How to play movie files with no file extension on iOS with MPMoviePlayerController or AVPlayer?

Question

I want to play a movie in iOS 4.3 on the iPad. I've successfully used MPMoviePlayerController and AVPlayer to load files from a remote URL when the filename has a file extension. However, when I use a CDN that doesn't return the filename (just an un-guessable random name), neither MPMoviePlayerController or AVPlayer seem to be able to cope.

Is there a way to tell either player that it really is a movie of type x and it should just get on playing it?

MPMoviePlayerController will return the following error from it's changed state notification:

{
    MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishReasonUserInfoKey = 1;
    error = "Error Domain=MediaPlayerErrorDomain Code=-12847 \"This movie format is not supported.\" UserInfo=0x5b60030 {NSLocalizedDescription=This movie format is not supported.}";
}

I know that file is a valid m4v file, as when I rename it all is fine.

Answer 1

File at tmp

NSString* _filePath

Create symlink

NSFileManager *filemgr = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSString *slink = [_filePath stringByAppendingPathExtension:@"m4v"];
if (![filemgr fileExistsAtPath:slink]) {
    NSError *error = nil;
    [filemgr createSymbolicLinkAtPath:[_filePath stringByAppendingPathExtension:@"m4v"] withDestinationPath: _filePath error: &error];
    if (error) {
        ...
    }
}
...

play video by slink

Answer 2

If the player can't guess the file format you need to check that the CDN sends the right mime type back. My guess is that your CDN can't guess the mimetype correctly nor can the player.

In most cases this is due to how the CDN presents the HTTP header. Check that the "Content-Type" header is set to a video format matching your content.

Answer 3

WebKit handle this by a Private AVURLAsset option: AVURLAssetOutOfBandMIMETypeKey, this option is used when you specify a MIME type in the HTML's video tag,

You can use this option like:

NSString * mimeType = @"video/mp4";

// or even with codecs
mimeType = @"video/mp4; codecs=\"avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2\"";

// create asset
AVURLAsset * asset = [[AVURLAsset alloc] initWithURL:url options:@{@"AVURLAssetOutOfBandMIMETypeKey": mimeType}];

// create AVPlayer with AVURLAsset
AVPlayer * player = [AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:[AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset:asset]];

Since it is a private key, you may want to obfuscate it if you plan to submit it to AppStore.

The WebKit source can be found here: https://opensource.apple.com/source/WebCore/WebCore-7604.1.38.1.6/platform/graphics/avfoundation/objc/MediaPlayerPrivateAVFoundationObjC.mm.auto.html