Bug VideoPlayer.url issue with vp8/webm on Android: AndroidVideoMedia: Error opening extractor: -10002

I try to play a vp8 video on an Android device (Galaxy S10e, Android 12) using VideoPlayer.url with a file URI.
For example:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. videoPlayer.url = "file:///storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.my.app/files/videos/test.webm"
3.  

Note that
- the video is not present at compile time. The user selects the path at runtime.
- this works perfectly fine with a .mp4 file on Android.
- this works perfectly fine with a .vp8 (also with a .webm file) on Windows.

However, it does not work with a vp8 file on Android (neither with .vp8 nor with .webm file extension).

But, according to Android docs, vp8 should be supported by Android: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/media-formats.html#recommendations

Further, Unity docs suggests to use vp8 for best cross-platform compatibility: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/VideoSources-FileCompatibility.html

Still, I see the following errors in Logcat when trying to use a .vp8 video on Android:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. 2022.03.20 08:59:43.439 1389 1487 Verbose NuMediaExtractor NuMediaExtractor constructor
3. 2022.03.20 08:59:43.440 1389 1487 Error NdkMediaExtractor can't create http service
4. 2022.03.20 08:59:43.441 1389 1487 Warn Unity AndroidVideoMedia: Error opening extractor: -10002
5. 2022.03.20 08:59:43.441 1389 1487 Verbose NuMediaExtractor NuMediaExtractor destructor
6. 2022.03.20 08:59:43.447 1389 1429 Error Unity VideoPlayer cannot play url : file:///storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.Karaoke.UltraStarPlay/files/Songs/d - d/d - d.webm
7. 2022.03.20 08:59:43.447 1389 1429 Error Unity Cannot read file.
8.  

I assume that the log messages for NuMediaExtractor are part of the issue, but I am not sure.

Questions:
- is .vp8 on Android supported by Unity?
- if yes, what is wrong here? How to play .vp8 file on Android via VideoPlayer.url?
- can others confirm this issue?

Unity version: 2021.2.0f1

 

Is there a single video file format that works out of the box at runtime with Unity's VideoPlayer.url on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS?

 

> Something you should try is removing the files:// from the path

This works.

Still I consider this a bug, because
- using file:// scheme prefix makes the URI complete
- the file:// scheme prefix works with other file formats on Android and on other platforms (I think it may even be required sometimes)
- the number of error log messages seems fishy to me. Unity could handle this better.

I created a sample project to test and reproduce the issue: https://github.com/achimmihca/unity-vp8-video-test
I also created a Unity bug report (CASE IN-10816).

 

I am building in Unity 2021.3.17f1 and I have to exclude the prefix file:// for mp4 files to be loaded into video player.
Otherwise I get the same error
Unity AndroidVideoMedia: Error opening extractor: -10002

Note that I change the VideoPlayer's source to url at runtime when the files are downlaoded from our server.

 

The issue seems to be fixed in 2023.1.0b1
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...ile-uri-scheme-when-using-vp8-slash-webm-file