1339379 - Audio playback on BBC iPlayer is intermittently interrupted after Firefox enters into background

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Audio/Video, defect)

Description

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Pixel (Android 7.1.1)  Nightly 2017-02-13

STR:
1. Go to bbc.co.uk/radio4
2. Click on "Listen live"
3. Switch to your home screen
4. Observe the audio issue

Expected results:
Audio playback should continue to run smoothly.

Actual results: 
Audio becomes intermittently interrupted.

Comment 1

[Jan Henning [:JanH]]

I had tested this once on a local build after bug 1336484 had landed and for me, playback stopped one time only very soon after starting. It resumed after bringing that tab back into the foreground and afterwards, background playback continued without problems for more than 30 minutes.

Comment 2

[(no longer active)]

I tried to reproduce this.  I found that on desktop when I click on Listen Live, I get a new window opened up where the player resides and there is no way to put it in background.  But when I clicked on another recorded program and put the tab in the background I didn't notice any audio interruptions.

I also tested on Android.  There I don't get a new tab opened but again when I switch to another tab the audio playback continues uninterrupted.

Simona, Jan, do you remember whether the audio playback had started when you switched tabs, or did you switch tabs quickly before it starts?  (You can use the audio icon to tell for sure.)  With the fix to bug 1336484, it's still possible for the audio to be a bit choppy if the playback starts when the tab is already sitting in the background, however it should very rapidly fix itself afterwards.  The symptom that Jan reports is a bit similar to that...

Comment 3

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

(In reply to :Ehsan Akhgari from comment #2)
> I tried to reproduce this.  I found that on desktop when I click on Listen
> Live, I get a new window opened up where the player resides and there is no
> way to put it in background.  But when I clicked on another recorded program
> and put the tab in the background I didn't notice any audio interruptions.
> 
> I also tested on Android.  There I don't get a new tab opened but again when
> I switch to another tab the audio playback continues uninterrupted.

Indeed, I'm also not getting a new tab opened.

> Simona, Jan, do you remember whether the audio playback had started when you
> switched tabs, or did you switch tabs quickly before it starts?  (You can
> use the audio icon to tell for sure.)  With the fix to bug 1336484, it's
> still possible for the audio to be a bit choppy if the playback starts when
> the tab is already sitting in the background, however it should very rapidly
> fix itself afterwards.  The symptom that Jan reports is a bit similar to
> that...

I didn't switched tabs, I pressed on the Home button. Before pressing the Home button I allowed the live transmission to properly stabilize. Please note that sound interruptions become more often as you listen.

Comment 4

[Jan Henning [:JanH]]

I've just seen symptoms like these on a) current Release (52.0.2) and b) Youtube as well, but without any clear pattern. Sometimes playback would (possibly repeatedly) stop a while after entering background, while a little later things would calm down again with playback working flawlessly for a long time and even across multiple tracks in a playlist.

Comment 5

[Blake Wu [:bwu][:blakewu]]

Simona,
Can you still see this problem on Firefox 54 and 55?

Comment 6

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

(In reply to Blake Wu [:bwu][:blakewu] from comment #5)
> Simona,
> Can you still see this problem on Firefox 54 and 55?

I can no longer reproduce the audio intermittent interruption on bbc.co.uk/radio4 using the latest Nightly 55 and latest Aurora 54.

Comment 7

[Blake Wu [:bwu][:blakewu]]

Thanks for this testing.
I have tested Firefox 52, 53, 54, and 55. Only 52 has this problem. It might be caused by bug 1336484. I am going to close this bug.

Comment 8

[Blake Wu [:bwu][:blakewu]]

We need to have a test case to avoid this.