaptive playback. AVPro mentioned that they have a new version being released (soon, I think) which will fix the issue.

If you need a quicker fix, I'd suggest trying some other Unity plugins for adaptive playback. Unfortunately, I don't have any recommendations, yet.

[AndrewRH]

This seems to happen due to URL redirection, which is currently confusing our Windows Media Foundation and Android implementation. A fix should come soon to either the Vimeo Unity plugin or our AVPro Video plugin. In the meantime something like the following code can be added inbetween Vimeo and AVPro Video to resolve the URL and then pass it on for playback:

IEnumerator ResolveAndPlay(string url)
{
    using (UnityWebRequest www = UnityWebRequest.Head(url))
    {
        yield return www.Send();        // TODO: change this to SendWebRequest in newer Unity versions

        if (!www.isError)       // TODO: change this to isNetworkError in newer Unity versions
        {
            _mediaPlayer.OpenVideoFromFile(MediaPlayer.FileLocation.AbsolutePathOrURL, www.url, true);
        }
    }
}

Thanks,

[caseypugh]

FYI, we are resolving this issue in PR #77

[AStopher]

This seems to be an issue again with the latest SDK and Unity 2019.3.4 in Windows (maybe 10% of the time it'll work, but most of the time it'll just get stuck on Opening.
Using the SDK in conjunction to AVProVideo.

[francescocalculli]

This seems to be an issue again with the latest SDK (2.4.1) and Unity 2020.3.29f in Windows.
Using the SDK in conjunction to AVProVideo.