Play audio of videos when screen turned off [#21420]

[Lil_Smokie]

tl;dr:
Can the audio of a video file continue playing when the screen of an android device is turned off?

more:
Songs, music, podcasts, etc play normally with the screen off. But videos always stop and you can only resume playback after turning the screen back on. Video playback does not play on the lockscreen either. Occurs both with files streamed from mediamonkey server and files locally on device.

It would be ideal to be able to play video files with the screen off, so you can just listen to the sound, as much content is both audio/video. Some podcasts have audio/video instead of just audio.The youtube premium app supports this. Keeping the screen on during playback is huge battery drain.

Thanks.

[Peke]

Hi,
Try Enabling System handling of Video playback in background and on focus lost events. To enable that Use ☰ -> MMA Icon -> MMA Icon to enter Developer menu and there you can enable that OS handle Focus lost events.

[Lil_Smokie]

I enabled "System handling of transient audio focus lost" in the developers menu.

Made no difference, the issue is still there. Playback of audio stills stops when going to lockscreen/turning off screen/switching to a different app.

Anything else to try?

[Lil_Smokie]

Idk if it helps, but i noticed the VLC android app supports this. Find file > ⋮ > play as audio allows the sound playback to continue when the fullscreen app is switched/user goes to lockscreen/screen is turned off.

[rusty]

Hi,

Sorry for the confusion.

I think that Peke misunderstood and thought that you were asking about PIP support or some other usecase. In any case, audio support with the screen off isn't currently supported in MMA, though it is on our to do list at:
https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=21420

-Rusty

[Lil_Smokie]

Thanks for info.

I think this is a good addition bc you can't use MMA with videos much in its current state without phone being plugged into charger. Onscreen videos kill battery fast. Many podcasts are video/audio instead of just audio, so listening to a 1+ hr podcast with screen turned on in your pocket doesn't make much sense.

VLC on android can do this with videos files locally on device, and also can connect to the media monkey server running in Windows and do it with streamed videos. Pause/play widget on lockscreen always works with it. This may be a helpful short term fix for anyone else with similar question until it is added to MMA.