0.2.75

app/build.gradle.kts

@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ plugins {
     id("androidx.baselineprofile")
 }
 
+// One Media3 version for every artifact in the build — see the dependency block for why
+// the Jellyfin FFmpeg extension pins which line that can be.
+val media3Version = "1.9.4"
+
 // Set in gradle.properties (or ~/.gradle/gradle.properties, or -Pmemby.serverUrl=...).
 // Blank means "no hardwired server": the setup screen asks the user for an address.
 val embyServerUrl: String = (project.findProperty("memby.serverUrl") as String?).orEmpty().trim()
@@ -46,7 +50,7 @@ val projectNoticeText =
 
 // A release workflow can derive the app version from its Git tag without editing the
 // source tree. Local builds keep using the checked-in default.
-val defaultVersionName = "0.2.74"
+val defaultVersionName = "0.2.75"
 val membyVersionName: String =
     (project.findProperty("memby.versionName") as String?)
         ?.trim()
@@ -235,7 +239,7 @@ dependencies {
     implementation("androidx.compose.material:material-icons-extended")
 
     // Compose for TV
-    implementation("androidx.tv:tv-material:1.0.0")
+    implementation("androidx.tv:tv-material:1.1.0")
 
     // Image loading
     implementation("io.coil-kt:coil-compose:2.7.0")
@@ -248,20 +252,27 @@ dependencies {
     implementation("com.jakewharton.retrofit:retrofit2-kotlinx-serialization-converter:1.0.0")
 
     // DataStore (persisted settings)
-    implementation("androidx.datastore:datastore-preferences:1.1.1")
+    implementation("androidx.datastore:datastore-preferences:1.2.1")
 
     // Media3 / ExoPlayer for in-app playback
-    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-exoplayer:1.5.1")
-    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-exoplayer-hls:1.5.1")
-    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-ui:1.5.1")
+    // One version for the whole Media3 line, including the Jellyfin FFmpeg extension below.
+    // That extension is compiled against media3-exoplayer and reached reflectively through
+    // EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_ON, so a core built from a different minor line fails at
+    // renderer construction rather than at compile time — and PlayerEngine's LinkageError
+    // fallback would swallow it, silently withdrawing surround software decode with nothing
+    // in the log to say why. Jellyfin publishes up to the 1.9 line, so that is the line this
+    // app is on; moving the core past it means finding a matching extension first.
+    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-exoplayer:$media3Version")
+    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-exoplayer-hls:$media3Version")
+    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-ui:$media3Version")
     // Lets the player pull its bytes through the app's one OkHttp stack instead of
     // media3's own HttpURLConnection client — see ui/player/PlayerEngine.kt.
-    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-datasource-okhttp:1.5.1")
+    implementation("androidx.media3:media3-datasource-okhttp:$media3Version")
 
     // Moonfin's Android TV backend keeps a software audio renderer behind Media3 so a
     // surround track that is not bitstreamed is decoded to PCM instead of making the
-    // server re-encode the video beside it. This build targets Media3 1.5.x; Jellyfin's
-    // 1.5.0 extension is the matching published binary for that line.
+    // server re-encode the video beside it. This build targets Media3 1.9.x; Jellyfin's
+    // 1.9.0 extension is the matching published binary for that line.
     //
     // This is the ONLY native dependency the app carries, and it is 1.5MB per ABI because
     // it links just the audio decoders it needs. It replaced a libmpv software-decoding
@@ -270,7 +281,7 @@ dependencies {
     // the release APK from 3.1MB to 168MB and made every sideload a several-minute
     // affair. A last-resort video path is not worth fifty times the app. If one is wanted
     // again, it belongs behind a separately downloaded split, not in the base APK.
-    implementation("org.jellyfin.media3:media3-ffmpeg-decoder:1.5.0+1")
+    implementation("org.jellyfin.media3:media3-ffmpeg-decoder:1.9.0+1")
 
     debugImplementation("androidx.compose.ui:ui-tooling")
 

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/analytics/JourneyAnalytics.kt

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class JourneyAnalytics(
     private val userId: String,
     private val now: () -> Long = System::currentTimeMillis,
     private val journeyId: String = UUID.randomUUID().toString(),
-) {
+) : JourneySink {
     private val lock = Any()
     private val buffer = ArrayList<GatewayJourneyEvent>()
     private var sequence = 0
@@ -27,16 +27,18 @@ class JourneyAnalytics(
     // a process/session contribute exactly one home opening.
     init { track("session", "home_open", screen = "home", feature = "app") }
 
-    fun track(
+    override fun track(
         category: String,
         action: String,
-        screen: String = "",
-        feature: String = "",
-        source: String = "",
-        target: String = "",
-        itemName: String = "",
-        itemType: String = "",
-        outcome: String = "",
+        screen: String,
+        feature: String,
+        source: String,
+        target: String,
+        itemId: String,
+        itemName: String,
+        itemType: String,
+        playSessionId: String,
+        outcome: String,
     ) = synchronized(lock) {
         if (ended) return@synchronized
         buffer += GatewayJourneyEvent(
@@ -49,12 +51,17 @@ class JourneyAnalytics(
             feature = clean(feature),
             source = clean(source),
             target = clean(target),
+            itemId = clean(itemId),
             itemName = cleanName(itemName),
             itemType = clean(itemType),
+            // Cleaned like every other controlled field rather than trusted: a play session
+            // id is Emby's string, not ours, and the gateway rejects a whole event whose
+            // fields it cannot read. A session id is worth less than the step it describes.
+            playSessionId = clean(playSessionId),
             outcome = clean(outcome),
             occurredAt = timestamp(),
         )
-        if (buffer.size > 200) buffer.removeAt(0)
+        if (buffer.size > MAX_BUFFERED_EVENTS) buffer.removeAt(0)
     }
 
     fun end(screen: String) = synchronized(lock) {
@@ -77,6 +84,14 @@ class JourneyAnalytics(
     private fun timestamp(): String = iso8601.get()!!.format(Date(now()))
 
     companion object {
+        /**
+         * The buffer is drained on a timer, but not while a viewer is in the player — see
+         * [com.ponzischeme89.memby.ui.HomeViewModel.pauseAnalyticsForPlayback]. A Magic press
+         * can chain several films inside that pause, so this holds comfortably more than one
+         * playback's worth of steps and still drops the oldest rather than the newest.
+         */
+        private const val MAX_BUFFERED_EVENTS = 200
+
         private val iso8601 = object : ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat>() {
             override fun initialValue() = SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'", Locale.US).apply {
                 timeZone = TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC")

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/analytics/JourneySink.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics
+
+/**
+ * Somewhere a journey step can be written down.
+ *
+ * It exists so that [PlaybackJourney]'s wording can be exercised against a real
+ * [JourneyAnalytics] in a unit test, and so that a caller which cannot see the collector —
+ * `PlayerActivity`, which runs in its own activity and has no view model — can write into
+ * the process-wide [JourneyTracker] through the same shape.
+ *
+ * Implementations must never block: this is called from the playback critical path.
+ */
+interface JourneySink {
+    fun track(
+        category: String,
+        action: String,
+        screen: String = "",
+        feature: String = "",
+        source: String = "",
+        target: String = "",
+        itemId: String = "",
+        itemName: String = "",
+        itemType: String = "",
+        playSessionId: String = "",
+        outcome: String = "",
+    )
+}

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/analytics/JourneyTracker.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics
+
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.model.GatewayJourneyEvent
+
+/**
+ * The one journey a process is building, reachable from outside a view model.
+ *
+ * The collector used to be private to `HomeViewModel`, which meant the only thing that could
+ * record a step was the launcher — and playback happens in a second activity. Everything the
+ * player does was therefore invisible: a Magic press starts a whole new film without the
+ * launcher ever hearing about it, and nothing at all said whether a playback the launcher had
+ * requested actually began.
+ *
+ * Held here rather than passed down because `PlayerActivity` has no owner in common with the
+ * launcher, and because it must land in the *same* journey: a viewer who watches three films
+ * in one sitting has had one app session, and starting a fresh journey id per activity would
+ * report it as three.
+ *
+ * Everything on it is a synchronised append to an in-memory list. Nothing here uploads, opens
+ * a connection or touches disk, which is what makes it safe to call from the moment a decoder
+ * is starting. The buffer is drained by `HomeViewModel` once the player has returned.
+ */
+object JourneyTracker : JourneySink {
+    @Volatile
+    private var analytics: JourneyAnalytics? = null
+
+    /**
+     * Starts the journey for a signed-in viewer and returns it, so its owner can drain it.
+     * Replacing the previous one is deliberate: a profile switch is a different person, and
+     * their steps must not be filed under the viewer who signed out.
+     */
+    fun begin(userId: String): JourneyAnalytics =
+        JourneyAnalytics(userId).also { analytics = it }
+
+    override fun track(
+        category: String,
+        action: String,
+        screen: String,
+        feature: String,
+        source: String,
+        target: String,
+        itemId: String,
+        itemName: String,
+        itemType: String,
+        playSessionId: String,
+        outcome: String,
+    ) {
+        // Silently nothing when no journey is open — the screensaver can start playback in a
+        // process where nobody has reached the launcher, and telemetry must never be a reason
+        // a television cannot play something.
+        analytics?.track(
+            category = category, action = action, screen = screen, feature = feature,
+            source = source, target = target, itemId = itemId, itemName = itemName,
+            itemType = itemType, playSessionId = playSessionId, outcome = outcome,
+        )
+    }
+
+    fun end(screen: String) { analytics?.end(screen) }
+
+    fun drain(): List<GatewayJourneyEvent> = analytics?.drain().orEmpty()
+}

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/analytics/PlaybackEntryPoint.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics
+
+/**
+ * Where a playback was asked for.
+ *
+ * A journey is only worth reading if it says what somebody was *doing* when they pressed
+ * Play, and the launcher's row id is not that: it is an id the gateway happened to send, it
+ * differs between the gateway and the direct path, and a recommendation strip invents a new
+ * one every day. This is the small, closed vocabulary the analytics are grouped by instead —
+ * stated by whatever started the playback, never inferred downstream, because by the time an
+ * event reaches the gateway the surface it came from is gone.
+ *
+ * [id] is the wire value and must stay stable: it is what the console groups on, so renaming
+ * one silently splits a household's history in two.
+ */
+enum class PlaybackEntryPoint(val id: String) {
+    CONTINUE_WATCHING("continue_watching"),
+    MAGIC_MOVIE("magic_movie"),
+
+    /** The player advancing to the episode after this one, by itself or by a press. */
+    NEXT_EPISODE("next_episode"),
+    HOME_HERO("home_hero"),
+    SEARCH("search"),
+    GENRE_BROWSER("genre_browser"),
+    CALENDAR("calendar"),
+    FAVOURITES("favourites"),
+    RECOMMENDATION("recommendation"),
+
+    /**
+     * A detail page reached by some route that did not name itself — the "More like this"
+     * trail, a schedule card's series page, a page restored after the player returned.
+     */
+    DETAIL_PAGE("detail_page"),
+    SCREENSAVER("screensaver"),
+    UNKNOWN("unknown"),
+    ;
+
+    companion object {
+        /**
+         * Reads an entry point back off the wire. Unknown rather than null, because an id
+         * this build does not recognise is a television talking to a newer one, and a
+         * playback that cannot name where it came from is still a playback.
+         */
+        fun fromId(id: String?): PlaybackEntryPoint =
+            entries.firstOrNull { it.id == id } ?: UNKNOWN
+    }
+}
+
+/**
+ * The entry point a launcher row stands for.
+ *
+ * Kind is asked first and id second, deliberately. The kind is the app's own classification
+ * and is the same on both paths, where the id is the gateway's — Continue Watching is
+ * `continue` today and a household running an older gateway still sends `nextup`, which is
+ * the same shelf as far as a viewer is concerned. The id is only consulted for the three
+ * panes that are not rows at all.
+ *
+ * Pure so it can be tested: this is the function that decides whether a resume is filed
+ * under Continue Watching or lost in the general pile.
+ */
+fun playbackEntryPointFor(rowId: String?, rowKind: String? = null): PlaybackEntryPoint {
+    when (rowKind?.lowercase()) {
+        "continue", "nextup", "next_up" -> return PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING
+        "favorites", "favourites" -> return PlaybackEntryPoint.FAVOURITES
+    }
+    return when (val id = rowId?.trim()?.lowercase().orEmpty()) {
+        "" -> PlaybackEntryPoint.DETAIL_PAGE
+        "continue", "nextup", "next-up" -> PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING
+        "home-movie-hero" -> PlaybackEntryPoint.HOME_HERO
+        "search-results" -> PlaybackEntryPoint.SEARCH
+        "genre-browser-results" -> PlaybackEntryPoint.GENRE_BROWSER
+        "favorites" -> PlaybackEntryPoint.FAVOURITES
+        else -> when {
+            // Server-composed shelves: "for-you:pick-up", "because-you-watched:123",
+            // "highly-engaged". They are recommendations however they are named, and their
+            // ids are generated, so matching them individually would be a losing game.
+            id.startsWith("for-you") || id.startsWith("because-you-watched") ||
+                id.startsWith("recommend") || id.startsWith("highly-engaged") ->
+                PlaybackEntryPoint.RECOMMENDATION
+            id.startsWith("continue") -> PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING
+            else -> PlaybackEntryPoint.DETAIL_PAGE
+        }
+    }
+}

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/analytics/PlaybackJourney.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics
+
+/**
+ * What a playback writes into the journey, in one place.
+ *
+ * It is one object rather than a handful of `trackJourney` calls spread across the launcher
+ * and the player because the two surfaces have to agree exactly. The console splits a
+ * viewer's session into separate viewing journeys at `playback`/`request`, groups them by the
+ * entry point in `source`, and decides the outcome from `playback`/`start`; a caller that got
+ * one of those three words slightly wrong would not fail, it would quietly produce a journey
+ * that reads as somebody jumping straight into a film from nowhere.
+ *
+ * Every category, action and outcome used here is inside the gateway's allowlist in
+ * `internal/api/analytics.go`. An event using a word that is not on it is dropped on arrival
+ * with nothing said, so adding one means adding it there too.
+ */
+object PlaybackJourney {
+    private const val CATEGORY = "playback"
+    private const val RECOMMENDATIONS = "recommendations"
+    private const val FEATURE = "playback"
+    private const val PLAYER = "player"
+
+    /** The feature name Magic's own steps are grouped under in the console. */
+    const val MAGIC_FEATURE = "magic_movie"
+
+    /**
+     * Somebody asked for this to play.
+     *
+     * The console cuts a session into viewing journeys here, so this is the step that must
+     * exist for *every* route into the player — including the two that used to skip it
+     * entirely — and [entryPoint] is the whole reason the resulting journey can say where it
+     * began.
+     */
+    fun requested(
+        sink: JourneySink,
+        entryPoint: PlaybackEntryPoint,
+        screen: String,
+        itemId: String,
+        itemName: String,
+        itemType: String,
+    ) = sink.track(
+        category = CATEGORY, action = "request", screen = screen, feature = FEATURE,
+        source = entryPoint.id, target = PLAYER,
+        itemId = itemId, itemName = itemName, itemType = itemType,
+    )
+
+    /**
+     * A picture is up: the negotiation, the launch and the decoder all worked.
+     *
+     * Recorded from the player rather than from whatever started it, because only the player
+     * knows whether anything actually happened — and it carries [playSessionId], which is
+     * what ties this step to the stream Emby recorded on the other side.
+     */
+    fun started(
+        sink: JourneySink,
+        entryPoint: PlaybackEntryPoint,
+        itemId: String,
+        itemName: String,
+        itemType: String,
+        playSessionId: String,
+    ) = sink.track(
+        category = CATEGORY, action = "start", screen = PLAYER, feature = FEATURE,
+        source = entryPoint.id, target = PLAYER,
+        itemId = itemId, itemName = itemName, itemType = itemType,
+        playSessionId = playSessionId, outcome = "success",
+    )
+
+    /**
+     * It did not start, or it stopped being able to play.
+     *
+     * The same action as [started] wearing the other outcome, so "how often does playback from
+     * Continue Watching work" is one grouping rather than a comparison of two counts.
+     */
+    fun failed(
+        sink: JourneySink,
+        entryPoint: PlaybackEntryPoint,
+        screen: String,
+        itemId: String,
+        itemName: String,
+        itemType: String,
+        playSessionId: String = "",
+    ) = sink.track(
+        category = CATEGORY, action = "start", screen = screen, feature = FEATURE,
+        source = entryPoint.id, target = PLAYER,
+        itemId = itemId, itemName = itemName, itemType = itemType,
+        playSessionId = playSessionId, outcome = "failure",
+    )
+
+    /**
+     * This title's playback ended because the player moved on to another one.
+     *
+     * Deliberately not `stop`, which the launcher records once when the player hands the
+     * window back: a Magic press or an episode advance ends one title inside a player the
+     * viewer never left, and without this the films before the last one in a chain would have
+     * no ending at all.
+     */
+    fun finished(
+        sink: JourneySink,
+        entryPoint: PlaybackEntryPoint,
+        itemId: String,
+        itemName: String,
+        itemType: String,
+        playSessionId: String,
+        completed: Boolean,
+    ) = sink.track(
+        category = CATEGORY, action = "complete", screen = PLAYER, feature = FEATURE,
+        source = entryPoint.id, target = PLAYER,
+        itemId = itemId, itemName = itemName, itemType = itemType,
+        playSessionId = playSessionId,
+        outcome = if (completed) "completed" else "abandoned",
+    )
+
+    /** Magic was pressed: the viewer asked for something to be chosen for them. */
+    fun magicRequested(sink: JourneySink) = sink.track(
+        category = RECOMMENDATIONS, action = "request", screen = PLAYER,
+        feature = MAGIC_FEATURE, source = PLAYER, target = MAGIC_FEATURE,
+    )
+
+    /**
+     * Magic chose a film. Generation and selection are one step here because they are one
+     * press: nothing is offered to the viewer to accept or decline, the pick is announced and
+     * then played, and recording an "offered" the viewer never saw would invent a decision.
+     */
+    fun magicSelected(
+        sink: JourneySink,
+        itemId: String,
+        itemName: String,
+        itemType: String,
+    ) = sink.track(
+        category = RECOMMENDATIONS, action = "select", screen = PLAYER,
+        feature = MAGIC_FEATURE, source = MAGIC_FEATURE, target = PLAYER,
+        itemId = itemId, itemName = itemName, itemType = itemType, outcome = "success",
+    )
+
+    /**
+     * Magic had nothing to offer — an older gateway with no route to answer, or a household
+     * that has run out of unseen library. Recorded because a press that produced nothing is
+     * the one thing the console could not otherwise tell from a button nobody uses.
+     */
+    fun magicEmpty(sink: JourneySink) = sink.track(
+        category = RECOMMENDATIONS, action = "complete", screen = PLAYER,
+        feature = MAGIC_FEATURE, source = MAGIC_FEATURE, target = PLAYER,
+        outcome = "failure",
+    )
+}

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/model/GatewayModels.kt

@@ -873,8 +873,17 @@ data class GatewayJourneyEvent(
     val feature: String = "",
     val source: String = "",
     val target: String = "",
+    val itemId: String = "",
     val itemName: String = "",
     val itemType: String = "",
+    /**
+     * Emby's own id for the stream this step is about, on the playback steps that have one.
+     * It is what joins a journey to the gateway's playback log without the two having to
+     * agree on anything else, and it is deliberately not put in [target] — that field is what
+     * the console builds its screen-to-screen path graph from, and a value unique per
+     * playback would fill it with rows nobody can read.
+     */
+    val playSessionId: String = "",
     val outcome: String = "",
     val occurredAt: String = "",
 )

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/HomeViewModel.kt

@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.HomeCache
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.HomeSnapshot
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.RowAnalytics
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.JourneyAnalytics
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.JourneySink
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.JourneyTracker
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.friendlyEmbyError
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.isMaintenanceError
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.model.BaseItem
@@ -170,7 +172,11 @@ class HomeViewModel(private val repository: EmbyRepository) : ViewModel() {
 
     /** Row engagement, buffered here and uploaded in batches. */
     private val analytics = RowAnalytics()
-    private val journey = JourneyAnalytics(repository.currentSettings.userId.orEmpty())
+    // Registered process-wide rather than kept private, because the player is a second
+    // activity and everything it does — a Magic pick, a playback that actually started, one
+    // that failed — has to land in this same journey rather than nowhere.
+    private val journey: JourneyAnalytics =
+        JourneyTracker.begin(repository.currentSettings.userId.orEmpty())
     @Volatile private var analyticsPausedForPlayback = false
 
     init {
@@ -226,9 +232,21 @@ class HomeViewModel(private val repository: EmbyRepository) : ViewModel() {
 
     fun trackJourney(
         category: String, action: String, screen: String = "", feature: String = "",
-        source: String = "", target: String = "", itemName: String = "", itemType: String = "",
-        outcome: String = "",
-    ) = journey.track(category, action, screen, feature, source, target, itemName, itemType, outcome)
+        source: String = "", target: String = "", itemId: String = "", itemName: String = "",
+        itemType: String = "", playSessionId: String = "", outcome: String = "",
+    ) = journey.track(
+        category = category, action = action, screen = screen, feature = feature,
+        source = source, target = target, itemId = itemId, itemName = itemName,
+        itemType = itemType, playSessionId = playSessionId, outcome = outcome,
+    )
+
+    /**
+     * The collector itself, for the playback wording in
+     * [com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.PlaybackJourney]. Exposed rather than mirrored
+     * as another `trackJourney` overload so the launcher and the player write playback steps
+     * through exactly one set of functions.
+     */
+    val journeySink: JourneySink get() = journey
 
     fun endJourney(screen: String) { journey.end(screen); flushAnalytics() }
 

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/MainActivity.kt

@@ -127,6 +127,8 @@ import com.ponzischeme89.memby.ServiceLocator
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.Settings
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.EmbyProfile
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.friendlyEmbyError
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.PlaybackJourney
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.playbackEntryPointFor
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.model.BaseItem
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.model.GatewayUpdate
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.model.HomeRow
@@ -1975,6 +1977,13 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
     var resolvingItem by remember { mutableStateOf<BaseItem?>(null) }
     var returnRowId by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf<String?>(null) }
     var returnItemId by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf<String?>(null) }
+    // The shelf a Play press can be traced back to, as an entry point rather than as a row
+    // id. Kept beside [returnRowId] and written wherever it is, because the row's *kind* is
+    // the reliable half — a row id is the gateway's, differs on the direct path, and a
+    // recommendation strip invents a new one daily — and because by the time `playItem` runs
+    // the row list is out of scope. Saved with the rest so a recreate mid-browse does not
+    // file the next resume under nothing.
+    var returnRowKind by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf<String?>(null) }
     var recentSearches by remember { mutableStateOf<List<String>>(emptyList()) }
     var initialSearchQuery by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf<String?>(null) }
     // Destination and row list states live above the conditional content branches.
@@ -2167,12 +2176,37 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
     }
     val playItem: (BaseItem) -> Unit = playItem@{ item ->
         if (launchingItem != null || !item.membyPlayable) return@playItem
-        homeViewModel.trackJourney(
-            category = "playback", action = "request", screen = selectedDestination.name.lowercase(),
-            feature = "playback", source = returnRowId.orEmpty(), target = "player",
-            itemName = item.name, itemType = item.type,
+        // The shelf this press traces back to, resolved once and then carried all the way
+        // into the player, so the step the launcher records and the step the player records
+        // agree about where the viewer came from. `source` used to be the raw row id, which
+        // the console could not group on: Continue Watching arrived as `continue` from the
+        // gateway, as `nextup` from a cached row, and as a recommendation id nobody had seen
+        // before every other day.
+        val entryPoint = playbackEntryPointFor(returnRowId, returnRowKind)
+        PlaybackJourney.requested(
+            sink = homeViewModel.journeySink,
+            entryPoint = entryPoint,
+            screen = selectedDestination.name.lowercase(),
+            itemId = item.id,
+            itemName = item.name,
+            itemType = item.type,
         )
+        // Nothing here uploads: the buffer is drained once the player hands the window back.
         homeViewModel.pauseAnalyticsForPlayback()
+        // Every way a launch can die before the player exists. The player records its own
+        // failures once it has one; these are the ones it would never hear about, and
+        // without them a journey ends on a request that appears simply to have gone nowhere.
+        val playbackScreen = selectedDestination.name.lowercase()
+        val recordPlaybackFailed = {
+            PlaybackJourney.failed(
+                sink = homeViewModel.journeySink,
+                entryPoint = entryPoint,
+                screen = playbackScreen,
+                itemId = item.id,
+                itemName = item.name,
+                itemType = item.type,
+            )
+        }
         launchingItem = item
         val playbackRequestedAtMs = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime()
         // Resuming: open the player now and let it resolve the stream while it starts.
@@ -2189,6 +2223,7 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
             val request = repo.playbackRequest(item)
             request to repo.readyPlayableForLaunch(request)
         }.getOrElse {
+            recordPlaybackFailed()
             Toast.makeText(context, "Couldn’t start playback", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
             launchingItem = null
             homeViewModel.resumeAnalyticsAfterPlayback()
@@ -2206,10 +2241,12 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                         backdropUrl = repo.backdropUrl(item, maxWidth = 1920)
                             ?: repo.primaryUrl(item, maxWidth = 1920),
                         requestStartedAtMs = playbackRequestedAtMs,
+                        journeySource = entryPoint.id,
                     ),
                 )
             }
             if (launched.isFailure) {
+                recordPlaybackFailed()
                 Toast.makeText(context, "Couldn’t start playback", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
                 launchingItem = null
                 homeViewModel.resumeAnalyticsAfterPlayback()
@@ -2273,10 +2310,12 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                                 playSessionId = playable.playSessionId,
                                 playMethod = playable.playMethod,
                                 requestStartedAtMs = playbackRequestedAtMs,
+                                journeySource = entryPoint.id,
                                 ),
                             )
                         }
                         if (launched.isFailure) {
+                            recordPlaybackFailed()
                             Toast.makeText(context, "Couldn’t start playback", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
                             launchingItem = null
                             homeViewModel.resumeAnalyticsAfterPlayback()
@@ -2286,6 +2325,7 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                         // A cancellation is the viewer having pressed Back out of the
                         // wait, which has already reopened the gate and said so on screen.
                         if (error is kotlinx.coroutines.CancellationException) throw error
+                        recordPlaybackFailed()
                         Toast.makeText(context, "Couldn’t start playback", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
                         // Nothing was launched, so nothing will come back to reopen the gate.
                         launchingItem = null
@@ -2535,6 +2575,11 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                             savedFocus?.let { (rowId, itemId) ->
                                 returnRowId = rowId
                                 returnItemId = itemId
+                                // Only the id was remembered, so the kind is cleared rather
+                                // than left carrying whichever row was focused on the
+                                // destination being left; the id alone still names the
+                                // shelves that matter.
+                                returnRowKind = null
                             }
                             if (
                                 savedFocus != null &&
@@ -2623,6 +2668,7 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                         onItemFocused = homeViewModel::focusItem,
                         onItemSelected = { item ->
                             returnRowId = SEARCH_ROW_ID
+                            returnRowKind = null
                             returnItemId = item.id
                             destinationFocus[BrowseDestination.SEARCH] = SEARCH_ROW_ID to item.id
                             homeViewModel.focusItem(item)
@@ -2705,6 +2751,7 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                         onItemFocused = homeViewModel::focusItem,
                         onItemSelected = { item ->
                             returnRowId = GENRE_BROWSER_ROW_ID
+                            returnRowKind = null
                             returnItemId = item.id
                             destinationFocus[BrowseDestination.GENRES] =
                                 GENRE_BROWSER_ROW_ID to item.id
@@ -2744,6 +2791,7 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                         onItemFocused = homeViewModel::focusItem,
                         onItemSelected = { item ->
                             returnRowId = GENRE_BROWSER_ROW_ID
+                            returnRowKind = null
                             returnItemId = item.id
                             homeViewModel.focusItem(item)
                             homeViewModel.trackJourney(
@@ -2885,11 +2933,13 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                                 focusedHomeRowId = null
                                 destinationFocus[selectedDestination] = HOME_HERO_ROW_ID to item.id
                                 returnRowId = HOME_HERO_ROW_ID
+                                returnRowKind = null
                                 returnItemId = item.id
                                 homeViewModel.focusItem(item)
                             },
                             onItemSelected = { item ->
                                 returnRowId = HOME_HERO_ROW_ID
+                                returnRowKind = null
                                 returnItemId = item.id
                                 homeViewModel.focusItem(item)
                                 homeViewModel.trackJourney(
@@ -3148,12 +3198,14 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                                     }
                                     destinationFocus[selectedDestination] = row.id to item.id
                                     returnRowId = row.id
+                                    returnRowKind = row.kind.name
                                     returnItemId = item.id
                                     homeViewModel.focusItem(item)
                                     homeViewModel.trackRowFocused(row.id, row.kind.name, item.id)
                                 },
                                 onItemSelected = { item ->
                                     returnRowId = row.id
+                                    returnRowKind = row.kind.name
                                     returnItemId = item.id
                                     homeViewModel.trackRowSelected(row.id, row.kind.name, item.id)
                                     homeViewModel.trackJourney(
@@ -3181,6 +3233,7 @@ private fun HomeScreen(
                                 },
                                 onItemLongPressed = { item ->
                                     returnRowId = row.id
+                                    returnRowKind = row.kind.name
                                     returnItemId = item.id
                                     homeViewModel.focusItem(item)
                                     if (item.membyPlayable) {

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/AudioPassthrough.kt

@@ -62,7 +62,9 @@ internal class MembyRenderersFactory(
         }
         return builder
             .setEnableFloatOutput(enableFloatOutput)
-            .setEnableAudioTrackPlaybackParams(enableAudioTrackPlaybackParams)
+            // Renamed in Media3 1.9; the override parameter above keeps the framework's own
+            // spelling because it is the signature being overridden.
+            .setEnableAudioOutputPlaybackParameters(enableAudioTrackPlaybackParams)
             .build()
     }
 }
@@ -70,9 +72,11 @@ internal class MembyRenderersFactory(
 /**
  * Builds the fixed-capabilities sink used by manual mode.
  *
- * Media3 1.5 ignores [DefaultAudioSink.Builder.setAudioCapabilities] when the builder has
- * a Context, because the live route receiver replaces the supplied value. Its deprecated
- * context-free builder is therefore the only 1.5 API that can honour a viewer override.
+ * Media3 ignores [DefaultAudioSink.Builder.setAudioCapabilities] when the builder has a
+ * Context, because the live route receiver replaces the supplied value. Its deprecated
+ * context-free builder is therefore the only API that can honour a viewer override. Still
+ * true on the 1.9 line; re-check it whenever the Media3 version moves, because the day it
+ * stops being true this whole function is dead code.
  */
 @Suppress("DEPRECATION")
 private fun fixedCapabilitiesAudioSinkBuilder(

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/NextEpisodePreloader.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,208 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.ui.player
+
+import android.os.SystemClock
+import android.util.Log
+import androidx.media3.common.MediaItem
+import androidx.media3.common.util.UnstableApi
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.MediaSource
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.preload.DefaultPreloadManager
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.preload.DefaultPreloadManager.PreloadStatus
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.preload.PreloadException
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.preload.PreloadManagerListener
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.preload.TargetPreloadStatusControl
+
+/**
+ * Opens the next episode's stream while the current one is still playing.
+ *
+ * The wait an advance costs is the same wait a cold start costs, and this app already knows
+ * where it goes: `prepare()` → first frame is over 90% of it, and the largest single term
+ * inside that is the connection to Emby (see [PlayerEngine]). An advance is the one case where
+ * all of that can be paid *early* — [NextUpResolver] knows what is next minutes before anybody
+ * presses anything, so by the time the credits roll the container header has been read, the
+ * tracks have been selected and a few seconds of media are in hand.
+ *
+ * Media3's [DefaultPreloadManager] does the work; this owns the two things it cannot decide for
+ * itself — which episode is worth preloading ([preloadTargetFor]) and when a preloaded episode
+ * stops being the next one ([advanceTo]).
+ *
+ * Everything here degrades to nothing. A player built without a manager leaves [manager] null,
+ * every method becomes a no-op and [sourceFor] answers null, which puts [PlayerActivity] back
+ * on the ordinary `setMediaItem` path it used before any of this existed.
+ */
+@UnstableApi
+internal class NextEpisodePreloader(
+    private val elapsedRealtime: () -> Long = SystemClock::elapsedRealtime,
+) {
+    private class Entry(
+        val rank: Int,
+        val mediaItem: MediaItem,
+        /** Where the episode would resume, which is where preloading it is worth starting. */
+        val startPositionMs: Long,
+        val registeredAtMs: Long,
+        var readyAtMs: Long? = null,
+    )
+
+    private var manager: DefaultPreloadManager? = null
+
+    /** Keyed by Emby item id, which is what the rest of the player identifies an episode by. */
+    private val entries = LinkedHashMap<String, Entry>()
+
+    /**
+     * Where in this journey the episode on screen sits. It is a counter rather than a playlist
+     * index — see [preloadTargetFor] — so it only ever moves forward, and it is what both the
+     * target-status rule and the eviction rule are expressed against.
+     */
+    private var playingRank = 0
+
+    /**
+     * Whether the episode now playing was started from preloaded work. Read by the trace, so
+     * `event=first_frame` can say which of the two latencies it is reporting.
+     */
+    var startedFromPreload: Boolean = false
+        private set
+
+    /**
+     * Handed to [DefaultPreloadManager.Builder] before the manager exists, which is why this is
+     * a property of the preloader rather than something the engine writes: the rule has to read
+     * [playingRank], and [playingRank] moves for the life of the session.
+     */
+    val statusControl = TargetPreloadStatusControl<Int, PreloadStatus> { rank ->
+        val target = preloadTargetFor(
+            rank = rank,
+            playingRank = playingRank,
+            startPositionMs = startPositionFor(rank),
+        )
+        // PRELOAD_STATUS_NOT_PRELOADED rather than null, which is the other way Media3 spells
+        // "skip this one": the package is @NonNullApi, so Kotlin reads the generic status as
+        // non-null and will not let this return null at all. The manager compares against this
+        // constant by value and calls onSkipped, so the two are the same instruction.
+        // A zero-length range would not do — it would still have the source prepared, which is
+        // most of what preloading costs.
+        if (!target.preload) PreloadStatus.PRELOAD_STATUS_NOT_PRELOADED
+        else PreloadStatus.specifiedRangeLoaded(target.startPositionMs, target.durationMs)
+    }
+
+    private val listener = object : PreloadManagerListener {
+        override fun onCompleted(mediaItem: MediaItem) {
+            val entry = entries.values.firstOrNull { it.mediaItem == mediaItem } ?: return
+            entry.readyAtMs = elapsedRealtime()
+            Log.i(
+                PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG,
+                "event=preload_ready rank=${entry.rank} " +
+                    "tookMs=${(entry.readyAtMs ?: 0L) - entry.registeredAtMs} rangeMs=$PRELOAD_RANGE_MS",
+            )
+        }
+
+        override fun onError(error: PreloadException) {
+            // A failed preload costs nothing but the preload: the advance falls back to
+            // resolving the stream the way it always did. It is logged rather than surfaced
+            // for the reason row analytics are — nothing the viewer can act on.
+            val rank = entries.values.firstOrNull { it.mediaItem == error.mediaItem }?.rank
+            Log.w(
+                PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG,
+                "event=preload_failed rank=${rank ?: -1} reason=${error.message.orEmpty()}",
+                error,
+            )
+        }
+    }
+
+    /** Called once by [PlayerEngine], after the manager it shares components with is built. */
+    fun attach(manager: DefaultPreloadManager) {
+        this.manager = manager
+        manager.addListener(listener)
+        manager.setCurrentPlayingIndex(playingRank)
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Registers what plays after the episode on screen, at one rank ahead of it.
+     *
+     * Called whenever [NextUpResolver] answers — which happens once per episode and again on
+     * every re-negotiation of a stale stream, so a repeat for the same episode is ordinary and
+     * must not register it twice. A *different* episode for the same rank is the answer having
+     * changed underneath us (a re-resolve that moved), and replaces the old one.
+     */
+    fun register(itemId: String, mediaItem: MediaItem, startPositionMs: Long = 0L) {
+        val active = manager ?: return
+        if (itemId.isBlank()) return
+        val rank = playingRank + 1
+        val existing = entries[itemId]
+        if (existing != null && existing.rank == rank && existing.mediaItem == mediaItem) return
+        // Anything else already sitting at this rank is a superseded answer. It is safe to
+        // remove because nothing has been handed to the player from it: only advanceTo does
+        // that, and it moves the rank on as it does.
+        entries.entries.filter { it.value.rank == rank && it.key != itemId }.forEach { (id, entry) ->
+            active.remove(entry.mediaItem)
+            entries.remove(id)
+        }
+        existing?.let { active.remove(it.mediaItem) }
+        entries[itemId] = Entry(rank, mediaItem, startPositionMs.coerceAtLeast(0L), elapsedRealtime())
+        active.add(mediaItem, rank)
+        active.invalidate()
+        Log.i(PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG, "event=preload_registered rank=$rank held=${entries.size}")
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * The preloaded source for [mediaItem], or null if there is none to reuse.
+     *
+     * Null is the ordinary answer on a cold start, on the direct-to-Emby path, on a retry with
+     * a freshly negotiated URL, and any time the preload simply did not finish — all of which
+     * put [PlayerActivity] back on `setMediaItem`.
+     */
+    fun sourceFor(mediaItem: MediaItem): MediaSource? = manager?.getMediaSource(mediaItem)
+
+    /**
+     * Moves the journey on to [itemId], which is now the episode playing.
+     *
+     * Everything strictly behind it is released ([obsoletePreloadRanks]); the entry for
+     * [itemId] itself is deliberately kept, because the player has just been handed its source
+     * and removing it from the manager would release that source underneath the decoder. Its
+     * target status becomes "not preloaded" on the next [DefaultPreloadManager.invalidate],
+     * which stops the loading without touching what the player holds.
+     */
+    fun advanceTo(itemId: String, startedFromPreload: Boolean) {
+        this.startedFromPreload = startedFromPreload
+        val active = manager ?: return
+        val entry = entries[itemId]
+        playingRank = entry?.rank ?: (playingRank + 1)
+        obsoletePreloadRanks(entries.values.map { it.rank }, playingRank).forEach { rank ->
+            entries.entries.filter { it.value.rank == rank }.forEach { (id, stale) ->
+                active.remove(stale.mediaItem)
+                entries.remove(id)
+            }
+        }
+        active.setCurrentPlayingIndex(playingRank)
+        active.invalidate()
+        Log.i(
+            PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG,
+            "event=preload_advanced rank=$playingRank preloaded=$startedFromPreload held=${entries.size}",
+        )
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Throws away every preloaded source, for a journey that is no longer the one they belong
+     * to — a trailer, a Magic pick, a next-episode preview, an interruption for maintenance, or
+     * a retry that had to re-negotiate the stream. Each of those makes the episode this was
+     * counting on either wrong or unreachable, and holding a prepared source for it would keep
+     * a connection open to Emby for something nobody is going to watch.
+     */
+    fun reset() {
+        startedFromPreload = false
+        val active = manager ?: return
+        if (entries.isEmpty()) return
+        entries.clear()
+        active.reset()
+        Log.i(PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG, "event=preload_reset")
+    }
+
+    fun release() {
+        entries.clear()
+        manager?.let {
+            it.removeListener(listener)
+            it.release()
+        }
+        manager = null
+    }
+
+    private fun startPositionFor(rank: Int): Long =
+        entries.values.firstOrNull { it.rank == rank }?.startPositionMs ?: 0L
+}

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/NextUpPipeline.kt

@@ -28,6 +28,16 @@ internal class NextUpResolver(
     private val elapsedRealtime: () -> Long,
     /** Injected so a test needs no repository, and so the direct/gateway split stays put. */
     private val fetch: suspend (itemId: String) -> NextEpisode?,
+    /**
+     * Called on the resolver's own thread every time an answer is *published* — the first
+     * lookup, and again whenever [warm] or [playable] re-negotiates a stale stream.
+     *
+     * It exists for [NextEpisodePreloader], which has to hear about the second of those as well
+     * as the first: a re-negotiated episode carries a new URL, so preloaded work keyed on the
+     * old one is no longer the thing the player will be handed. Defaulting to nothing keeps
+     * every existing test construction of this class untouched.
+     */
+    private val onResolved: (NextEpisode?) -> Unit = {},
 ) {
     /** Guards the whole of [resolve]: two callers must never produce two requests. */
     private val lock = Mutex()
@@ -97,13 +107,19 @@ internal class NextUpResolver(
             // would put up a banner promising something that cannot be played and then, the
             // countdown having run out, swap it in automatically and fail.
             ?.takeIf { it.url.isNotBlank() }
-        lock.withLock {
-            if (subjectId == itemId) {
+        val published = lock.withLock {
+            val current = subjectId == itemId
+            if (current) {
                 answer = resolved
                 resolvedAt = elapsedRealtime()
             }
             inFlight = null
+            current
         }
+        // Only for the episode still being played. An answer that arrived after the viewer
+        // moved on describes a journey that no longer exists, and announcing it would have the
+        // preloader open a connection for it.
+        if (published) onResolved(resolved)
         pending.complete(resolved)
         return resolved
     }

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/PlaybackTrace.kt

@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 package com.ponzischeme89.memby.ui.player
 
+/**
+ * The one logcat tag everything on the playback path writes under, so `adb logcat -s
+ * MembyPlayback` is the whole diagnosis. Top-level rather than private to [PlayerActivity]
+ * because the pieces the activity delegates to — [NextEpisodePreloader], [PlayerEngine] — have
+ * to land in the same stream to be readable beside it.
+ */
+internal const val PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG = "MembyPlayback"
+
 /**
  * Times the stages between pressing Play and seeing a frame.
  *

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/PlayerActivity.kt

@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@ import com.ponzischeme89.memby.diagnostics.MembyDiagnostics
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.audioPassthroughPreference
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.DEFAULT_SEEK_INTERVAL_SECONDS
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.IntroSegment
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.JourneyTracker
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.PlaybackEntryPoint
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics.PlaybackJourney
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.creditsWorthShowing
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.NextEpisode
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.ResolvedRemoteTrailer
@@ -163,6 +166,26 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
     private var playSessionId = ""
     private var playMethod = "DirectPlay"
     private var stoppedInBackground = false
+
+    /**
+     * Where the title on screen was asked for, so the player's own journey steps can say so.
+     *
+     * It arrives on the intent for a launch from the launcher and is set here for the two the
+     * launcher never sees — a Magic press and an episode advance, both of which start a whole
+     * new playback inside a player the viewer never left. Those were the entry points that
+     * produced no journey at all: the launcher recorded a request for the film somebody
+     * originally chose and then nothing until the window came back, hours and several titles
+     * later.
+     */
+    private var journeyEntryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.UNKNOWN
+
+    /**
+     * Whether this title's failure has been recorded. A playback error pane can be raised
+     * several times over one title — every automatic retry that gives up ends here — and the
+     * console counts starts against failures, so a title that failed once must contribute
+     * one. Cleared wherever [playbackStarted] is, because that is where the title changes.
+     */
+    private var journeyFailureRecorded = false
     private var availableSubtitles: List<PlayableSubtitle> = emptyList()
     private var encodedSubtitleId: String? = null
     private var remainingView: TextView? = null
@@ -317,9 +340,25 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             scope = lifecycleScope,
             elapsedRealtime = SystemClock::elapsedRealtime,
             fetch = { id -> ServiceLocator.repository.nextEpisode(id, seriesId = null) },
+            onResolved = ::preloadNextEpisode,
         )
     }
     private val nextEpisode: NextEpisode? get() = nextUpResolver.current
+
+    /**
+     * Opens the next episode's stream while this one is still playing, so an advance does not
+     * pay the connection, the container header and the seek index over again. Built beside the
+     * player because the two share their renderers, load control and playback looper; null
+     * until [onCreate] has built them, and inert on any television where it could not be.
+     */
+    private var preloader: NextEpisodePreloader? = null
+
+    /**
+     * Whether the stream now playing came from preloaded work. Set by [startMedia] and read by
+     * the `first_frame` line, which is the only place the two latencies this feature exists to
+     * separate — a cold start and a preloaded start — can be told apart in a log.
+     */
+    private var startedFromPreloadedSource = false
     private var returningHomeAfterCompletion = false
     private var nextUpJob: Job? = null
     private var nextEpisodeLookupJob: Job? = null
@@ -527,6 +566,13 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             return
         }
 
+        // Saved state first, like every other value here: a configuration change is the same
+        // playback, and re-reading the intent would be correct anyway — but a Magic press
+        // arrives as a *new* intent, so the two must not be able to disagree.
+        journeyEntryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.fromId(
+            savedInstanceState?.getString(STATE_JOURNEY_SOURCE)
+                ?: intent.getStringExtra(EXTRA_JOURNEY_SOURCE),
+        )
         itemId = savedInstanceState?.getString(STATE_ITEM_ID)
             ?: intent.getStringExtra(EXTRA_ITEM_ID)
         mediaSourceId = savedInstanceState?.getString(STATE_MEDIA_SOURCE_ID)
@@ -680,8 +726,8 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         // first one cannot arrive until onCreate has returned.
         // Surround passthrough is settled before the sink is built, not after: an audio
         // sink cannot change its mind about bitstreaming a format once a track is open.
-        val createdPlayer = runCatching {
-            PlayerEngine.create(this, ServiceLocator.settings.current.audioPassthroughPreference)
+        val createdSession = runCatching {
+            PlayerEngine.createSession(this, ServiceLocator.settings.current.audioPassthroughPreference)
         }.getOrElse { error ->
             Log.e(PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG, "event=player_create_failed", error)
             prerollActive = false
@@ -700,7 +746,8 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             )
             return
         }
-        player = createdPlayer.also { playback ->
+        preloader = createdSession.preloader
+        player = createdSession.player.also { playback ->
                 view.player = playback
                 trace.mark(PlaybackTrace.PLAYER_BUILT)
                 // Audio start is not on Player.Listener — only the analytics interface
@@ -842,6 +889,7 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
                         Log.i(
                             PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG,
                             "event=first_frame item=${itemId.orEmpty()} totalMs=$firstFrameMs " +
+                                "start=${if (startedFromPreloadedSource) "preloaded" else "cold"} " +
                                 "resumeMs=$initialResumePositionMs ${trace.summary()}",
                         )
                     }
@@ -922,13 +970,25 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         val playback = player ?: return
         currentMediaUrl = url
         currentMediaSubtitles = subtitles
+        startedFromPreloadedSource = false
         val prepared = runCatching {
             require(url.isNotBlank()) { "Playback URL is blank" }
+            val item = mediaItem(url, subtitles)
+            // A source the preload manager already prepared, if this is the episode it was
+            // told to expect. Null on every other launch — a cold start, a retry that
+            // re-negotiated the URL, the direct-to-Emby path, a preload that did not finish —
+            // and null is simply the path the player took before any of this existed.
+            val preloaded = preloader?.sourceFor(item)
             // A retry must not inherit a wedged loader, extractor or decoder. This is the
             // in-process equivalent of the state reset an app restart used to provide.
             playback.stop()
             playback.clearMediaItems()
-            playback.setMediaItem(mediaItem(url, subtitles), positionMs.coerceAtLeast(0L))
+            if (preloaded != null) {
+                startedFromPreloadedSource = true
+                playback.setMediaSource(preloaded, positionMs.coerceAtLeast(0L))
+            } else {
+                playback.setMediaItem(item, positionMs.coerceAtLeast(0L))
+            }
             playback.playWhenReady = playWhenReady
             playback.prepare()
         }
@@ -1549,6 +1609,11 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
     private fun startPlaybackSession(playback: Player) {
         if (playbackStarted) return
         playbackStarted = true
+        // First, because it is the answer to "did the thing the viewer asked for happen",
+        // and last, because everything below it is a request. It is a synchronised append to
+        // an in-memory list — no upload, no disk — so it cannot delay a decoder that has just
+        // produced a picture; the buffer is drained by the launcher when the window returns.
+        recordPlaybackStartedJourney()
         if (!prerollActive) showPlaybackIdentity()
         // Deliberately here rather than in onCreate. Nothing needs the cast until the
         // viewer opens the overlay, and on a series the launcher does not yet know which
@@ -1969,6 +2034,7 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
     }
 
     private fun showPlaybackError(failure: PlaybackFailure) {
+        recordPlaybackFailedJourney()
         hidePlaybackLoading()
         playerView?.hideController()
         errorTitleView?.text = failure.title
@@ -3058,6 +3124,67 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
     private val playingAnEpisode: Boolean
         get() = !playbackSeriesName.isNullOrBlank() || prerollEpisodeCode.isNotBlank()
 
+    /**
+     * Whether the journey should hear about what is on screen at all.
+     *
+     * A trailer and a next-episode preview both run through the same player and the same
+     * start and error paths, and neither is a viewing: recorded, they would double the
+     * playback counts and give a household a "watched" outcome for a film nobody put on.
+     * The launcher records the trailer press itself, which is the part worth knowing.
+     */
+    private val journeyRecordsPlayback: Boolean
+        get() = pendingTrailerRequest == null && !playingNextEpisodePreview
+
+    /** Read off the series name, the same evidence [playingAnEpisode] uses. */
+    private val journeyItemType: String
+        get() = if (playingAnEpisode) "Episode" else "Movie"
+
+    private fun recordPlaybackStartedJourney() {
+        if (!journeyRecordsPlayback) return
+        journeyFailureRecorded = false
+        PlaybackJourney.started(
+            sink = JourneyTracker,
+            entryPoint = journeyEntryPoint,
+            itemId = itemId.orEmpty(),
+            itemName = playbackTitle,
+            itemType = journeyItemType,
+            playSessionId = playSessionId,
+        )
+    }
+
+    private fun recordPlaybackFailedJourney() {
+        if (!journeyRecordsPlayback || journeyFailureRecorded) return
+        journeyFailureRecorded = true
+        PlaybackJourney.failed(
+            sink = JourneyTracker,
+            entryPoint = journeyEntryPoint,
+            screen = "player",
+            itemId = itemId.orEmpty(),
+            itemName = playbackTitle,
+            itemType = journeyItemType,
+            playSessionId = playSessionId,
+        )
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * The title on screen is being replaced by another one inside this same player — a Magic
+     * pick or an episode advance. Without it the films before the last one in a chain would
+     * have a request and a start and no ending at all, because the launcher's own `stop` is
+     * recorded once, when the window finally comes back.
+     */
+    private fun recordPlaybackFinishedJourney(completed: Boolean) {
+        if (!journeyRecordsPlayback || !playbackStarted) return
+        PlaybackJourney.finished(
+            sink = JourneyTracker,
+            entryPoint = journeyEntryPoint,
+            itemId = itemId.orEmpty(),
+            itemName = playbackTitle,
+            itemType = journeyItemType,
+            playSessionId = playSessionId,
+            completed = completed,
+        )
+    }
+
     /**
      * Puts the two optional transport controls in step with what is actually known.
      *
@@ -3091,6 +3218,7 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
     private fun playSomethingElse() {
         if (magicJob?.isActive == true || advanceRequested || advancing) return
         val current = itemId?.takeIf { it.isNotBlank() }
+        PlaybackJourney.magicRequested(JourneyTracker)
         magicJob = lifecycleScope.launch {
             showPlaybackLoading(
                 title = getString(R.string.player_magic_finding),
@@ -3107,6 +3235,7 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
                 // An older gateway has no route to answer with, and a household that has run
                 // out of unseen library has no answer to give. Neither is worth an error pane
                 // over somebody's film: say so, put the picture back and withdraw the button.
+                PlaybackJourney.magicEmpty(JourneyTracker)
                 magicAvailable = false
                 updateNextEpisodeButton()
                 hidePlaybackLoading()
@@ -3116,6 +3245,26 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             }
             magicOffered += pick.itemId
             if (magicOffered.size > MAGIC_MEMORY) magicOffered.removeAt(0)
+            // The whole sequence, in the order it happened: the film that was on ends, the
+            // recommendation is recorded as chosen, and the request for the new one carries
+            // magic_movie as its entry point — which is what makes the console cut a fresh
+            // viewing journey here and attribute it to the button rather than to whatever
+            // shelf the *previous* film came from hours ago.
+            recordPlaybackFinishedJourney(completed = false)
+            PlaybackJourney.magicSelected(
+                sink = JourneyTracker,
+                itemId = pick.itemId,
+                itemName = pick.title,
+                itemType = pick.itemType,
+            )
+            PlaybackJourney.requested(
+                sink = JourneyTracker,
+                entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.MAGIC_MOVIE,
+                screen = "player",
+                itemId = pick.itemId,
+                itemName = pick.title,
+                itemType = pick.itemType,
+            )
             Toast.makeText(
                 this@PlayerActivity,
                 getString(R.string.player_magic_selected, pick.title),
@@ -3142,6 +3291,7 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
                         logoUrl = pick.logoUrl,
                     ),
                     backdropUrl = pick.backdropUrl,
+                    journeySource = PlaybackEntryPoint.MAGIC_MOVIE.id,
                 ),
             )
         }
@@ -3849,6 +3999,29 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Tells the preloader what plays next, every time the resolver publishes an answer.
+     *
+     * Deliberately hung off the resolver rather than called from one place: the answer arrives
+     * once when playback settles and again whenever a stale stream is re-negotiated, and a
+     * re-negotiation is exactly when preloaded work stops matching what the player will be
+     * handed. A null answer — a film, the last episode of a season — leaves the preloader with
+     * nothing registered, which is the correct amount of work to do for it.
+     *
+     * Nothing here is allowed to interrupt playback: a preview, a trailer or a Magic pick is a
+     * different journey, and the episode this would register is not the one that would play.
+     */
+    private fun preloadNextEpisode(next: NextEpisode?) {
+        val active = preloader ?: return
+        if (playingNextEpisodePreview || pendingTrailerRequest != null) return
+        if (next == null || next.url.isBlank() || next.itemId.isBlank()) return
+        active.register(
+            itemId = next.itemId,
+            mediaItem = mediaItem(next.url, next.subtitles),
+            startPositionMs = next.resumePositionMs,
+        )
+    }
+
     private fun playNext(next: NextEpisode) {
         if (advancing || returningHomeAfterCompletion) return
         advancing = true
@@ -3895,6 +4068,11 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             )
         }
 
+        // Recorded before the fields below move, or it would describe the incoming episode.
+        // Completed rather than abandoned: every trigger that reaches here is somebody
+        // choosing to go on to the next one, not leaving this one.
+        recordPlaybackFinishedJourney(completed = true)
+
         itemId = next.itemId
         mediaSourceId = next.mediaSourceId
         playSessionId = next.playSessionId
@@ -3909,6 +4087,19 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         encodedSubtitleId = null
         stopReported = false
         playbackStarted = false
+        // The episode after this one was not asked for on the shelf the first one came from,
+        // so the journey's entry point moves with the title. Recorded here rather than left
+        // to the launcher, which cannot see an advance at all.
+        journeyEntryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.NEXT_EPISODE
+        journeyFailureRecorded = false
+        PlaybackJourney.requested(
+            sink = JourneyTracker,
+            entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.NEXT_EPISODE,
+            screen = "player",
+            itemId = next.itemId,
+            itemName = nextTitle(next),
+            itemType = "Episode",
+        )
         playbackIdentityShown = false
         playbackIdentityHideJob?.cancel()
         playbackIdentityView?.apply {
@@ -3973,6 +4164,11 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         if (playback != null) {
             trace.mark(PlaybackTrace.STREAM_RESOLVED)
             startMedia(next.url, next.subtitles, next.resumePositionMs, playWhenReady = true)
+            // Strictly after startMedia, never before it. Moving the journey on releases every
+            // source behind the one now playing — including the episode that was on screen a
+            // moment ago — and that episode's source is only safe to release once the player
+            // has been handed its replacement.
+            preloader?.advanceTo(next.itemId, startedFromPreload = startedFromPreloadedSource)
         }
         advancing = false
     }
@@ -3986,6 +4182,11 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
     private fun interruptForMaintenance() {
         player?.pause()
         progressJob?.cancel()
+        // The gateway has gone into maintenance, so the episode this was holding open a
+        // connection for is not going to be played from here. finish() releases it a moment
+        // later anyway; letting it go now means the connection is not held across the
+        // transition back to the launcher.
+        preloader?.reset()
         startActivity(
             Intent(this, MainActivity::class.java).addFlags(
                 Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP,
@@ -4969,6 +5170,7 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             outState.putString(STATE_MEDIA_SOURCE_ID, mediaSourceId)
             outState.putString(STATE_PLAY_SESSION_ID, playSessionId)
             outState.putString(STATE_PLAY_METHOD, playMethod)
+            outState.putString(STATE_JOURNEY_SOURCE, journeyEntryPoint.id)
             val savedSubtitles = if (savingPreview) previewResumeSubtitles else availableSubtitles
             if (savedSubtitles.isNotEmpty()) {
                 outState.putString(STATE_SUBTITLES, playerJson.encodeToString(savedSubtitles))
@@ -5128,6 +5330,11 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             )
         }
         playerView?.player = null
+        // Before the player, not after: the manager holds sources the player is still attached
+        // to, and releasing it second would leave preloading running against a released
+        // playback looper for as long as it took to notice.
+        preloader?.release()
+        preloader = null
         playback?.release()
         player = null
         super.onDestroy()
@@ -5312,6 +5519,13 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         private const val EXTRA_MEDIA_SOURCE_ID = "extra_media_source_id"
         private const val EXTRA_PLAY_SESSION_ID = "extra_play_session_id"
         private const val EXTRA_PLAY_METHOD = "extra_play_method"
+        /**
+         * The surface the viewer pressed Play on, carried in so the player's own journey
+         * steps can name it. There are two launch forms and both must set it — a field with
+         * no `putExtra`/`getExtra` pair takes its default silently, which is exactly how
+         * three "is this worth asking the backend" booleans once shipped switched off.
+         */
+        private const val EXTRA_JOURNEY_SOURCE = "extra_journey_source"
         private const val EXTRA_PLAYBACK_REQUEST = "extra_playback_request"
         private const val EXTRA_TRAILER_REQUEST = "extra_trailer_request"
         private const val EXTRA_TRAILER_UNAVAILABLE = "extra_trailer_unavailable"
@@ -5339,6 +5553,7 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         private const val STATE_RUNTIME_MS = "state_runtime_ms"
         private const val STATE_TRAILER_REQUEST = "state_trailer_request"
         private const val STATE_MAGIC_OFFERED = "state_magic_offered"
+        private const val STATE_JOURNEY_SOURCE = "state_journey_source"
         private const val PLAYER_PREFERENCES = "player_preferences"
         private const val SUBTITLE_SIZE_KEY = "subtitle_size"
         private const val PICTURE_MODE_KEY = "picture_mode"
@@ -5365,8 +5580,10 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             posterUrl: String? = null,
             backdropUrl: String? = null,
             requestStartedAtMs: Long = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime(),
+            journeySource: String = PlaybackEntryPoint.UNKNOWN.id,
         ): Intent = Intent(context, PlayerActivity::class.java).apply {
             putExtra(EXTRA_PLAYBACK_REQUEST, playerJson.encodeToString(request))
+            putExtra(EXTRA_JOURNEY_SOURCE, journeySource)
             putExtra(EXTRA_ITEM_ID, request.itemId)
             putExtra(EXTRA_TITLE, request.title)
             putExtra(EXTRA_RESUME_POSITION_MS, request.resumePositionMs)
@@ -5428,8 +5645,10 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
             playSessionId: String = "",
             playMethod: String = "DirectPlay",
             requestStartedAtMs: Long = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime(),
+            journeySource: String = PlaybackEntryPoint.UNKNOWN.id,
         ): Intent =
             Intent(context, PlayerActivity::class.java).apply {
+                putExtra(EXTRA_JOURNEY_SOURCE, journeySource)
                 itemId?.let { putExtra(EXTRA_ITEM_ID, it) }
                 putExtra(EXTRA_URL, url)
                 putExtra(EXTRA_TITLE, title)
@@ -5619,7 +5838,6 @@ class PlayerActivity : ComponentActivity() {
         private const val FRESH_STREAM_RETRY_ATTEMPT = 2
         private const val STABLE_PLAYBACK_RESET_MS = 30_000L
         private const val PROLONGED_REBUFFER_RECOVERY_MS = 12_000L
-        private const val PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG = "MembyPlayback"
 
         private fun playbackStateName(state: Int): String =
             when (state) {

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/PlayerEngine.kt

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package com.ponzischeme89.memby.ui.player
 
 import android.content.Context
+import android.util.Log
 import androidx.media3.common.AudioAttributes
 import androidx.media3.common.C
 import androidx.media3.common.util.UnstableApi
@@ -10,7 +11,9 @@ import androidx.media3.exoplayer.DefaultLoadControl
 import androidx.media3.exoplayer.DefaultRenderersFactory
 import androidx.media3.exoplayer.ExoPlayer
 import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.DefaultMediaSourceFactory
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.preload.DefaultPreloadManager
 import androidx.media3.exoplayer.trackselection.DefaultTrackSelector
+import androidx.media3.exoplayer.trackselection.TrackSelector
 import androidx.media3.extractor.DefaultExtractorsFactory
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.playback.AudioPassthroughPreference
 import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.remote.HttpStack
@@ -33,6 +36,30 @@ import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit
 @UnstableApi
 internal object PlayerEngine {
 
+    /**
+     * Two independent switches, so a television that misbehaves on one of these can have it
+     * taken away without losing the other or the upgrade underneath them both.
+     *
+     * [PRELOADING_ENABLED] off leaves the player exactly as it was before preloading existed:
+     * [Session.preloader] is unattached, every call on it is a no-op and `sourceFor` answers
+     * null, which is the same path a cold start already takes. [DYNAMIC_SCHEDULING_ENABLED] is
+     * Media3's own experimental scheduling, which wakes the playback loop when there is work
+     * rather than on a fixed cadence; it is the half most likely to interact badly with a
+     * vendor decoder, and it is the half that can be dropped with no behaviour change at all.
+     */
+    const val PRELOADING_ENABLED = true
+    const val DYNAMIC_SCHEDULING_ENABLED = true
+
+    /**
+     * The player and, when preloading is on, the manager that shares its components.
+     *
+     * They are returned together because they are built together and must not be built twice:
+     * [DefaultPreloadManager.Builder.buildExoPlayer] is what guarantees the preloaded source
+     * and the player agree about the renderers, the load control, the track selector, the
+     * bandwidth meter and — the one that would actually break — the playback looper.
+     */
+    class Session(val player: ExoPlayer, val preloader: NextEpisodePreloader)
+
     /**
      * [audio] decides whether a surround track is bitstreamed to the receiver or decoded
      * here into PCM. It defaults to automatic, which is also the right answer for the
@@ -41,43 +68,102 @@ internal object PlayerEngine {
     fun create(
         context: Context,
         audio: AudioPassthroughPreference = AudioPassthroughPreference.AUTOMATIC,
-    ): ExoPlayer = try {
-        buildPlayer(context, audio, DefaultRenderersFactory.EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_ON)
+    ): ExoPlayer = createSession(context, audio, preloading = false).player
+
+    /**
+     * The main player, with next-episode preloading attached where it can be.
+     *
+     * Falls back to a plain player on any failure to build the manager rather than failing the
+     * launch: preloading is a saving, and a television that cannot have it must still play.
+     */
+    fun createSession(
+        context: Context,
+        audio: AudioPassthroughPreference = AudioPassthroughPreference.AUTOMATIC,
+        preloading: Boolean = PRELOADING_ENABLED,
+    ): Session = try {
+        buildSession(context, audio, DefaultRenderersFactory.EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_ON, preloading)
     } catch (_: RuntimeException) {
         // Extension construction happens while ExoPlayer is built. A binary mismatch or
         // broken vendor audio implementation must degrade to Android's renderers rather
         // than make Memby close during its process-wide pre-roll warm-up.
-        buildPlayer(context, audio, DefaultRenderersFactory.EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_OFF)
+        buildSession(context, audio, DefaultRenderersFactory.EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_OFF, preloading)
     } catch (_: LinkageError) {
-        buildPlayer(context, audio, DefaultRenderersFactory.EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_OFF)
+        buildSession(context, audio, DefaultRenderersFactory.EXTENSION_RENDERER_MODE_OFF, preloading)
     }
 
-    private fun buildPlayer(
+    private fun buildSession(
         context: Context,
         audio: AudioPassthroughPreference,
         extensionRendererMode: Int,
-    ): ExoPlayer = ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
-        .setMediaSourceFactory(mediaSourceFactory(context))
-        .setRenderersFactory(
-            MembyRenderersFactory(context, audio)
-                // Some Android TV firmwares advertise a preferred hardware decoder which
-                // fails only after initialization. Let Media3 try another installed decoder
-                // before declaring the file unsupported.
-                .setEnableDecoderFallback(true)
-                // The bundled FFmpeg audio renderer sits after platform decoders. It is
-                // reached only when Android cannot decode a surround format itself; its
-                // output is PCM, so passthrough-capable tracks still bypass it untouched.
-                .setExtensionRendererMode(extensionRendererMode),
+        preloading: Boolean,
+    ): Session {
+        val preloader = NextEpisodePreloader()
+        val renderers = renderersFactory(context, audio, extensionRendererMode)
+        val sources = mediaSourceFactory(context)
+        // Everything the two share is set on the *preload manager's* builder, not on the
+        // ExoPlayer one: buildExoPlayer overwrites the media source factory, renderers, load
+        // control, bandwidth meter, track selector and playback looper on whatever builder it
+        // is handed. Setting them twice would be harmless but misleading — the ExoPlayer
+        // builder below carries only what the manager has no opinion about.
+        val player = if (preloading) {
+            runCatching {
+                val managerBuilder = DefaultPreloadManager.Builder(context, preloader.statusControl)
+                    .setMediaSourceFactory(sources)
+                    .setRenderersFactory(renderers)
+                    .setTrackSelectorFactory(TrackSelector.Factory { DefaultTrackSelector(it) })
+                    .setLoadControl(loadControl())
+                // Manager first, then the player from the same builder — the order Media3's
+                // own documentation uses, and the one that guarantees the shared playback
+                // looper exists before anything is handed to it.
+                preloader.attach(managerBuilder.build())
+                managerBuilder.buildExoPlayer(exoPlayerBuilder(context))
+            }.onFailure { error ->
+                // Named rather than swallowed. The fallback below is silent from the viewer's
+                // side — playback works exactly as it did — so without this line a television
+                // that never preloads anything is indistinguishable from one where the feature
+                // is working and simply never saves any time.
+                Log.w(PLAYBACK_LOG_TAG, "event=preload_unavailable reason=${error.javaClass.simpleName}", error)
+            }.getOrNull()
+        } else {
+            null
+        } ?: exoPlayerBuilder(context)
+            .setMediaSourceFactory(sources)
+            .setRenderersFactory(renderers)
+            .setTrackSelector(DefaultTrackSelector(context))
+            .setLoadControl(loadControl())
+            .build()
+
+        player.setAudioAttributes(
+            AudioAttributes.Builder().setContentType(C.AUDIO_CONTENT_TYPE_MOVIE).build(),
+            /* handleAudioFocus = */ false,
         )
-        .setTrackSelector(DefaultTrackSelector(context))
-        .setLoadControl(loadControl())
-        .build()
-        .apply {
-            setAudioAttributes(
-                AudioAttributes.Builder().setContentType(C.AUDIO_CONTENT_TYPE_MOVIE).build(),
-                /* handleAudioFocus = */ false,
-            )
-        }
+        return Session(player, preloader)
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Carries only what [DefaultPreloadManager.Builder.buildExoPlayer] does not overwrite.
+     *
+     * `enablePerStreamMediaProgression` belongs here and is deliberately absent: it arrived in
+     * Media3 1.11, and this app is pinned to the 1.9 line by the Jellyfin FFmpeg extension (see
+     * `app/build.gradle.kts`). Dynamic scheduling is the part of that same work which *is*
+     * available here, and it is behind its own switch.
+     */
+    private fun exoPlayerBuilder(context: Context) = ExoPlayer.Builder(context)
+        .experimentalSetDynamicSchedulingEnabled(DYNAMIC_SCHEDULING_ENABLED)
+
+    private fun renderersFactory(
+        context: Context,
+        audio: AudioPassthroughPreference,
+        extensionRendererMode: Int,
+    ) = MembyRenderersFactory(context, audio)
+        // Some Android TV firmwares advertise a preferred hardware decoder which
+        // fails only after initialization. Let Media3 try another installed decoder
+        // before declaring the file unsupported.
+        .setEnableDecoderFallback(true)
+        // The bundled FFmpeg audio renderer sits after platform decoders. It is
+        // reached only when Android cannot decode a surround format itself; its
+        // output is PCM, so passthrough-capable tracks still bypass it untouched.
+        .setExtensionRendererMode(extensionRendererMode)
 
     private fun mediaSourceFactory(context: Context) = DefaultMediaSourceFactory(
         // DefaultDataSource still handles the non-HTTP schemes (file:, asset:, content:);

app/src/main/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/PreloadPlan.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.ui.player
+
+/**
+ * What, if anything, the preload manager should load ahead for one registered episode.
+ *
+ * Kept apart from [NextEpisodePreloader] and free of every Media3 type so it can be tested as
+ * plain JUnit, the rule this repository applies to anything worth pinning. The decisions here
+ * are the only ones that bound what preloading costs, and they are the half that a unit test
+ * can actually check — whether ExoPlayer then honours the bound is a question for the device.
+ */
+internal data class PreloadTarget(
+    /** False means "leave this one alone": the manager holds it but loads nothing for it. */
+    val preload: Boolean,
+    val startPositionMs: Long = 0L,
+    val durationMs: Long = 0L,
+)
+
+/**
+ * Ranking data is a monotonically increasing position in *this playback journey* — the episode
+ * playing now, then the one after it, then the one after that — rather than an index into a
+ * playlist. Nothing here is a playlist: the player is handed one episode at a time and the next
+ * one is discovered while it plays, so a rank is only ever assigned when an answer arrives.
+ *
+ * Exactly one episode ahead is ever worth preloading. Two would double the cost for a title the
+ * viewer has two episodes' worth of time to walk away from, and this app ships to boxes where
+ * the memory matters more than the second hop does.
+ */
+internal fun preloadTargetFor(
+    rank: Int,
+    playingRank: Int,
+    startPositionMs: Long = 0L,
+    rangeMs: Long = PRELOAD_RANGE_MS,
+): PreloadTarget =
+    if (rank == playingRank + 1) {
+        PreloadTarget(
+            preload = true,
+            startPositionMs = startPositionMs.coerceAtLeast(0L),
+            durationMs = rangeMs.coerceAtLeast(0L),
+        )
+    } else {
+        PreloadTarget(preload = false)
+    }
+
+/**
+ * The ranks whose preloaded work is now dead and should be handed back.
+ *
+ * Strictly *behind* the playing rank, never the playing rank itself. That exclusion is the
+ * whole safety of eviction: on an advance the episode starting is the one the manager was
+ * preloading, and the player has been handed its `MediaSource` — removing it from the manager
+ * releases that source underneath a decoder that is using it. Everything before it is finished
+ * with and can go.
+ */
+internal fun obsoletePreloadRanks(ranks: Collection<Int>, playingRank: Int): List<Int> =
+    ranks.filter { it < playingRank }.sorted()
+
+/**
+ * How much of the next episode is pulled into memory ahead of time.
+ *
+ * Deliberately small. The expensive part of starting a stream here is not the bytes — it is
+ * opening the connection to Emby, reading the container header and then the seek index, which
+ * on a Matroska file commonly sits at the *end* of it (see [PlayerEngine]). Preparing the
+ * source and selecting its tracks pays all of that, and a specified range is what makes Media3
+ * go that far; the seconds of media on top are the margin that lets the first frame decode
+ * without a round trip. Five of them is comfortably more than [PlayerEngine]'s
+ * `BUFFER_FOR_PLAYBACK_MS` needs to start.
+ *
+ * The number is a memory ceiling before it is anything else: an episode direct-playing at 4K
+ * can run past 30 Mbps, so every second held ahead is a few megabytes on a box that has little
+ * to spare, for a title the viewer may well not go on to.
+ */
+internal const val PRELOAD_RANGE_MS = 5_000L

app/src/test/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/analytics/PlaybackEntryPointTest.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics
+
+import org.junit.Assert.assertEquals
+import org.junit.Test
+
+class PlaybackEntryPointTest {
+
+    /**
+     * The kind is asked first because it is the app's own classification and is the same on
+     * both paths. Every one of these is Continue Watching as far as a viewer is concerned:
+     * the gateway calls the row `continue`, a home cache written by an older build still
+     * carries `nextup`, and the direct path composes its own.
+     */
+    @Test
+    fun `every shape of the Continue Watching row is one entry point`() {
+        val expected = PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("continue", "CONTINUE"))
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("continue", null))
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("nextup", null))
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("continue-watching", null))
+        // A row id this build has never seen, with the kind still saying what it is.
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("home-row-482", "continue"))
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `the panes that are not rows name themselves`() {
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.HOME_HERO, playbackEntryPointFor("home-movie-hero"))
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.SEARCH, playbackEntryPointFor("search-results"))
+        assertEquals(
+            PlaybackEntryPoint.GENRE_BROWSER,
+            playbackEntryPointFor("genre-browser-results"),
+        )
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Recommendation shelves generate their ids — a seed id, a time budget, a taste cluster —
+     * so matching them one at a time would be a losing game and every household would end up
+     * with a long tail of entry points used once each.
+     */
+    @Test
+    fun `generated recommendation rows collapse to one entry point`() {
+        val expected = PlaybackEntryPoint.RECOMMENDATION
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("for-you:pick-up"))
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("because-you-watched:8821"))
+        assertEquals(expected, playbackEntryPointFor("highly-engaged"))
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a favourites row is a favourites row under either spelling`() {
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.FAVOURITES, playbackEntryPointFor("favorites"))
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.FAVOURITES, playbackEntryPointFor("saved-row", "FAVORITES"))
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Nothing to go on is the detail page, not unknown: a Play press with no row behind it
+     * came from a page the viewer reached some other way — the "More like this" trail, a
+     * schedule card's series page, a page restored after the player returned.
+     */
+    @Test
+    fun `a press with no row behind it is the detail page`() {
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.DETAIL_PAGE, playbackEntryPointFor(null, null))
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.DETAIL_PAGE, playbackEntryPointFor("  ", null))
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.DETAIL_PAGE, playbackEntryPointFor("some-other-row"))
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * The ids are the wire values, so they are pinned: renaming one would silently split a
+     * household's history in two, with the console reporting the old name as a feature that
+     * stopped being used on the day of the release.
+     */
+    @Test
+    fun `the wire values are stable and round-trip`() {
+        assertEquals("continue_watching", PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING.id)
+        assertEquals("magic_movie", PlaybackEntryPoint.MAGIC_MOVIE.id)
+        assertEquals("next_episode", PlaybackEntryPoint.NEXT_EPISODE.id)
+        for (entry in PlaybackEntryPoint.entries) {
+            assertEquals(entry, PlaybackEntryPoint.fromId(entry.id))
+        }
+        // A television talking to a build that knows an entry point this one does not still
+        // records the playback, rather than dropping it for want of a name.
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.UNKNOWN, PlaybackEntryPoint.fromId("party_mode"))
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.UNKNOWN, PlaybackEntryPoint.fromId(null))
+    }
+}

app/src/test/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/data/analytics/PlaybackJourneyTest.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,201 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.analytics
+
+import com.ponzischeme89.memby.data.model.GatewayJourneyEvent
+import org.junit.Assert.assertEquals
+import org.junit.Assert.assertNotEquals
+import org.junit.Assert.assertTrue
+import org.junit.Test
+
+/**
+ * The two entry points that recorded nothing, and the one that always did.
+ *
+ * Continue Watching and Magic produced journeys that read as somebody arriving in the player
+ * from nowhere — Magic because the press happens inside the player, which had no way to reach
+ * the collector at all, and Continue Watching because the only thing naming where a playback
+ * came from was the launcher's raw row id, which is the gateway's and is not a grouping
+ * anything downstream could use. These pin the sequence each one now records; the detail-page
+ * case is here because it is the path that already worked and must keep working.
+ */
+class PlaybackJourneyTest {
+
+    private fun collector() = JourneyAnalytics(
+        userId = "user-1",
+        now = { 1_700_000_000_000L },
+        journeyId = "journey-1",
+    ).also { it.drain() } // Discard the home_open the journey opens with.
+
+    private fun List<GatewayJourneyEvent>.step(category: String, action: String) =
+        singleOrNull { it.category == category && it.action == action }
+            ?: error("expected exactly one $category/$action in ${map { it.category + "/" + it.action }}")
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a resume from Continue Watching records the whole sequence`() {
+        val journey = collector()
+        val entryPoint = playbackEntryPointFor(rowId = "continue", rowKind = "CONTINUE")
+
+        PlaybackJourney.requested(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = entryPoint, screen = "home",
+            itemId = "ep-9", itemName = "The Pitt – 7:00 A.M.", itemType = "Episode",
+        )
+        PlaybackJourney.started(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = entryPoint,
+            itemId = "ep-9", itemName = "The Pitt – 7:00 A.M.", itemType = "Episode",
+            playSessionId = "sess-9",
+        )
+        val events = journey.drain()
+
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING, entryPoint)
+        val requested = events.step("playback", "request")
+        assertEquals("continue_watching", requested.source)
+        assertEquals("player", requested.target)
+        assertEquals("ep-9", requested.itemId)
+        assertEquals("Episode", requested.itemType)
+        assertEquals("The Pitt – 7:00 A.M.", requested.itemName)
+
+        val started = events.step("playback", "start")
+        assertEquals("continue_watching", started.source)
+        assertEquals("success", started.outcome)
+        assertEquals("sess-9", started.playSessionId)
+        assertEquals("user-1", started.userId)
+        assertEquals("2023-11-14T22:13:20Z", started.occurredAt)
+        // Ordered, and inside the one journey the app session opened with.
+        assertEquals(events.map { it.sequence }.sorted(), events.map { it.sequence })
+        assertTrue(events.all { it.journeyId == "journey-1" })
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a Magic pick records the recommendation and the playback it causes`() {
+        val journey = collector()
+
+        // What the player does around the press, in order.
+        PlaybackJourney.magicRequested(journey)
+        PlaybackJourney.magicSelected(
+            sink = journey, itemId = "film-3", itemName = "Boy", itemType = "Movie",
+        )
+        PlaybackJourney.finished(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING,
+            itemId = "film-1", itemName = "Whale Rider", itemType = "Movie",
+            playSessionId = "sess-1", completed = false,
+        )
+        PlaybackJourney.requested(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.MAGIC_MOVIE, screen = "player",
+            itemId = "film-3", itemName = "Boy", itemType = "Movie",
+        )
+        PlaybackJourney.started(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.MAGIC_MOVIE,
+            itemId = "film-3", itemName = "Boy", itemType = "Movie", playSessionId = "sess-3",
+        )
+        val events = journey.drain()
+
+        assertEquals("magic_movie", events.step("recommendations", "request").feature)
+        val selected = events.step("recommendations", "select")
+        assertEquals("Boy", selected.itemName)
+        assertEquals("success", selected.outcome)
+
+        // The film that was on ends, so a chain of Magic presses does not leave every title
+        // but the last one without an ending.
+        val finished = events.step("playback", "complete")
+        assertEquals("film-1", finished.itemId)
+        assertEquals("abandoned", finished.outcome)
+
+        val requested = events.step("playback", "request")
+        assertEquals("magic_movie", requested.source)
+        assertEquals("film-3", requested.itemId)
+        assertEquals("sess-3", events.step("playback", "start").playSessionId)
+
+        // One app session, not two: the console cuts a second *viewing* journey at the
+        // playback request, and it can only do that if both films are in one journey id.
+        assertEquals(setOf("journey-1"), events.map { it.journeyId }.toSet())
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `playing from a detail page still records a request and a start`() {
+        val journey = collector()
+        val entryPoint = playbackEntryPointFor(rowId = null, rowKind = null)
+
+        PlaybackJourney.requested(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = entryPoint, screen = "movies",
+            itemId = "film-7", itemName = "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", itemType = "Movie",
+        )
+        PlaybackJourney.started(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = entryPoint, itemId = "film-7",
+            itemName = "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", itemType = "Movie", playSessionId = "sess-7",
+        )
+        val events = journey.drain()
+
+        assertEquals(PlaybackEntryPoint.DETAIL_PAGE, entryPoint)
+        assertEquals("detail_page", events.step("playback", "request").source)
+        assertEquals("movies", events.step("playback", "request").screen)
+        assertEquals("success", events.step("playback", "start").outcome)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a failure is the same step wearing the other outcome`() {
+        val journey = collector()
+        PlaybackJourney.failed(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING, screen = "player",
+            itemId = "ep-9", itemName = "The Pitt", itemType = "Episode",
+        )
+        val started = journey.drain().step("playback", "start")
+
+        assertEquals("failure", started.outcome)
+        assertEquals("continue_watching", started.source)
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * A play session id is Emby's string, and the gateway drops a whole event whose fields it
+     * cannot read. Losing the identifier is a smaller loss than losing the step, so it is
+     * cleaned on the way in rather than sent as it came.
+     */
+    @Test
+    fun `an unreadable play session id costs the identifier and not the step`() {
+        val journey = collector()
+        PlaybackJourney.started(
+            sink = journey, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.MAGIC_MOVIE, itemId = "film-3",
+            itemName = "Boy", itemType = "Movie", playSessionId = "session for Boy (2010)",
+        )
+        val started = journey.drain().step("playback", "start")
+
+        assertEquals("sessionforBoy2010", started.playSessionId)
+        assertEquals("success", started.outcome)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `the player writes into the journey the launcher opened`() {
+        val launcher = JourneyTracker.begin("user-1")
+        launcher.drain()
+
+        // The launcher's own step, then one written from the player, which holds no reference
+        // to the collector and reaches it through the process-wide tracker.
+        PlaybackJourney.requested(
+            sink = launcher, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING, screen = "home",
+            itemId = "ep-9", itemName = "The Pitt", itemType = "Episode",
+        )
+        PlaybackJourney.started(
+            sink = JourneyTracker, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.CONTINUE_WATCHING,
+            itemId = "ep-9", itemName = "The Pitt", itemType = "Episode", playSessionId = "sess-9",
+        )
+        val events = launcher.drain()
+
+        assertEquals(2, events.size)
+        assertEquals(1, events.map { it.journeyId }.distinct().size)
+        assertEquals("sess-9", events.step("playback", "start").playSessionId)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a profile switch starts a journey of its own`() {
+        val first = JourneyTracker.begin("user-1")
+        val firstJourneyId = first.drain().first().journeyId
+        val second = JourneyTracker.begin("user-2")
+        PlaybackJourney.started(
+            sink = JourneyTracker, entryPoint = PlaybackEntryPoint.MAGIC_MOVIE, itemId = "film-3",
+            itemName = "Boy", itemType = "Movie", playSessionId = "sess-3",
+        )
+
+        // The person who signed out keeps nothing of what the next one did.
+        assertTrue(first.drain().isEmpty())
+        val events = second.drain()
+        assertEquals("user-2", events.step("playback", "start").userId)
+        assertNotEquals(firstJourneyId, events.first().journeyId)
+    }
+}

app/src/test/java/com/ponzischeme89/memby/ui/player/PreloadPlanTest.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+package com.ponzischeme89.memby.ui.player
+
+import org.junit.Assert.assertEquals
+import org.junit.Assert.assertFalse
+import org.junit.Assert.assertTrue
+import org.junit.Test
+
+/**
+ * Pins the two rules that decide what next-episode preloading costs.
+ *
+ * Neither can be checked on a device without watching an episode end, and both fail quietly:
+ * preloading one episode too many is invisible except as memory on a box that had none to
+ * spare, and evicting one episode too few is invisible except as a connection to Emby held
+ * open for something nobody is going to watch.
+ */
+class PreloadPlanTest {
+
+    @Test
+    fun `only the episode immediately after the one playing is preloaded`() {
+        assertTrue(preloadTargetFor(rank = 1, playingRank = 0).preload)
+        assertTrue(preloadTargetFor(rank = 5, playingRank = 4).preload)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `the episode playing is not preloaded`() {
+        // It is registered — it is what the player was handed — but there is nothing left to
+        // load ahead for it, and a range target here would have Media3 open a second reader.
+        assertFalse(preloadTargetFor(rank = 3, playingRank = 3).preload)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `nothing two or more episodes ahead is preloaded`() {
+        assertFalse(preloadTargetFor(rank = 2, playingRank = 0).preload)
+        assertFalse(preloadTargetFor(rank = 9, playingRank = 0).preload)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `nothing behind the episode playing is preloaded`() {
+        assertFalse(preloadTargetFor(rank = 0, playingRank = 1).preload)
+        assertFalse(preloadTargetFor(rank = 2, playingRank = 7).preload)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `the preloaded range is bounded and starts where the episode would resume`() {
+        val target = preloadTargetFor(rank = 1, playingRank = 0, startPositionMs = 42_000L)
+        assertEquals(42_000L, target.startPositionMs)
+        assertEquals(PRELOAD_RANGE_MS, target.durationMs)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a negative resume position is read as the start of the episode`() {
+        // Nothing should ever send one, but a negative start would be handed to Media3 as a
+        // seek before the beginning of the file.
+        assertEquals(0L, preloadTargetFor(rank = 1, playingRank = 0, startPositionMs = -5L).startPositionMs)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `eviction never includes the episode playing`() {
+        // The load-bearing one. On an advance the player has just been handed the source for
+        // the episode at playingRank; removing it from the manager releases that source out
+        // from under a decoder that is using it.
+        assertEquals(listOf(0, 1), obsoletePreloadRanks(listOf(0, 1, 2, 3), playingRank = 2))
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `eviction leaves the episode ahead alone`() {
+        assertEquals(emptyList<Int>(), obsoletePreloadRanks(listOf(2, 3), playingRank = 2))
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `eviction of an empty journey is empty`() {
+        assertEquals(emptyList<Int>(), obsoletePreloadRanks(emptyList(), playingRank = 0))
+    }
+}