Bug 448751 - Media Player Closes When Switching Songs in Music Playlists
Summary: Media Player Closes When Switching Songs in Music Playlists
Status: RESOLVED DOWNSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Media Player widget (show other bugs)
Version: 5.23.4
Platform: openSUSE Linux
: NOR minor
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Kai Uwe Broulik
URL: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vl...
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-01-19 01:19 UTC by Noah Westervelt
Modified: 2022-01-22 00:03 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Latest Commit:
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Description Noah Westervelt 2022-01-19 01:19:30 UTC
SUMMARY
When VLC is playing from a playlist, window focused or not, the Media Player widget in the Plasma Panel will close when the song changes. Happens with manual song changes in both the Media Player and in VLC, and happens when VLC automatically changes songs from the previous song ending.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open VLC Media Player.
2. Begin playback of a playlist in VLC (repeat and shuffle settings don't matter).
3. Observe the Plasma Media Player's icon appearing in the Plasma Panel.
4. Wait for the current song to finish playback, or skip to near the end to save time.
5. Observe the 'Stop media playback' icon appearing where the 'Play' icon was on the Plasma  Media Player widget.
6. Plasma Media Player widget disappears from the Plasma Panel.

OBSERVED RESULT
Plasma Media Player disappears from the Plasma Panel unexpectedly during music playlist playback, often making it impossible to use Plasma Media Player default shortcuts (ex. Play/Pause, Next, Previous) to control playback of the playlist afterwards. I say often because inputting the shortcuts still works briefly after the widget disappears.

Also, disabling the default media player shortcuts for:
     Media playback next
     Media playback previous
     Pause media playback
     Media volume up
     Media volume down
and using my own custom shortcuts in place of them, causes those media controls to continue to function when the widget is not visible. The same is not true for:
     Play/Pause media playback
     Play media playback
     Stop media playback

EXPECTED RESULT
Plasma Media Player remains in the Plasma Panel during music playlist playback, allowing the user to use media player control shortcuts to pause/play playback normally.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: openSUSE Tumbleweed
Kernel: 5.15.12-1-default
KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.89.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This also occurs with the Elisa music player. I don't know about other music players but assume the media player behaves similarly with them.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2022-01-20 22:07:38 UTC
Cannot reproduce; the popup stays open for me when the song changes in Elisa or VLC.

Could you attach a full-screen screen recording that shows the issue happening so I can make sure I understood the issue correctly and tested the same thing?
Comment 2 Noah Westervelt 2022-01-21 00:15:39 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> Cannot reproduce; the popup stays open for me when the song changes in Elisa
> or VLC.
> 
> Could you attach a full-screen screen recording that shows the issue
> happening so I can make sure I understood the issue correctly and tested the
> same thing?

I uploaded a recording (with audio) of myself reproducing the bug. It happens everytime and is not difficult to reproduce. Here is a link to the recording (in .mp4 format):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cc3b2mzk-l2iCnn4eNAksAT4ix3bmhJE/view?usp=sharing

I talk through what I'm doing on screen using my microphone, but it is a bit loud. I hope this helps you identify/reproduce the bug.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2022-01-21 16:34:04 UTC
Thanks, that's very helpful, and I can reproduce it now.

As far as I can tell, this is a VLC bug. When it's opened with a playlist file (as opposed to an individual song file), its MPRIS implementation inappropriately communicates "I'm stopped" after a track change.

Can you report this to the VLC developers?
Comment 4 Kai Uwe Broulik 2022-01-21 16:38:23 UTC
It's old: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/22785
Comment 5 Noah Westervelt 2022-01-22 00:03:50 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #3)
> Thanks, that's very helpful, and I can reproduce it now.
> 
> As far as I can tell, this is a VLC bug. When it's opened with a playlist
> file (as opposed to an individual song file), its MPRIS implementation
> inappropriately communicates "I'm stopped" after a track change.
> 
> Can you report this to the VLC developers?

I could've sworn that I was able to reproduce it with Elisa as well, but I can't now. Had I realized this earlier, I wouldn't have reported this bug here. Sorry about that.