How to play video using MPMoviePlayerController?

Question

I am using the following code to play the video using the MPMoviePlayerController , but the video is not played. Can anyone tell me why ?

NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"/one.mp4"];

NSString *mediaPath = [[[NSBundle mainBundle]resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:filePath];

    MPMoviePlayerController *moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:mediaPath]];

    [[moviePlayer view] setFrame:[[self view] bounds]];
    [[self view] addSubview: [moviePlayer view]];


    moviePlayer.scalingMode = MPMovieScalingModeAspectFit;

    [moviePlayer play];

Answer 1

It's pretty weird, but it seems to work okay if you make your MPMoviePlayerController a property instead of a local variable. Seems something is going on behind the scenes. I'm thinking it's related to ARC. Are you using ARC?

It's also an issue that you've over-appended your path:

// You've already got the full path to the documents directory here.
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"/one.mp4"];
// Now you're appending the full path to the documents directory to your bundle path
NSString *mediaPath = [[[NSBundle mainBundle]resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:filePath];

When I run your code in the simulator, the path looks like this:

/Users/mlong/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/5.1/Applications/8CFB9B94-BD6A-442C-A525-573FE343506D/VidoePlayer.app/Users/mlong/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/5.1/Applications/8CFB9B94-BD6A-442C-A525-573FE343506D/Documents/one.mp4

It should just be this:

/Users/mlong/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/5.1/Applications/8CFB9B94-BD6A-442C-A525-573FE343506D/Documents/one.mp4

So just delete this line:

NSString *mediaPath = [[[NSBundle mainBundle]resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:filePath];

And then change your player instantiation to this:

_moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:filePath]];

[[_moviePlayer view] setFrame:[[self view] bounds]];
[[self view] addSubview: [_moviePlayer view]];

_moviePlayer.scalingMode = MPMovieScalingModeAspectFit;

[_moviePlayer play];

So you should add the MPMoviePlayerController as a property of your containing view controller.

Answer 2

All right, there is a big difference between the app bundle and the documents directory. I suggest you take a look at that.

First of all, Where is the video stored?

If your video is in the documents directory, don't append the documents directory path to the bundle path.

Just try with the filePath variable:

NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"/one.mp4"];

MPMoviePlayerController *moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:[NSURL filePath]];

However, if the file is in the app bundle (you added it to your project in XCode), you should use what is in jinx response.