AVPlayer slow loading

Question

I'm using AVPlayer to play mp3 files from a remote url. i'm having some issues with the initial loading time of the mp3, it is very slow (around 5-8 sec).
i compared it with other third parties players and its much slower, i also compared it with an android player and it is also much slower.
so the problem is not with the url itself nor with the network connection..

another interesting point is that after the AVPlayer start playing the mp3, seeking is very fast (almost immediately), does that mean the player download the entire mp3 file before start playing, and thats the reason it is so slow?
can i control this behaviour? if not, any other ideas what can be the reason?

Answer 1

AVPlayer has some new functionality (for iOS 10+), that You can try out. I used it myself and everything was working properly.

/*!
 @method        playImmediatelyAtRate:
 @abstract      Immediately plays the available media data at the specified rate.
 @discussion
 When the player's currentItem has a value of NO for playbackBufferEmpty, this method causes the value of rate to change to the specified rate, the value of timeControlStatus to change to AVPlayerTimeControlStatusPlaying, and the receiver to play the available media immediately, whether or not prior buffering of media data is sufficient to ensure smooth playback.
 If insufficient media data is buffered for playback to start (e.g. if the current item has a value of YES for playbackBufferEmpty), the receiver will act as if the buffer became empty during playback, except that no AVPlayerItemPlaybackStalledNotification will be posted.
 */
- (void)playImmediatelyAtRate:(float)rate NS_AVAILABLE(10_12, 10_0);

Additionally You can check out this variable (You can use KVO for it too):

   /*!
     @property      reasonForWaitingToPlay
     @abstract      Indicates the reason for waiting when the value of timeControlStatus is AVPlayerTimeControlStatusWaitingToPlayAtSpecifiedRate
     @discussion
        When the value of timeControlStatus is AVPlayerTimeControlStatusWaitingToPlayAtSpecifiedRate, this property describes why the player is currently waiting. It is nil otherwise.
        You can use the value of reasonForWaitingToPlay to show UI indicating the player's waiting state conditionally.
        This property is key value observable.
        Possible values are AVPlayerWaitingWithNoItemToPlayReason, AVPlayerWaitingWhileEvaluatingBufferingRateReason, and AVPlayerWaitingToMinimizeStallsReason.
    */

    @property (nonatomic, readonly, nullable) NSString *reasonForWaitingToPlay NS_AVAILABLE(10_12, 10_0);

Answer 2

For iOS 10.x or greater to reduce slow load time I set: avplayer.automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = false; and that seemed to fix it for me. This could have other consequences, but I haven't hit those yet.

I got the idea for it from: AVPlayer stops playing video after buffering