yl_player_android 0.3.0-dev.4

Endorsed Android implementation package for the hardware-first yl_player Flutter playback kernel.

yl_player_android

Endorsed Android implementation for yl_player 0.2. Applications should depend on yl_player; Flutter registers this package automatically. It targets Android 7.0/API 24 or later and uses Media3 1.11.0. Clear media uses a Flutter texture.

Media3 remains the primary route. When its extractor cannot expose video or its decoder cannot initialize, the package makes one managed fallback attempt: FFmpeg demuxes MP4/MOV, Matroska/WebM, FLV, MPEG-TS and MPEG-PS into H.264/H.265 packets for proven hardware MediaCodec. PS uses owned demux because Media3's PS extractor can silently expose only its audio. AVI and AV1 remain on Media3. Decoder metadata uses a versioned JNI contract; mismatched libraries fail explicitly.

Owned H.264/H.265 software decoding requires an exact measured device, OS, APK/native-build and stream admission record. The production table is empty. Controlled tests exercise 8-bit 4:2:0 limited-range BT.601 output, actual frames, shared reference/packet/renderer accounting and resource exhaustion. Other bit depths/color paths are rejected instead of silently converted. Geometry limits alone never authorize software decoding. AAC, MP3, AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, FLAC, Opus, and Vorbis audio can be decoded to PCM.

The fallback accepts local files, Android content URIs, progressive HTTP, and HLS VOD/live, including standard AES-128 HLS. It deliberately rejects Widevine, SAMPLE-AES, and DRM bypass. FFmpeg networking, encoders, filters, GPL, and nonfree components are disabled; the LGPL shared library is replaceable for arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, and x86_64. Build and replacement inputs are under tool/android_ffmpeg, with license notices under LICENSES.

The Media3 route accepts local files, Android content URIs, HLS, HTTP-FLV, and progressive containers subject to extractor, codec, device, and server support. Both platform-default and Android managed networking are implemented with same-origin credential enforcement. Exact managed timeout/retry behavior is documented in the repository policy guide. Exact bounded-buffer requests are rejected; built-in buffer strategies remain tuning goals.

Decoder policies are honored per Player with an optional per-Load override. All policies try positively identified hardware first. Hardware-required never uses software. Default/preferred can use the separately admitted owned fallback; opaque MediaCodec software and unknown hardware evidence are not admitted. Positive platform hardware metadata requires API29+; API24 remains the binary minimum, not a promise of verified video decoding on every older device. A capability snapshot is conservative and does not prove that a codec will initialize for arbitrary media.

Plugin-managed audio uses one focus owner and preserves current playback intent through replacement, transient focus loss, foreground reconstruction, Stop, and Dispose. App-managed audio leaves focus decisions to the application. One active Android video decoder lease is granted at a time; memory and lifecycle events can quiesce and reconstruct the active session.

The implementation exposes Media3 state, tracks, geometry, decoder mode, metrics, correlated events, and safe YlFailure values through the v0.2 SPI. Production VP9/AV1 software admission, downloads, persistent media cache and background audio remain unavailable. Subtitle routes have their own documented format and protection constraints. See the support matrix for route limits and the outstanding physical Android endurance evidence.

The schema5 Widevine DASH route consumes YlWidevineDrm explicitly. Protected playback requires API29+ for hardware codec evidence, system Widevine/L1, secure output and usable keys. It uses a secure native SurfaceView with explicit hybrid composition; it cannot fall back to FFmpeg, software video or a texture. The current protected view supports contain/center layout. License POST runs through the controller's separate bounded Dart client; credentials are not copied to native media requests. Upgrade Dart/native packages together and rebuild the app. These engineering paths have local state-machine, wire, HTTP and widget tests; authorized device decryption/display protection is still unverified. See the DRM contract.