setPreferredAudioTracks

Description

Allows the RxPlayer to choose an initial audio track, based on language preferences, codec preferences or both.

This method can be called at any time - even when no content is loaded, and will apply to every future loaded content in the current RxPlayer instance.

The first argument should be set as an array of objects, each object describing constraints an audio track should respect.

Here is all the possible constraints you can set in any one of those objects (note that all properties are optional here, only those set will have an effect on which tracks will be filtered):

{
  language: "fra", // {string|undefined} The language the track should be in
                   // (in preference as an ISO 639-1, ISO 639-2 or ISO 639-3
                   // language code).
                   // If not set or set to `undefined`, the RxPlayer won't
                   // filter based on the language of the track.

  audioDescription: false // {Boolean|undefined} Whether the audio track should
                          // be an audio description for the visually impaired
                          // or not.
                          // If not set or set to `undefined`, the RxPlayer
                          // won't filter based on that status.

  codec: { // {Object|undefined} Constraints about the codec wanted.
           // if not set or set to `undefined` we won't filter based on codecs.

    test: /ec-3/, // {RegExp} RegExp validating the type of codec you want.

    all: true, // {Boolean} Whether all the profiles (i.e. Representation) in a
               // track should be checked against the RegExp given in `test`.
               // If `true`, we will only choose a track if EVERY profiles for
               // it have a codec information that is validated by that RegExp.
               // If `false`, we will choose a track if we know that at least
               // A SINGLE profile from it has codec information validated by
               // that RegExp.
  }
}

When encountering a new content or a new choice of tracks in a given content, the RxPlayer will look at each object in that array. If the first object in it defines constaints that cannot be respected under the currently available audio tracks, the RxPlayer will consider the second object in the array and so on.

As such, this array should be sorted by order of preference: from the most wanted constraints to the least.

The second argument to that function is an optional boolean which - when set to true - will apply that preference to the content and Period that have already been playing.

By setting it to true, you might thus change the currently-active track and the active track of Periods (in DASH) or sub-contents (in MetaPlaylist) that have already been played in the current content.

By setting it to false, undefined or not setting it, those preferences will only be applied each time a new Period or sub-content is loaded by the RxPlayer.

Simply put, if you don’t set the second argument to true those preferences won’t be applied to:

• the content being currently played. Here, the current audio preference will stay in place.

• the Periods or sub-contents which have already been loaded for the current content. Those will keep the audio track chosen at the last time they were loaded.

If you want the preferences to also be applied to those, you can set the second argument to true.

Examples

Let’s imagine that you prefer to have french or italian over all other audio languages. If not found, you want to fallback to english:

player.setPreferredAudioTracks([
  { language: "fra", audioDescription: false },
  { language: "ita", audioDescription: false },
  { language: "eng", audioDescription: false },
]);

Now let’s imagine that you want to have in priority a track that contain at least one profile in Dolby Digital Plus (ec-3 codec) without caring about the language:

player.setPreferredAudioTracks([ { codec: { all: false, test: /ec-3/ } ]);

At last, let’s combine both examples by preferring french over itialian, italian over english while preferring it to be in Dolby Digital Plus:

player.setPreferredAudioTracks([
  {
    language: "fra",
    audioDescription: false,
    codec: { all: false, test: /ec-3/ },
  },

  // We still prefer non-DD+ french over DD+ italian
  { language: "fra", audioDescription: false },

  {
    language: "ita",
    audioDescription: false,
    codec: { all: false, test: /ec-3/ },
  },
  { language: "ita", audioDescription: false },

  {
    language: "eng",
    audioDescription: false,
    codec: { all: false, test: /ec-3/ },
  },
  { language: "eng", audioDescription: false },
]);

Syntax

player.setPreferredAudioTracks(preferences);

// or
player.setPreferredAudioTracks(preferences, shouldApply);

• arguments:

  1. preferences (Array.<Object>): wanted audio track configurations by order of preference.

  2. shouldApply (Boolean | undefined): Whether this should be applied to the content being played.