Leanback transport controls overlay are invisible or behind the video surface?

Question

When implementing a firetv application using Leanback and exoplayer I have used the LeanbackPlayerAdapter provided by exoplayer. I am also using a VideoMediaPlayerGlue that extends the PlaybackTransportControlGlue. It is identical to this: https://github.com/android/tv-samples/blob/master/LeanbackShowcase/app/src/main/java/androidx/leanback/leanbackshowcase/app/media/VideoMediaPlayerGlue.java . Below is the code I use to initiate everything. Now for some strange reason, playback begins and all the firetv controls work on the remote. However the controls overlay is nowhere to be seen. Another point I would like to make is that when you use d-pad down, you can hear the firetv tick sound so I have reason to believe that the controls are active, but are behind the video surface. For instance if I click when the cursor is on the like or dislike button, it shows a like or dislike toast on the screen.

    LeanbackPlayerAdapter playerAdapter = new LeanbackPlayerAdapter(context, player, 16);
    playerAdapter.setPlaybackPreparer(this);
    playerAdapter.setControlDispatcher(null);
    playerAdapter.setCallback(null);
    mMediaPlayerGlue = new VideoMediaPlayerGlue((Activity) context, playerAdapter);
    mMediaPlayerGlue.setHost(mGlue);
    mMediaPlayerGlue.setTitle("title");
    mMediaPlayerGlue.setSubtitle("subtitle");

    player.prepare(mediaSource, !haveStartPosition, false);

    playWhenReady(mMediaPlayerGlue);

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 15 '20 at 16:18

in my activity xml view, I had exo player views by accident so I just got rid of them. This is what the Playback activity view looks like now:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android ="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app = "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools = "http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width = "match_parent"
android:layout_height = "match_parent"
tools:context = "com.example.firetv.PlaybackActivity">

<FrameLayout
    android:id = "@+id/fragmentContainer"
    android:layout_width = "match_parent"
    android:layout_height = "match_parent"
    />

Leanback transport controls overlay are invisible or behind the video surface?

1 Answers1