Need to continue streaming - even in background. Is it possible?

[dhruvdroid]

Hi @ThibaultBee,

Currently, I am working to integrate StreamPack for the live-streaming app.
While checking the code base I got to know we have the StreamerLifeCycleObserver to which we provide the lifecycle.addObserver(streamerLifeCycleObserver)

open class StreamerLifeCycleObserver(var streamer: IStreamer) : DefaultLifecycleObserver {
    override fun onPause(owner: LifecycleOwner) {
        streamer.getCameraStreamer()?.stopPreview()
        runBlocking {
            streamer.stopStream()
        }
        streamer.getLiveStreamer()?.let {
            if (it.isConnected) {
                it.disconnect()
            }
        }
    }

    override fun onDestroy(owner: LifecycleOwner) {
        streamer.release()
    }
}

The assumption here was, in case I don't provide this streamerLifeCycleObserver then devs needs to manually handle the stop and release the stream in onPause and onDestroy

Even after commenting on the code i.e.lifecycle.addObserver(streamerLifeCycleObserver) the moment onPause gets trigger following logs are printed -

MediaCodecEncoder        D  Not running
MediaCodecEncoder        D  Not running
AudioRecord              D  stop(4293): mActive:1
AudioRecord              D  mAudioRecord->stop()
AudioRecord              D  AudioRecordThread pause()
AudioRecord              D  stop() end
OplusCCodec              D  initiateShutdown [386]: (0xb40000767df4d480) keepComponentAllocated=0
CCodecBufferChannel      D  [c2.android.aac.encoder#51] MediaCodec discarded an unknown buffer
CCodecBufferChannel      D  [c2.android.aac.encoder#51] MediaCodec discarded an unknown buffer
CCodecBufferChannel      D  [c2.android.aac.encoder#51] MediaCodec discarded an unknown buffer
CCodecBufferChannel      D  [c2.android.aac.encoder#51] MediaCodec discarded an unknown buffer
CCodecBufferChannel      D  [c2.android.aac.encoder#51] MediaCodec discarded an unknown buffer
CCodecBufferChannel      D  [c2.android.aac.encoder#51] MediaCodec discarded an unknown buffer
CCodecBufferChannel      D  [c2.android.aac.encoder#51] MediaCodec discarded an unknown buffer 	

The requirement here is -

1. The live stream should continue in the background until we are stopping it via End Live button explicitly.
2. If the above logs can be the root cause to stop the stream if we open the dialog or screen on top of the io.github.thibaultbee.streampack.views.PreviewView. How can I continue streaming in that case? Is there a document I can refer or example.

[ThibaultBee]

If you want to implement another lifecycle, you don't have to use StreamerLifeCycleObserver.

If you want to live stream in background, you should use an Android service. As an example, you can have a look on screen recorder services provide by StreamPack. I have not tested it because it does not seem supported by old devices.

[dhruvdroid]

Thanks @ThibaultBee for the quick response.

While further debugging if I remove the lifecycle observer i.e. StreamerLifeCycleObserver. At least streamer.preview and stopStream is not happening.

As per the PreviewClass code, we are calling the streamer?.stopPreview() on surfaceDestroyed callback.

private inner class StreamerHolderCallback : SurfaceHolder.Callback {
        override fun surfaceCreated(holder: SurfaceHolder) {
            startPreviewIfReady()
        }

        override fun surfaceChanged(holder: SurfaceHolder, format: Int, width: Int, height: Int) =
            Unit

        override fun surfaceDestroyed(holder: SurfaceHolder) {
            streamer?.stopPreview()
        }
    }

1. Is there a way I can avoid calling streamer?.stopPreview() and resume/continue the stream from here?
2. I tried inheriting the PreviewClass as it is a final class and cannot be subclassed.

FYI - don't want to run the streaming in the background forever, just opening any activity or dialog over PreviewView is automatically stops the stream. Just want to avoid the same.

Any suggestion on the above @ThibaultBee?

[dhruvdroid]

To overcome the stopPreview being called and ended stream - I am planning to do the following -

private fun continueStreamingPostPinningProduct() {
        if(streamer.isConnected) {
            launchCoroutine {
                streamer.disconnect()
                binding.previewView.streamer = streamer
                startStream(streamingUrl)
            }
        }
    }

Do let me know if I am missing any important steps to continue streaming - this seems to be working fine for now.

[ThibaultBee]

I guess the best solution is to dissociate preview and streaming. A stopPreview should not cause a stopStream.
This requires internal changes that I can't tackle right now.

I don't fully understand your solution because there are missing parts. Anyway, you don't even have to call disconnect, you can directly call streamer.startStream() (the startStream without parameters)

[cristiAndreiTarasi]

Hi. To the guy that asked, probaly disabling stopStream an disconect methods in StreamerLifeCycleObserver would do the trick. Seems naive but I think it would maintain the connection in background.

open class StreamerLifeCycleObserver(var streamer: IStreamer) : DefaultLifecycleObserver {
    override fun onPause(owner: LifecycleOwner) {
        // Stop preview to save resources, but do not stop the stream.
        streamer.getCameraStreamer()?.stopPreview()

        // Comment this code out to prevent disrupting the connection
        /*runBlocking {
            streamer.stopStream()
        }
        streamer.getLiveStreamer()?.let {
            if (it.isConnected) {
                it.disconnect()
            }
        }*/
    }

    override fun onDestroy(owner: LifecycleOwner) {
        streamer.release()
    }

    override fun onResume(owner: LifecycleOwner) {
        // Resume the preview when the app comes back to the foreground
        streamer.getCameraStreamer()?.startPreview()
    }
}