Customization

At the core of the ExoPlayer library is the Player interface. A Player exposes traditional high-level media player functionality such as the ability to buffer media, play, pause and seek. The default implementation ExoPlayer is designed to make few assumptions about (and hence impose few restrictions on) the type of media being played, how and where it is stored, and how it is rendered. Rather than implementing the loading and rendering of media directly, ExoPlayer implementations delegate this work to components that are injected when a player is created or when new media sources are passed to the player. Components common to all ExoPlayer implementations are:

• MediaSource instances that define media to be played, load the media, and from which the loaded media can be read. A MediaSource instance is created from a MediaItem by a MediaSource.Factory inside the player. They can also be passed directly to the player using the media source based playlist API.
• A MediaSource.Factory instances that converts a MediaItem to a MediaSource. The MediaSource.Factory is injected when the player is created.
• Renderer instances that render individual components of the media. These are injected when the player is created.
• A TrackSelector that selects tracks provided by the MediaSource to be consumed by each available Renderer. A TrackSelector is injected when the player is created.
• A LoadControl that controls when the MediaSource buffers more media, and how much media is buffered. A LoadControl is injected when the player is created.
• A LivePlaybackSpeedControl that controls the playback speed during live playbacks to allow the player to stay close to a configured live offset. A LivePlaybackSpeedControl is injected when the player is created.

The concept of injecting components that implement pieces of player functionality is present throughout the library. The default implementations of some components delegate work to further injected components. This allows many sub-components to be individually replaced with implementations that are configured in a custom way.

Player customization

Some common examples of customizing the player by injecting components are described below.

Configuring the network stack

We have a page about customizing the network stack used by ExoPlayer.

Caching data loaded from the network

See the guides for temporary on-the-fly caching and downloading media.

Customizing server interactions

Some apps may want to intercept HTTP requests and responses. You may want to inject custom request headers, read the server's response headers, modify the requests' URIs, etc. For example, your app may authenticate itself by injecting a token as a header when requesting the media segments.

The following example demonstrates how to implement these behaviors by injecting a custom DataSource.Factory into the DefaultMediaSourceFactory:

val dataSourceFactory =
  DataSource.Factory {
    val dataSource = httpDataSourceFactory.createDataSource()
    // Set a custom authentication request header.
    dataSource.setRequestProperty("Header", "Value")
    dataSource
  }
val player =
  ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
    .setMediaSourceFactory(
      DefaultMediaSourceFactory(context).setDataSourceFactory(dataSourceFactory)
    )
    .build()

DataSource.Factory dataSourceFactory =
    () -> {
      HttpDataSource dataSource = httpDataSourceFactory.createDataSource();
      // Set a custom authentication request header.
      dataSource.setRequestProperty("Header", "Value");
      return dataSource;
    };

ExoPlayer player =
    new ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
        .setMediaSourceFactory(
            new DefaultMediaSourceFactory(context).setDataSourceFactory(dataSourceFactory))
        .build();

In the code snippet above, the injected HttpDataSource includes the header "Header: Value" in every HTTP request. This behavior is fixed for every interaction with an HTTP source.

For a more granular approach, you can inject just-in-time behavior using a ResolvingDataSource. The following code snippet shows how to inject request headers just before interacting with an HTTP source:

val dataSourceFactory: DataSource.Factory =
  ResolvingDataSource.Factory(httpDataSourceFactory) { dataSpec: DataSpec ->
    // Provide just-in-time request headers.
    dataSpec.withRequestHeaders(getCustomHeaders(dataSpec.uri))
  }

    DataSource.Factory dataSourceFactory =
        new ResolvingDataSource.Factory(
            httpDataSourceFactory,
            // Provide just-in-time request headers.
            dataSpec -> dataSpec.withRequestHeaders(getCustomHeaders(dataSpec.uri)));

You may also use a ResolvingDataSource to perform just-in-time modifications of the URI, as shown in the following snippet:

val dataSourceFactory: DataSource.Factory =
  ResolvingDataSource.Factory(httpDataSourceFactory) { dataSpec: DataSpec ->
    // Provide just-in-time URI resolution logic.
    dataSpec.withUri(resolveUri(dataSpec.uri))
  }

DataSource.Factory dataSourceFactory =
    new ResolvingDataSource.Factory(
        httpDataSourceFactory,
        // Provide just-in-time URI resolution logic.
        dataSpec -> dataSpec.withUri(resolveUri(dataSpec.uri)));

Customizing error handling

Implementing a custom LoadErrorHandlingPolicy allows apps to customize the way ExoPlayer reacts to load errors. For example, an app may want to fail fast instead of retrying many times, or may want to customize the back-off logic that controls how long the player waits between each retry. The following snippet shows how to implement custom back-off logic:

val loadErrorHandlingPolicy: LoadErrorHandlingPolicy =
  object : DefaultLoadErrorHandlingPolicy() {
    override fun getRetryDelayMsFor(loadErrorInfo: LoadErrorInfo): Long {
      // Implement custom back-off logic here.
      return 0
    }
  }
val player =
  ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
    .setMediaSourceFactory(
      DefaultMediaSourceFactory(context).setLoadErrorHandlingPolicy(loadErrorHandlingPolicy)
    )
    .build()

LoadErrorHandlingPolicy loadErrorHandlingPolicy =
    new DefaultLoadErrorHandlingPolicy() {
      @Override
      public long getRetryDelayMsFor(LoadErrorInfo loadErrorInfo) {
        // Implement custom back-off logic here.
        return 0;
      }
    };

ExoPlayer player =
    new ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
        .setMediaSourceFactory(
            new DefaultMediaSourceFactory(context)
                .setLoadErrorHandlingPolicy(loadErrorHandlingPolicy))
        .build();

The LoadErrorInfo argument contains more information about the failed load to customize the logic based on the error type or the failed request.

Customizing extractor flags

Extractor flags can be used to customize how individual formats are extracted from progressive media. They can be set on the DefaultExtractorsFactory that's provided to the DefaultMediaSourceFactory. The following example passes a flag that enables index-based seeking for MP3 streams.

val extractorsFactory =
  DefaultExtractorsFactory().setMp3ExtractorFlags(Mp3Extractor.FLAG_ENABLE_INDEX_SEEKING)
val player =
  ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
    .setMediaSourceFactory(DefaultMediaSourceFactory(context, extractorsFactory))
    .build()

DefaultExtractorsFactory extractorsFactory =
    new DefaultExtractorsFactory().setMp3ExtractorFlags(Mp3Extractor.FLAG_ENABLE_INDEX_SEEKING);

ExoPlayer player =
    new ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
        .setMediaSourceFactory(new DefaultMediaSourceFactory(context, extractorsFactory))
        .build();

Enabling constant bitrate seeking

For MP3, ADTS and AMR streams, you can enable approximate seeking using a constant bitrate assumption with FLAG_ENABLE_CONSTANT_BITRATE_SEEKING flags. These flags can be set for individual extractors using the individual DefaultExtractorsFactory.setXyzExtractorFlags methods as described above. To enable constant bitrate seeking for all extractors that support it, use DefaultExtractorsFactory.setConstantBitrateSeekingEnabled.

val extractorsFactory = DefaultExtractorsFactory().setConstantBitrateSeekingEnabled(true)

DefaultExtractorsFactory extractorsFactory =
    new DefaultExtractorsFactory().setConstantBitrateSeekingEnabled(true);

The ExtractorsFactory can then be injected via DefaultMediaSourceFactory as described for customizing extractor flags above.

Enabling asynchronous buffer queueing

Asynchronous buffer queueing is an enhancement in ExoPlayer's rendering pipeline, which operates MediaCodec instances in asynchronous mode and uses additional threads to schedule decoding and rendering of data. Enabling it can reduce dropped frames and audio underruns.

Asynchronous buffer queueing is enabled by default on devices running Android 12 (API level 31) and above, and can be enabled manually starting with Android 6.0 (API level 23). Consider enabling the feature for specific devices on which you observe dropped frames or audio underruns, particularly when playing DRM protected or high-frame-rate content.

In the simplest case, you need to inject a DefaultRenderersFactory to the player as follows:

val renderersFactory = 
  DefaultRenderersFactory(context).forceEnableMediaCodecAsynchronousQueueing()
val exoPlayer = ExoPlayer.Builder(context, renderersFactory).build()

DefaultRenderersFactory renderersFactory =
    new DefaultRenderersFactory(context).forceEnableMediaCodecAsynchronousQueueing();
ExoPlayer exoPlayer = new ExoPlayer.Builder(context, renderersFactory).build();

If you're instantiating renderers directly, pass a AsynchronousMediaCodecAdapter.Factory to the MediaCodecVideoRenderer and MediaCodecAudioRenderer constructors.

Intercepting method calls with ForwardingPlayer

You can customize some of the behavior of a Player instance by wrapping it in a subclass of ForwardingPlayer and overriding methods in order to do any of the following:

• Access parameters before passing them to the delegate Player.
• Access the return value from the delegate Player before returning it.
• Re-implement the method completely.

When overriding ForwardingPlayer methods it's important to ensure the implementation remains self-consistent and compliant with the Player interface, especially when dealing with methods that are intended to have identical or related behavior. For example:

• If you want to override every 'play' operation, you need to override both ForwardingPlayer.play and ForwardingPlayer.setPlayWhenReady, because a caller will expect the behavior of these methods to be identical when playWhenReady = true.
• If you want to change the seek-forward increment you need to override both ForwardingPlayer.seekForward to perform a seek with your customized increment, and ForwardingPlayer.getSeekForwardIncrement in order to report the correct customized increment back to the caller.
• If you want to control what Player.Commands are advertised by a player instance, you must override both Player.getAvailableCommands() and Player.isCommandAvailable(), and also listen to the Player.Listener.onAvailableCommandsChanged() callback to get notified of changes coming from the underlying player.

MediaSource customization

The examples above inject customized components for use during playback of all MediaItem objects that are passed to the player. Where fine-grained customization is required, it's also possible to inject customized components into individual MediaSource instances, which can be passed directly to the player. The example below shows how to customize a ProgressiveMediaSource to use a custom DataSource.Factory, ExtractorsFactory and LoadErrorHandlingPolicy:

val mediaSource =
  ProgressiveMediaSource.Factory(customDataSourceFactory, customExtractorsFactory)
    .setLoadErrorHandlingPolicy(customLoadErrorHandlingPolicy)
    .createMediaSource(MediaItem.fromUri(streamUri))

ProgressiveMediaSource mediaSource =
    new ProgressiveMediaSource.Factory(customDataSourceFactory, customExtractorsFactory)
        .setLoadErrorHandlingPolicy(customLoadErrorHandlingPolicy)
        .createMediaSource(MediaItem.fromUri(streamUri));

Creating custom components

The library provides default implementations of the components listed at the top of this page for common use cases. An ExoPlayer can use these components, but may also be built to use custom implementations if non-standard behaviors are required. Some use cases for custom implementations are:

• Renderer – You may want to implement a custom Renderer to handle a media type not supported by the default implementations provided by the library.
• TrackSelector – Implementing a custom TrackSelector allows an app developer to change the way in which tracks exposed by a MediaSource are selected for consumption by each of the available Renderers.
• LoadControl – Implementing a custom LoadControl allows an app developer to change the player's buffering policy.
• Extractor – If you need to support a container format not currently supported by the library, consider implementing a custom Extractor class.
• MediaSource – Implementing a custom MediaSource class may be appropriate if you wish to obtain media samples to feed to renderers in a custom way, or if you wish to implement custom MediaSource compositing behavior.
• MediaSource.Factory – Implementing a custom MediaSource.Factory allows an application to customize the way in which a MediaSource is created from a MediaItem.
• DataSource – ExoPlayer's upstream package already contains a number of DataSource implementations for different use cases. You may want to implement you own DataSource class to load data in another way, such as over a custom protocol, using a custom HTTP stack, or from a custom persistent cache.

When building custom components, we recommend the following:

• If a custom component needs to report events back to the app, we recommend that you do so using the same model as existing ExoPlayer components, for example using EventDispatcher classes or passing a Handler together with a listener to the constructor of the component.
• We recommended that custom components use the same model as existing ExoPlayer components to allow reconfiguration by the app during playback. To do this, custom components should implement PlayerMessage.Target and receive configuration changes in the handleMessage method. Application code should pass configuration changes by calling ExoPlayer's createMessage method, configuring the message, and sending it to the component using PlayerMessage.send. Sending messages to be delivered on the playback thread ensures that they are executed in order with any other operations being performed on the player.