Can't play the video due to ERROR CODE DECODER INIT FAILED

[Unofficialhuman]

Checklist

• I am able to reproduce the bug with the latest version given here: CLICK THIS LINK.
• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - which I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one bug.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.

Affected version

0.27.6

Steps to reproduce the bug

Exception

• User Action: play stream
• Request: Player error[type=ERROR_CODE_DECODER_INIT_FAILED] occurred while playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tobJic6YVsA
• Content Country: US
• Content Language: en-US
• App Language: en_US
• Service: YouTube
• Timestamp: 2025-04-26T14:18:16.219+06:00
• Package: org.schabi.newpipe
• Service: YouTube
• Version: 0.27.6
• OS: Linux samsung/gtoxx/gto:11/RP1A.200720.012/T295XXU5CWC3:user/release-keys 11 - 30

Crash log

com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlaybackException: MediaCodecVideoRenderer error, index=0, format=Format(299, null, null, video/avc, avc1.64002A, 3594232, null, [1080, 1920, 60.0], [-1, -1]), format_supported=YES
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:578)
	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:246)
	at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:67)
Caused by: com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer$DecoderInitializationException: Decoder init failed: OMX.qcom.video.decoder.avc, Format(299, null, null, video/avc, avc1.64002A, 3594232, null, [1080, 1920, 60.0], [-1, -1])
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.maybeInitCodecWithFallback(MediaCodecRenderer.java:1021)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.maybeInitCodecOrBypass(MediaCodecRenderer.java:537)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.onInputFormatChanged(MediaCodecRenderer.java:1453)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.video.MediaCodecVideoRenderer.onInputFormatChanged(MediaCodecVideoRenderer.java:917)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.readSourceOmittingSampleData(MediaCodecRenderer.java:954)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.render(MediaCodecRenderer.java:769)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.doSomeWork(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:1007)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:502)
	... 3 more
Caused by: android.media.MediaCodec$CodecException: Error 0xfffffff4
	at android.media.MediaCodec.native_configure(Native Method)
	at android.media.MediaCodec.configure(MediaCodec.java:2127)
	at android.media.MediaCodec.configure(MediaCodec.java:2043)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.SynchronousMediaCodecAdapter$Factory.createAdapter(SynchronousMediaCodecAdapter.java:51)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.DefaultMediaCodecAdapterFactory.createAdapter(DefaultMediaCodecAdapterFactory.java:113)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.initCodec(MediaCodecRenderer.java:1099)
	at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.maybeInitCodecWithFallback(MediaCodecRenderer.java:1010)
	... 10 more

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Expected behavior

No response

Actual behavior

No response

Screenshots/Screen recordings

No response

Logs

No response

Affected Android/Custom ROM version

No response

Affected device model

No response

Additional information

No response

[ShareASmile]

Please fill the issue template section fully with the resolution on which this error occured & your device info with its ROM/ android version.

EDITED:

Please restart the app each time you change a setting when trying the following steps.

1. Try enabling the 3 toggles one by one under Video and audio > Exoplayer settings. Specially try enabling "Use ExoPlayer's decoder fallback feature" first (this fixed the decoder failed issue for some users!)

2. if that doesn't work then proceed to try various combos of these toggle.

3. If above methods don't fix the issue then follow all the steps tried here to check whether your device actually supports playing high resolution AVC codec videos.

4. If not then use a lower resolution/codec combo that your device can handle.

Problem is that some devices wrongly claim to support AVC decoding.

[ShareASmile]

I think we need a better error handling if such a problem occurs & mechanism to fallback to lower resolution/codec combo automatically for such devices.
After every few days a new issue pops up that describes this or a similar problem related to MediaCodec

Anyway I have updated the above comment with as much info I can gather from the issues to help users in one place in a coordinated way.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically closed because there has been no response to our request for more information from the original author. With only the information that is currently in the issue, we don't have enough information to take action. Please reach out if you have or find the answers we need so that we can investigate further.

[ShareASmile]

@Unofficialhuman do you still experience this issue or has it been resolved for you?