Playback Check ins

When a client is ready to start media playback, there are three API methods that are used to keep the server up to date with the users activity, and record the users current playback position.

Playback Started

To let the server know playback started, make an HTTP POST call to /Sessions/Playing

The body of the request should be a JSON object with the following properties:

• QueueableMediaTypes (Array[string] - Audio,Video),
• CanSeek (boolean),
• ItemId (string) or Item {object},
• MediaSourceId (string),
• AudioStreamIndex (int, optional),
• SubtitleStreamIndex (int, optional),
• IsPaused (boolean),
• IsMuted (boolean),
• PositionTicks (long, optional),
• VolumeLevel (int, optional 0-100),
• PlayMethod (string) = ['Transcode' or 'DirectStream' or 'DirectPlay']

The content type of the request should be application/json.

Once this API call is made, the server dashboard will show the current item that the user is watching.

ItemId vs Item

If the user is playing a server library item, simply supply the ItemId property and omit Item. If the user is playing content that is not part of the server library, it can still be reported by supplying an object containing information describing the media.

Item Properties

• Name (string),
• MediaType (string - Audio, Video, Book, Game),
• RunTimeTicks (long, optional),
• PremiereDate (Date, optional),
• ProductionYear (int, optional),
• IndexNumber (int, optional),
• IndexNumberEnd (int, optional),
• ParentIndexNumber (int, optional),
• SeriesName (string),
• Album (string),
• Artists (Array[string])

Playback Progress

To report progress make an HTTP POST call to /Sessions/Playing/Progress

The contents of the request are identical to the playback start message.

Playback progress should be reported as often as is reasonable based on the device and connection to the server. The server dashboard will show a users current activity for several minutes after each progress update, so it's best to not let too much time pass between updates.

Playback Stopped

Once playback is stopped, make an HTTP POST call to /Sessions/Playing/Stopped

The contents of the request are identical to the playback start message.

Web Socket

For improved performance, these messages can also be sent to the server via the web socket connection. The structure of the messages are as follows:

• {MessageType: "ReportPlaybackStart", Data: {...}}
• {MessageType: "ReportPlaybackProgress", Data: {...}}
• {MessageType: "ReportPlaybackStopped", Data: {...}}

Where Data is an identical object to the HTTP request objects.

Manually marking watched/unwatched

An Item can be marked watched manually by sending a POST to

/Users/{UserId}/PlayedItems/{Id}

To mark an item unwatched, send a DELETE to

/Users/{UserId}/PlayedItems/{Id}

More Info

For more information on these three methods, consult the Swagger API documentation. The MediaBrowser.ApiClient repository also has examples of these methods.