How can I avoid this warning in xcode. Here is the code snippet:

    [player(AVPlayer object) addPeriodicTimeObserverForInterval:CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(0.1, 100)
    queue:nil usingBlock:^(CMTime time) {
        current+=1;
                                                 
        if(current==60)
        {
            min+=(current/60);
            current = 0;
        }
        
        [timerDisp(UILabel) setText:[NSString stringWithFormat:@&quot;%02d:%02d&quot;,min,current]];///warning occurs in this line
    }];

capturing self strongly in this block is likely to lead to a retain cycle

I have a short `mp4` video file that I&#39;ve added to my current Xcode6 Beta project.

**I want to play the video in my app.**

After hours searching, I can&#39;t find anything remotely helpful. Is there a way to accomplish this with Swift or do you have to use Objective-C? 
Can I get pointed in the right direction? I can&#39;t be the only one wondering this.

How to play a local video with Swift?

Is there a relatively easy way of looping a video in AVFoundation?  

I&#39;ve created my AVPlayer and AVPlayerLayer like so:

    avPlayer = [[AVPlayer playerWithURL:videoUrl] retain];
    avPlayerLayer = [[AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:avPlayer] retain];

    avPlayerLayer.frame = contentView.layer.bounds;
    [contentView.layer addSublayer: avPlayerLayer];

and then I play my video with:

    [avPlayer play];

The video plays fine but stops at the end.  With the MPMoviePlayerController all you have to do is set its `repeatMode` property to the right value.  There doesn&#39;t appear to be a similar property on AVPlayer.  There also doesn&#39;t seem to be a callback that will tell me when the movie has finished so I can seek to the beginning and play it again.

I&#39;m not using MPMoviePlayerController because it has some serious limitations.  I want to be able to play back multiple video streams at once.


Looping a video with AVFoundation AVPlayer?

Note, for the below question:  All assets are local on the device -- no network streaming is taking place.  The videos contain audio tracks.

I&#39;m working on an iOS application that requires playing video files with minimum delay to start the video clip in question.  Unfortunately we do not know what specific video clip is next until we actually need to start it up.  Specifically: When one video clip is playing, we will know what the next set of (roughly) 10 video clips are, but we don&#39;t know which one exactly, until it comes time to &#39;immediately&#39; play the next clip.

What I&#39;ve done to look at actual start delays is to call `addBoundaryTimeObserverForTimes` on the video player, with a time period of one millisecond to see when the video actually started to play, and I take the difference of that time stamp with the first place in the code that indicates which asset to start playing.

From what I&#39;ve seen thus-far, I have found that using the combination of `AVAsset` loading, and then creating an `AVPlayerItem` from that once it&#39;s ready, and then waiting for `AVPlayerStatusReadyToPlay` before I call play, tends to take between 1 and 3 seconds to start the clip.

I&#39;ve since switched to what I think is roughly equivalent: calling `[AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:]` and waiting for `AVPlayerItemStatusReadyToPlay` to play.  Roughly same performance.

One thing I&#39;m observing is that the first AVPlayer item load is slower than the rest.  Seems one idea is to pre-flight the AVPlayer with a short / empty asset before trying to play the first video might be of good general practice. [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/900461/slow-start-for-avaudioplayer-the-first-time-a-sound-is-played]

I&#39;d love to get the video start times down as much as possible, and have some ideas of things to experiment with, but would like some guidance from anyone that might be able to help.

**Update: idea 7, below, as-implemented yields switching times of around 500 ms.  This is an improvement, but it it&#39;d be nice to get this even faster.**

**Idea 1:  Use N AVPlayers (won&#39;t work)**

Using ~ 10 `AVPPlayer` objects and start-and-pause all ~ 10 clips, and once we know which one we really need, switch to, and un-pause the correct `AVPlayer`, and start all over again for the next cycle.

I don&#39;t think this works, because I&#39;ve read there is roughly a limit of 4 active `AVPlayer&#39;s` in iOS.  There was someone asking about this on StackOverflow here, and found out about the 4 AVPlayer limit: [fast-switching-between-videos-using-avfoundation](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7406300/fast-switching-between-videos-using-avfoundation)

**Idea 2: Use AVQueuePlayer (won&#39;t work)**

I don&#39;t believe that shoving 10 `AVPlayerItems` into an `AVQueuePlayer` would pre-load them all for seamless start.  `AVQueuePlayer` is a queue, and I think it really only makes the next video in the queue ready for immediate playback.  I don&#39;t know which one out of ~10 videos we do want to play back, until it&#39;s time to start that one. [ios-avplayer-video-preloading](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8354210/ios-avplayer-video-preloading)

**Idea 3: Load, Play, and retain `AVPlayerItems` in background (not 100% sure yet -- but not looking good)**

I&#39;m looking at if there is any benefit to load and play the first second of each video clip in the background (suppress video and audio output), and keep a reference to each `AVPlayerItem`, and when we know which item needs to be played for real, swap that one in, and swap the background AVPlayer with the active one.  Rinse and Repeat.

The theory would be that recently played `AVPlayer/AVPlayerItem`&#39;s may still hold some prepared resources which would make subsequent playback faster.  So far, I have not seen benefits from this, but I might not have the `AVPlayerLayer` setup correctly for the background.  I doubt this will really improve things from what I&#39;ve seen.

**Idea 4: Use a different file format -- maybe one that is faster to load?**  

I&#39;m currently using .m4v&#39;s (video-MPEG4) H.264 format.  H.264 has a lot of different codec options, so it&#39;s possible that some options are faster to seek than others.  I have found that using more advanced settings that make the file size smaller increase the seek time, but have not found any options that go the other way.

**Idea 5: Combination of lossless video format + AVQueuePlayer**

If there is a video format that is fast to load, but maybe where the file size is insane, one idea might be to pre-prepare the first 10 seconds of each video clip with a version that is bloated but faster to load, but back that up with an asset that is encoded in H.264.  Use an AVQueuePlayer, and add the first 10 seconds in the uncompressed file format, and follow that up with one that is in H.264 which gets up to 10 seconds of prepare/preload time.  So I&#39;d get &#39;the best&#39; of both worlds:  fast start times, but also benefits from a more compact format.

**Idea 6: Use a non-standard AVPlayer / write my own / use someone else&#39;s**

Given my needs, maybe I can&#39;t use AVPlayer, but have to resort to AVAssetReader, and decode the first few seconds (possibly write raw file to disk), and when it comes to playback, make use of the raw format to play it back fast.  Seems like a huge project to me, and if I go about it in a naive way, it&#39;s unclear / unlikely to even work better.  Each decoded and uncompressed video frame is 2.25 MB.  Naively speaking -- if we go with ~ 30 fps for the video, I&#39;d end up with ~60 MB/s read-from-disk requirement, which is probably impossible / pushing it.  Obviously we&#39;d have to do some level of image compression (perhaps native openGL/es compression formats via PVRTC)... but that&#39;s kind crazy.  Maybe there is a library out there that I can use?

**Idea 7: Combine everything into a single movie asset, and seekToTime**

One idea that might be easier than some of the above, is to combine everything into a single movie, and use seekToTime.  The thing is that we&#39;d be jumping all around the place.  Essentially random access into the movie.  I think this may actually work out okay: [avplayer-movie-playing-lag-in-ios5](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7882621/avplayer-movie-playing-lag-in-ios5)


Which approach do you think would be best?  So far, I&#39;ve not made that much progress in terms of reducing the lag.


How to reduce iOS AVPlayer start delay

Is there a way to know whether an `AVPlayer` playback has stalled or reached the end?

Check play state of AVPlayer

I&#39;am using AVPlayer for playing local video file (mp4) in Swift.
Does anyone know how to detect when video finish with playing?
Thanks

How to detect when AVPlayer video ends playing?

I&#39;ve looked around but I can&#39;t find a delegate protocol for the `AVPlayer class`. What gives?

I&#39;m using its subclass, `AVQueuePlayer`, to play an array of `AVPlayerItems`, each loaded from a URL. Is there any way I can call a method when a song finishes playing? Notably at the end of the queue?

And if that&#39;s not possible, is there any way I could call a method when the song STARTS playing, after buffering? I&#39;m trying to get a loading icon in there but it turns the icon off before the music actually begins, even though it&#39;s after the `[audioPlayer play]` action.

No AVPlayer Delegate? How to track when song finished playing? Objective C iPhone development

Is it possible get playing time and total play time in AVPlayer? If yes, how can I do this?

How do I get current playing time and total play time in AVPlayer?

I&#39;m trying to play an `MP3` file that is passed to an `UIView` from a previous `UIView` (stored in a `NSURL *fileURL` variable).

I&#39;m initializing an `AVPlayer` with:

    player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:fileURL];
    
    NSLog(@&quot;Player created:%d&quot;,player.status);

The `NSLog` prints `Player created:0,` which i figured means it is not ready to play yet.

When i click the play `UIButton`, the code i run is:

    -(IBAction)playButtonClicked
    {
    	NSLog(@&quot;Clicked Play. MP3:%@&quot;,[fileURL absoluteString]);
    	
    	if(([player status] == AVPlayerStatusReadyToPlay) &amp;&amp; !isPlaying)
    //	if(!isPlaying)
    	{
    		[player play];
    		NSLog(@&quot;Playing:%@ with %d&quot;,[fileURL absoluteString], player.status);
    		isPlaying = YES;
    	}
    	else if(isPlaying)
    	{
    
    		[player pause];
    		NSLog(@&quot;Pausing:%@&quot;,[fileURL absoluteString]);
    		isPlaying = NO;
    	}
    	else {
    		NSLog(@&quot;Error in player??&quot;);
    	}
    	
    }

When i run this, I always get `Error in player??` in the console.
If i however replace the `if` condition that checks if `AVPlayer` is ready to play, with a simple `if(!isPlaying)`..., then the music plays the SECOND TIME I click on the play `UIButton`.

The console log is:

    Clicked Play. MP3:http://www.nimh.nih.gov/audio/neurogenesis.mp3
    Playing:http://www.nimh.nih.gov/audio/neurogenesis.mp3 **with 0**

    Clicked Play. MP3:http://www.nimh.nih.gov/audio/neurogenesis.mp3
    Pausing:http://www.nimh.nih.gov/audio/neurogenesis.mp3

    Clicked Play. MP3:http://www.nimh.nih.gov/audio/neurogenesis.mp3
    2011-03-23 11:06:43.674 Podcasts[2050:207] Playing:http://www.nimh.nih.gov/audio/neurogenesis.mp3 **with 1**


I see that the SECOND TIME, the `player.status` seems to hold 1, which I&#39;m guessing is `AVPlayerReadyToPlay`.

What can I do to have the playing to work properly the first time i click the play `UIButton`?
(ie, how can i make sure the `AVPlayer` is not just created, but also ready to play?)

Knowing when AVPlayer object is ready to play

I am developing an iPhone application that needs to play videos. 
So far, I learned that there are at least two API&#39;s for achieving this; `AVPlayer` and `MPMoviePlayerController`.

What are the main differences?



AVPlayer and MPMoviePlayerController differences

I&#39;m working on an application where there is a collection view, and cells of the collection view can contain video. Right now I&#39;m displaying the video using `AVPlayer` and `AVPlayerLayer`. Unfortunately, the scrolling performance is terrible. It seems like `AVPlayer`, `AVPlayerItem`, and `AVPlayerLayer` do a lot of their work on the main thread. They are constantly taking out locks, waiting on semaphores, etc. which is blocking the main thread and causing severe frame drops.

Is there any way to tell `AVPlayer` to stop doing so many things on the main thread? So far nothing I&#39;ve tried has solved the problem.

I also tried building a simple video player using `AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer`. Using that I can make sure that everything happens off the main thread, and I can achieve ~60fps while scrolling and playing video. Unfortunately that method is much lower level, and it doesn&#39;t provide things like audio playback and time scrubbing out of the box. Is there any way to get similar performance with `AVPlayer`? I&#39;d much rather use that.

**Edit:**
After looking into this more, it doesn&#39;t look like it&#39;s possible to achieve good scrolling performance when using `AVPlayer`. Creating an `AVPlayer` and associating in with an `AVPlayerItem` instance kicks off a bunch of work which trampolines onto the main thread where it then waits on semaphores and tries to acquire a bunch of locks. The amount of time this stalls the main thread increases quite dramatically as the number of videos in the scrollview increases.

`AVPlayer` dealloc also seems to be a huge problem. Dealloc&#39;ing an `AVPlayer` also tries to synchronize a bunch of stuff. Again, this gets extremely bad as you create more players.

This is pretty depressing, and it makes `AVPlayer` almost unusable for what I&#39;m trying to do. Blocking the main thread like this is such an amateur thing to do so it&#39;s hard to believe Apple engineers would&#39;ve made this kind of mistake. Anyways, hopefully they can fix this soon.

Maintaining good scroll performance when using AVPlayer

I&#39;m using `AVPlayer` for a radio app using HTTP live streaming. Now I want to implement a level meter for that audio stream. The very best would a level meter showing the different frequencies, but a simple left / right solution would be a great starting point.

I found several examples using `AVAudioPlayer`. But I cannot find a solution for getting the required informations off `AVPlayer`.

Can someone think of a solution for my problem?

**EDIT** I want to create something like this (but nicer)

![nice levelmeter][1]

**EDIT II**

One suggestion was to use `MTAudioProcessingTap` to get the raw audio data. The examples I could find using the `[[[_player currentItem] asset] tracks]` array, which is, in my case, an empty array. Another suggestion was to use `[[_player currentItem] audioMix]` which is `null` for me.

**EDIT III**

After *years* already, there still not seems to be a solution. I did indeed make progress, so I&#39;m sharing it.

During setup, I&#39;m adding a key-value observer to the playerItem:

    [[[self player] currentItem] addObserver:self forKeyPath:@&quot;tracks&quot; options:kNilOptions context:NULL];
    
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    - (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)changecontext:(void *)context
        if ([keyPath isEqualToString:@&quot;tracks&quot;] &amp;&amp; [[object tracks] count] &gt; 0) {
            for (AVPlayerItemTrack *itemTrack in [object tracks]) {
                AVAssetTrack *track = [itemTrack assetTrack];
                
                if ([[track mediaType] isEqualToString:AVMediaTypeAudio]) {
                    [self addAudioProcessingTap:track];
                    break;
                }
            }
    }

    - (void)addAudioProcessingTap:(AVAssetTrack *)track {
        MTAudioProcessingTapRef tap;
        MTAudioProcessingTapCallbacks callbacks;
        callbacks.version = kMTAudioProcessingTapCallbacksVersion_0;
        callbacks.clientInfo = (__bridge void *)(self);
        callbacks.init = init;
        callbacks.prepare = prepare;
        callbacks.process = process;
        callbacks.unprepare = unprepare;
        callbacks.finalize = finalise;

        // more tap setup...
                
        AVMutableAudioMix *audioMix = [AVMutableAudioMix audioMix];
        
        AVMutableAudioMixInputParameters *inputParams = [AVMutableAudioMixInputParameters audioMixInputParametersWithTrack:audioTrack];
        [inputParams setAudioTapProcessor:tap];
        [audioMix setInputParameters:@[inputParams]];
        
        [[[self player] currentItem] setAudioMix:audioMix];
    }

So far so good. This all works, I could find the right track and setup the inputParams and audioMix etc.
But unfortunately the only callback, that gets called is the init callback. None of the others will fire at any point.

I tried different (kinds of) stream sources, one of them an official Apple HLS stream: http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/bipbopall.m3u8

  [1]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/zQEmK.gif

AVPlayer HLS live stream level meter (Display FFT Data)

I have a `UIView` which contains an `AVPlayer` to show a video.  When changing orientation, I need to change the size and location of the video.

I&#39;m not very experienced with resizing layers, so I&#39;m having problems making the video resize.

I start by creating the `AVPlayer` and adding its player to my videoHolderView&#39;s layer:

    NSURL *videoURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:videoPath];
    self.avPlayer = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:videoURL];
    
    AVPlayerLayer* playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.avPlayer];
    playerLayer.frame = videoHolderView.bounds;
    playerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspect;
    playerLayer.needsDisplayOnBoundsChange = YES;
    
    [videoHolderView.layer addSublayer:playerLayer];
    videoHolderView.layer.needsDisplayOnBoundsChange = YES;

Then, at a later point, I change the size and location of the videoHolderView&#39;s frame:

    [videoHolderView setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 768, 502)];

At this point, I need the avPlayer to resize to these same dimension.  This doesn&#39;t happen automatically - the avPlayer stays at it&#39;s small size within the videoHolderView.

If anyone can help, I&#39;d really appreciate any advice.

Thanks guys.

AVPlayer layer inside a view does not resize when UIView frame changes

I am using a subclass of `AVQueuePlayer` and when I add new `AVPlayerItem` with a streaming URL the app freezes for about a second or two. By freezing I mean that it doesn&#39;t respond to touches on the UI. Also, if I have a song playing already and then add another one to the queue, `AVQueuePlayer` automatically starts preloading the song while it is still streaming the first one. This makes the app not respond to touches on the UI for two seconds just like when adding the first song but the song is still playing. So that means `AVQueuePlayer` is doing something in main thread that is causing the apparent &quot;freeze&quot;.

I am using `insertItem:afterItem:` to add my `AVPlayerItem`. I tested and made sure that this was the method that was causing the delay. Maybe it could be something that `AVPlayerItem` does when it gets activated by `AVQueuePlayer` at the moment of adding it to the queue.

Must point out that I am using the Dropbox API v1 beta to get the streaming URL by using this method call:

    [[self restClient] loadStreamableURLForFile:metadata.path];

Then when I receive the stream URL I send it to `AVQueuePlayer` as follows:
    
    [self.player insertItem:[AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:url] afterItem:nil];

So my question is: How do I avoid this?
Should I do the preloading of an audio stream on my own without the help of `AVPlayer`? If so, how do I do this?

Thanks.

AVPlayer &quot;freezes&quot; the app at the start of buffering an audio stream

This question seems to be asked few times over last few years but none has answer for that. I am trying to process PCM data from HLS and I have to use AVPlayer. 

this post taps the local files
https://chritto.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/processing-avplayers-audio-with-mtaudioprocessingtap/

and this tap work with remote files but not with .m3u8 hls files. 
http://venodesigns.net/2014/01/08/recording-live-audio-streams-on-ios/

I can play first two tracks in the playlist but it doesn&#39;t start the needed callbacks to get the pcm, when the file is local or remote(not stream) I can still get the pcm but it is the hls is not working and I need HLS working

here is my code

    //avplayer tap try
    - (void)viewDidLoad {
        [super viewDidLoad];
        
        NSURL*testUrl= [NSURL URLWithString:@&quot;http://playlists.ihrhls.com/c5/1469/playlist.m3u8&quot;];
        
        AVPlayerItem *item = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:testUrl];
        self.player = [AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:item];
        
        // Watch the status property - when this is good to go, we can access the
        // underlying AVAssetTrack we need.
        [item addObserver:self forKeyPath:@&quot;status&quot; options:0 context:nil];
        
    }
    
    -(void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath
    ofObject:(id)object
    change:(NSDictionary *)change
    context:(void *)context
    {
        if(![keyPath isEqualToString:@&quot;status&quot;])
            return;
        
        AVPlayerItem *item = (AVPlayerItem *)object;
        if(item.status != AVPlayerItemStatusReadyToPlay)
            return;
        
        NSArray *tracks = [self.player.currentItem tracks];
        for(AVPlayerItemTrack *track in tracks) {
            if([track.assetTrack.mediaType isEqualToString:AVMediaTypeAudio]) {
                NSLog(@&quot;GOT DAT FUCKER&quot;);
                [self beginRecordingAudioFromTrack:track.assetTrack];
                [self.player play];
            }
        }
    }
    
    - (void)beginRecordingAudioFromTrack:(AVAssetTrack *)audioTrack
    {
        // Configure an MTAudioProcessingTap to handle things.
        MTAudioProcessingTapRef tap;
        MTAudioProcessingTapCallbacks callbacks;
        callbacks.version = kMTAudioProcessingTapCallbacksVersion_0;
        callbacks.clientInfo = (__bridge void *)(self);
        callbacks.init = init;
        callbacks.prepare = prepare;
        callbacks.process = process;
        callbacks.unprepare = unprepare;
        callbacks.finalize = finalize;
        
        OSStatus err = MTAudioProcessingTapCreate(
                                                  kCFAllocatorDefault,
                                                  &amp;callbacks,
                                                  kMTAudioProcessingTapCreationFlag_PostEffects,
                                                  &amp;tap
                                                  );
        
        if(err) {
            NSLog(@&quot;Unable to create the Audio Processing Tap %d&quot;, (int)err);
            return;
        }
        
        // Create an AudioMix and assign it to our currently playing &quot;item&quot;, which
        // is just the stream itself.
        AVMutableAudioMix *audioMix = [AVMutableAudioMix audioMix];
        AVMutableAudioMixInputParameters *inputParams = [AVMutableAudioMixInputParameters
                                                         audioMixInputParametersWithTrack:audioTrack];
        
        inputParams.audioTapProcessor = tap;
        audioMix.inputParameters = @[inputParams];
        self.player.currentItem.audioMix = audioMix;
    }
    
    void process(MTAudioProcessingTapRef tap, CMItemCount numberFrames,
                 MTAudioProcessingTapFlags flags, AudioBufferList *bufferListInOut,
                 CMItemCount *numberFramesOut, MTAudioProcessingTapFlags *flagsOut)
    {
        OSStatus err = MTAudioProcessingTapGetSourceAudio(tap, numberFrames, bufferListInOut,
                                                          flagsOut, NULL, numberFramesOut);
        if (err) NSLog(@&quot;Error from GetSourceAudio: %d&quot;, (int)err);
        
        NSLog(@&quot;Process&quot;);
    
    }
    
    void init(MTAudioProcessingTapRef tap, void *clientInfo, void **tapStorageOut)
    {
        NSLog(@&quot;Initialising the Audio Tap Processor&quot;);
        *tapStorageOut = clientInfo;
    }
    
    void finalize(MTAudioProcessingTapRef tap)
    {
        NSLog(@&quot;Finalizing the Audio Tap Processor&quot;);
    }
    
    void prepare(MTAudioProcessingTapRef tap, CMItemCount maxFrames, const AudioStreamBasicDescription *processingFormat)
    {
        NSLog(@&quot;Preparing the Audio Tap Processor&quot;);
    }
    
    void unprepare(MTAudioProcessingTapRef tap)
    {
        NSLog(@&quot;Unpreparing the Audio Tap Processor&quot;);
    }

`void init` is called `void prepare` and `process` has to be called as well. 

how can I do this? 



 


Getting PCM data of HLS from AVPlayer

I am trying to take a screenshot of an `AVPlayer` inside a bigger view. I want to build a testing framework only, so private `APIs` or any method is good, because the framework will not be included when releasing to the AppStore. 

I have tried with using 

 - `UIGetScreenImage()` : works well on simulator but not on device  
 - `snapshotviewafterscreenupdates`: it shows the view but I cannot create a `UIImage` from that.
 - `drawViewInHierarchy` and `renderInContext` will not work with `AVPlayer`   
 - I don&#39;t want to use `AVAssetGenerator` for getting image from video, it is hard to get a good coordinate or the video player as the subview of other views

Screenshot for AVPlayer and Video

Is there a way to access the URL from an AVPlayer object that has been initialized with a URL, as in:

    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString: @&quot;http://www.example.org/audio&quot;];
    self.player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL: url];


All Avplayer Solutions on Gang of Coders

Total of 17 Avplayer Solutions