setAudioTrack

Description

Change the audio track.

This method can take a string corresponding to the wanted track’s id property. This id can for example be obtained on the corresponding track object returned by the getAvailableAudioTracks method.

// Setting the first audio track
const audioTracks = rxPlayer.getAvailableAudioTracks();
rxPlayer.setAudioTrack(audioTracks[0].id);

setAudioTrack can also accept an object argument allowing more precize settings, described below. In the case an object is given, the audio track’s id should be set as in a trackId property.

// Setting the first audio track
const audioTracks = rxPlayer.getAvailableAudioTracks();
rxPlayer.setAudioTrack({
  trackId: audioTracks[0].id,
});

Changing the audio track for any Period

You can change the audio track for any Period (and not just the one being played) by indicating its id property in a periodId property of the Object given to setAudioTrack.

Periods’ id properties can be retrieved from several means such as the getAvailablePeriods method or the newAvailablePeriods and periodChange events.

// Example:
// Changing the audio track for the second Period in the current Manifest

// Recuperating all Periods currently in the Manifest
const periods = rxPlayer.getAvailablePeriods();

// Getting the audio track for this second Period (and not the current one):
const audioTracks = rxPlayer.getAvailableAudioTracks(periods[1].id);

// Updating the audio track of the second Period
rxPlayer.setAudioTrack({
  trackId: audioTracks[0].id,
  periodId: periods[1].id,
});

Changing the way the audio track transition is done

When switching the audio track, media data from the previous audio track might still be present and playable in the buffer.

Because you might prefer a direct transition - which may lead to a little rebuffering (or even reloading) short moment over a seamless transition where the previous audio track might be still audible for a few seconds, the RxPlayer let you define a “switching mode” by setting the switchingMode property given to setAudioTrack.

The available “switching modes” are:

• "seamless": Clean the previous audio track from the buffer, yet keep some of its data around the current position to ensure the transition stay seamless (i.e. playback still continue).

  This is the default mode. The advantage is that the switch will not be abrupt (playback will not be interrupted) but you might still have a few seconds playing in the previous audio track.

• "direct": Directly audibly switch to the new tracks. Here you will ensure that the now unwanted tracks won’t be played in the future but you might be left with a playback interruption and some rebuffering time while the new audio track is loaded.

• "reload": Directly audibly switch to the new tracks through a “reloading” step if necessary.

  This mode might have better results than "direct" on devices with poor compatibility, but the RxPlayer might temporarily go through a "RELOADING" state, during which a black screen is shown and multiple APIs are unavailable.

// example: switching audio tracks in "direct" mode
rxPlayer.setAudioTrack({
  // we will just lock the first one here
  trackId: [audioTrackId],
  switchingMode: "direct",
});

Changing the resuming position after an audio track change

In scenarios where a change in media disrupts continuous playback, you can leverage the relativeResumingPosition option to set a rewind duration, such as 5 seconds, to revisit the content that might have been missed by users. This can happen when there’s a language switch midway through a sentence, for instance, impacting user understanding.

The relativeResumingPosition is defined as the offset in seconds between the resuming position and the currrent position. A negative number will seek back and a positive number will seek forward.

// the player will seek 5 seconds back after the audio track change.
rxPlayer.setAudioTrack({
  trackId: [audioTrackId],
  relativeResumingPosition: -5,
  switchingMode: "direct",
});

Selecting only some Representations in the new audio track

You can also start “locking” only a given set of Representations in the new track (so that only those Representations will be played) as soon as you switch the audio track.

This can be done by adding a lockedRepresentations property to the setAudioTrack call, which should contain an array of the wanted Representations’ id property:

const audioTracks = rxPlayer.getAvailableAudioTracks();
const wantedAudioTrack = audioTracks[1];
rxPlayer.setAudioTrack({
  trackId: wantedAudioTrack.id,

  // "Locking" only the first audio Representation
  // (it will be the only Representation being played)
  lockedRepresentations: [wantedAudioTrack.representations[0]],
});

Doing this is equivalent to locking the audio Representations through a lockAudioVideoRepresentations call, you can read its documentation page for more information on its behavior.

Setting the audio track as soon as possible

If you want to set an audio track as soon as possible, for example to choose an initial audio track before any other one had time to be loaded, you can perform the setAudioTrack call on the newAvailablePeriods event:

rxPlayer.addEventListener("newAvailablePeriods", (periods) => {
  for (const period of periods) {
    const periodId = period.id;
    const firstAudioTrack = rxPlayer.getAvailableAudioTracks(periodId)[0];
    if (firstAudioTrack !== undefined) {
      rxPlayer.setAudioTrack({
        trackId: firstAudioTrack.id,
        periodId,
      });
    }
  }
});

This will set the audio track for any future Period being loaded, including in future and not-yet-loaded contents.

If you want to also update the audio track of already-loaded Periods, you can also call the getAvailablePeriods method to obtain their id property and update their audio tracks right away:

const periods = rxPlayer.getAvailablePeriods();
for (const period of periods) {
  const periodId = period.id;
  const firstAudioTrack = rxPlayer.getAvailableAudioTracks(periodId)[0];
  if (firstAudioTrack !== undefined) {
    rxPlayer.setAudioTrack({
      trackId: firstAudioTrack.id,
      periodId,
    });
  }
}

Syntax

player.setAudioTrack(audioTrackId);

• arguments:

  1. audioTrackId string: The id of the track you want to set

// Setting the current audio track
player.setAudioTrack(audioTrackId);

// More complex settings
player.setAudioTrack({
  // required
  trackId: audioTrackId,

  // all optional
  periodId,
  switchingMode,
  lockedRepresentations,
  relativeResumingPosition,
});

• arguments:

  1. arg string|Object: Either the audio track’s id property of the track you want to set for current Period, or an object with the following properties (only trackId is required):

     • trackId (string): The id property of the track you want to lock.

     • periodId (string|undefined): If defined, the id of the concerned Period. If not defined, it will be applied for the current Period.

     • switchingMode (string|undefined): Behavior of the RxPlayer if there is a need to perform a transition between a previous audio track and the new one. The list of modes available are described in this page.

     • lockedRepresentations (Array.<string>|undefined): The list of Representations’ id you wish to “lock” when switching to the new track. More information in the corresponding documentation page.

     • relativeResumingPosition (string|undefined): The offset in seconds to apply to the current position to get the new position after resuming playback.