How do I play a video on tvOS for Apple TV?

Question

I started a blank tvOS project and created the following code:

- (void)viewDidLoad   {       [super viewDidLoad];        AVPlayer *avPlayer = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.myurl.com/myvideo.mp4"]];       AVPlayerLayer *avPlayerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:avPlayer];        avPlayerLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.width, self.view.frame.size.height);       [self.view.layer addSublayer:avPlayerLayer];        [avPlayer play];   }   

Nothing happens in the simulator though once the app loads. No video, nothing, just a blank translucent screen in my Apple TV simulator.

What's the proper way to play a sample video on app launch for an Apple TV app from an HTTP source?

Answer 1

I just pasted your code in my tvOS sample project, replaced the URL and ran it.

Nothing happened. Well, except for the fact that there's a log entry telling me that App Transport Security has blocked my URL request.

So I headed to the Info.plist, disabled ATS and upon next launch the video showed up just fine.

So if you're also using a non-HTTPS URL you're very likely running into this issue which is easily fixed by either using an HTTPS URL, disabling ATS completely or allowing specific non-HTTPs URLs in your Info.plist.

P.S.: I used this video for testing.

Answer 2

You could also use TVML and TVMLJS https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/documentation/TVMLJS/Reference/TVJSFrameworkReference/

Adhere to the 'TVApplicationControllerDelegate' protocol and add some properties.

AppDelegate.h

@interface AppDelegate : UIResponder <UIApplicationDelegate, TVApplicationControllerDelegate> 

...

@property (strong, nonatomic) TVApplicationController *appController; @property (strong, nonatomic) TVApplicationControllerContext *appControllerContext; 

Then add the following to 'didFinishLaunchingWithOptions'

AppDelegate.m

#define url @"http://localhost:8000/main.js"  - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions { // Override point for customization after application launch.         self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];      self.appControllerContext = [[TVApplicationControllerContext alloc] init];     NSURL *javascriptURL = [NSURL URLWithString:url];      self.appControllerContext.javaScriptApplicationURL= javascriptURL;      for (id key in launchOptions) {         id val=[launchOptions objectForKey:key];         NSLog(@"key=%@ value=%@", key, val);         if([val isKindOfClass:[NSString class]]) [self.appControllerContext.launchOptions objectForKey:val];          self.appController = [[TVApplicationController alloc] initWithContext:self.appControllerContext window:self.window delegate:self];     }      return YES; } 

create a folder and add the following files

• main.js
• index.tvml

main.js

function launchPlayer() {      var player = new Player();      var playlist = new Playlist();      var mediaItem = new MediaItem("video", "http://trailers.apple.com/movies/focus_features/9/9-clip_480p.mov");      player.playlist = playlist;      player.playlist.push(mediaItem);      player.present();    //player.play()  }  //in application.js   App.onLaunch = function(options) {      launchPlayer();   } 

careful with this url in the mediaItem

Set up a template of your choice.

index.tvml

<document>   <alertTemplate>       <title>…</title>       <description>…</description>       <button>           <text>…</text>       </button>       <text>…</text>   </alertTemplate> </document> 

open terminal and navigate to this folder then run

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000 

make sure the port here is the port in your ObjC url. The Apple examples use 9001.

See these tutorials for more info

http://jamesonquave.com/blog/developing-tvos-apps-for-apple-tv-with-swift/ http://jamesonquave.com/blog/developing-tvos-apps-for-apple-tv-part-2/

One issue I ran into was trying to play a local video file. It wouldn't work and there were constraint issues etc. It looks like you can't use python to play the videos so either try apache or link to a video on the web. This SO answer pointed me there.