Support variable speed / setPlaybackRate() in CastPlayer / Cast Extension

[duncancarroll]

Use case description

Exoplayer currently supports variable playback speed via Player.setPlaybackParameters(), however within CastPlayer this method is marked as unsupported. This is out of date as the current RemoteMediaClient API does support playback speed changes via setPlaybackRate() (docs)

Proposed solution

Suggest CastPlayer expose RemoteMediaClient.setPlaybackRate() via it's own setPlaybackRate() method and update the code comment currently seen in CastPlayer.setPlaybackParameters() to reflect the current state of the RemoteMediaClient API and point developers to the new methods.

Alternatives considered

The existing alternative is to call RemoteMediaClient directly, however there is no getter for this within CastPlayer, so it must be accessed via the clunky and verbose:
CastContext.getSharedInstance(context).sessionManager.currentCastSession.remoteMediaClient.setPlaybackRate()

[Samrobbo]

@AquilesCanta - This seems like your domain, can you have a look at this?

[makp9k]

Hello! Any plans to support it?

[marcbaechinger]

We are aware this could be done nicely with the Player API and it is on the list of features we want to add to CastPlayer. It's not something which is currently on a concrete roadmap I'm afraid.