Video Playback issue with Spotify "Shows"

[pooranpanwar]

I'd like to share the playback issues I faced this week with the newly launched Spotify "shows”. I hope these findings can be used to troubleshoot any potential video playback  issues with android devices.

I have a Nexus 6P that is running Android 6.0. When I start playing video, it starts perfectly without any buffering or freezing but after  4+ mins, the video frames get dropped and I get to see a screen like in the screenshots I have captured below. While I am not able to see Video, the audio keeps running perfectly without any glitches.

29 Jan 2016

1. I experienced this playback issue when I was streaming the video over WIFI at my house. I have 48 Mbps of at my house, so bandwidth should not be a constraint.

As you can see in the screenshot, the video doesn’t buffer, or starts freezing, it’s like all the frames get dropped all of sudden or the decoding stops working while playback. I see the running lines and not any black screen.

1. Since I had never experienced a playback issue like this on any video app,  I thought it could be a codec issue specific to that content, so I started playing other videos on Spotify. Unfortunately, I was able to reproduce the same issue with another show over the same Wifi and on the same device - Nexus 6P. I continued my test with 3-4 more shows and was able to reproduce the same issue consistently. Interestingly, the issue would occur towards the end of the show. Also after the issue, If I rewind and try to watch the video from the beginning, the issue would persist unless I jump to next or previous show.

Date 06 Feb 2016

1. In order to rule out any issue specific to the wifi at home on that particular day, I tested at a different location, on a different day, over my cellular network (LTE) and I was able to reproduce the same issue. The screenshots are below.

As you can see the pattern is exactly the same as during the issue observed over Wifi. Also, this time, the issue occurred much before the end of the show.

1. On the same day, over the same cellular network and on the same device, I played HD videos on both NetFlix and Youtube. The videos played smoothly without any video freezing or playback issue. Netflix app didn't let me take screenshots but YouTube did. Below are the screenshots of the video playing on YouTube.

Date 07 Feb 2016

In order to check if the issue is specific to a device or an android version,  I streamed the same video on two different android devices.

1. Nexus 6 P with android 6.0  - the same device that has been used in above results
2. Moto x (2nd Generation) with android 5.1

The nexus device reproduced the same issue while there were no playback issues with the Moto X.

I checked the internet and other communities if there are other people facing similar issues, but couldn’t find any. So I am more curious now to find out what’s happening.  

Next, I am gonna test streaming Spotify “Shows” over other Android devices and over iOS over wifi and cellular networks at a different location. I’ll update the post with the additional findings.

[pakerfeldt · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Thanks for your report and the thorough investigation you've done. This issue is known to us and affects (as far as we know) Nexus 6, Nexus 6p and Nexus 5x. We have a fix for this that should be available with next release. Please let us know if you see this problem on any other device than those I just listed.

[pooranpanwar]

Hi,

I checked for an update and found one. The current version of Spotify app on my Nexus 6P is 4.6.0.772.

After upgrading, I played 5-6 videos and didn’t find any playback issue. To rule out the possibility of issue with only videos that are 5+ mins in length, I played 2 TED videos, and they played perfectly w/o any playback issue.

Looks like the fix was in the update. Thanks for your quick response.

[Hildajuwantk]

I have some issue. My phone oppo f1+. Playback failed they said when i use wifi