IOS AVPlayer won't play video

Question

I'm trying to play a video usingso I got some code from a tutorial but it won't work.

Here's the code I use :

- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    avAsset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:filePath]];
    avPlayerItem =[avPlayerItem initWithAsset:avAsset];
    avPlayer = [AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:avPlayerItem];
    avPlayerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:avPlayer];
    [avPlayerLayer setFrame:self.view.frame];
    [self.view.layer addSublayer:avPlayerLayer];
    [avPlayer seekToTime:kCMTimeZero];
    [avPlayer play];

}

I don't know what's wrong it doesn't give ny errors it just gives black screen. Thanks.

Answer 1

Thanks s1mon and matt for your help.

Here's the new code it might help someone:

- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    avAsset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:filePath]];
    avPlayerItem =[[AVPlayerItem alloc]initWithAsset:avAsset];
    avPlayer = [[AVPlayer alloc]initWithPlayerItem:avPlayerItem];
    avPlayerLayer =[AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:avPlayer];
    [avPlayerLayer setFrame:self.view.frame];
    [self.view.layer addSublayer:avPlayerLayer];
    //[avPlayerLayer setBackgroundColor:[[UIColor redColor]CGColor]];
    [avPlayer seekToTime:kCMTimeZero];
    [avPlayer play];

}

Thank you.

Answer 2

This might not be the actual problem, but this code is certainly wrong:

[NSURL URLWithString:filePath]

First of all, try not to start with a file path; start with a file URL. That way, there is no conversion needed. But if you must perform a conversion from a file path to a URL, use fileURLWithPath:isDirectory:. A file URL is a special kind of animal and you must ask for one specifically when you are converting from a path.

Answer 3

I think you forgot to create an instance of AVPlayerItem in this line:

avPlayerItem =[avPlayerItem initWithAsset:avAsset];

This just sends initWithAsset: to avPlayerItem (which is probably nil when this method is called). Try changing it to instantiate an new AVPlayerItem which you can then assign to avPlayerItem, like this:

avPlayerItem = [[AVPlayerItem alloc] initWithAsset:avAsset];

Answer 4

For those looking for a swift 2.0 version, here is what worked for me. Cheers.

import Foundation
import UIKit
import AVKit

class VideoViewController: AVPlayerViewController {

    override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
        self.setupVideoPlayerView()
    }
    private func setupVideoPlayerView()
    {
        let path = "HTTP_VIDEO_URL_HERE"
        let nsURL = NSURL(string: path)
        let avAsset = AVAsset(URL: nsURL!)
        let avPlayerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: avAsset)

        let avPlayer = AVPlayer(playerItem: avPlayerItem)
        let avPlayerLayer = AVPlayerLayer(layer: avPlayer)

        avPlayerLayer.frame = self.view.frame
        self.view.layer.addSublayer(avPlayerLayer)

        self.player = avPlayer

        self.player!.seekToTime(kCMTimeZero)
        self.player!.play()

    }

}