When using AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer to play uncompressed H.264 and H.265 video with B-frames more than 7, frame drops occur. The more B-frames there are, the more noticeable the frame drops become, for example 15 bframes. Use FFmpeg to transcode a video file with visible timestamps and frame numbers (x264 or x265 ): ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -vf "drawtext=fontsize=45:text=%{pts} %{n}:y=400" -c:v libx264 -x264-params "bframes=15:b-adapt=0" -crf 30 -y x264_bf15.mp4 ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -vf "drawtext=fontsize=45:text=%{pts} %{n}:y=400" -c:v libx265 -x265-params "bframes=15:b-adapt=0" -crf 30 -y x265_bf15.mp4 Use the demo player from this repository to reproduce the issue: https://github.com/msfrms/CustomPlayer frame drops can be observed. And following log can be found in devices console. mediaserverd <<<< IQ-CA >>>> piqca_gmstats_dump: FIQCA(0x1266f4000) recent frames: enqueued: 184, displayed: 138, dropped: 42, flushed: 0, evicted: 3, >16ms late: 2 PS. I was using iphone11 iOS14.6, to replay this issue. May I ask why frame drops occur in this case? Is there any configuration or API usage change that could help fix the frame drop issue? Many thanks!

Hello, Environment macOS 15.6.1 / Xcode 26 beta 7 / iOS 26 Beta 9 In a simple AVFoundation video-playback sample, I’m seeing different behavior between iOS 18 and iOS 26 regarding AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification. I’ve attached a minimal sample below. Please replace videoURL with a valid short video URL. Repro steps Tap “Play” to start playback and let the video finish. The AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification registered with NotificationCenter should fire, and you should see Play finished. in the console. Without relaunching, tap “Play” again. This is where the issue arises. Observed behavior On iOS 18 and earlier: The video does not play again (it does not restart from the beginning), but AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification is posted and Play finished. appears in the console. The same happens every time you press “Play”. On iOS 26: Pressing “Play” does not post AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification. The code path that prints Play finished. is never called (the callback enclosing that line is not invoked again). Building the same program with Xcode 16.4 and running it on an iOS 26 beta device shows the same phenomenon, which suggests there has been a behavioral change for AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification on iOS 26. I couldn’t find any mention of this in the release notes or API Reference. Because the semantics around AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification appear to differ, we’re forced to adjust our logic. If there is a way to achieve the iOS 18–style behavior on iOS 26, I would appreciate guidance. Alternatively, if this change is intentional, could you share the reasoning? Is iOS 26 the correct behavior from Apple’s perspective and iOS 18 (and earlier) behavior considered incorrect? Any official clarification would be extremely helpful. import UIKit import AVFoundation final class ViewController: UIViewController { private let videoURL = URL(string: "https://......mp4")! private var player: AVPlayer? private var playerItem: AVPlayerItem? private var playerLayer: AVPlayerLayer? private var observeForComplete: NSObjectProtocol? // UI private let playerContainerView = UIView() private let playButton = UIButton(type: .system) private let stopButton = UIButton(type: .system) private let replayButton = UIButton(type: .system) deinit { if let observeForComplete { NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(observeForComplete) } } override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() view.backgroundColor = .systemBackground setupUI() setupPlayer() } override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() { super.viewDidLayoutSubviews() playerLayer?.frame = playerContainerView.bounds } // MARK: - Setup private func setupUI() { playerContainerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false playerContainerView.backgroundColor = .black view.addSubview(playerContainerView) // Buttons playButton.setTitle("Play", for: .normal) stopButton.setTitle("Pause", for: .normal) replayButton.setTitle("RePlay", for: .normal) [playButton, stopButton, replayButton].forEach { $0.titleLabel?.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 16, weight: .semibold) $0.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false $0.contentEdgeInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 10, left: 16, bottom: 10, right: 16) } let stack = UIStackView(arrangedSubviews: [playButton, stopButton, replayButton]) stack.axis = .horizontal stack.spacing = 16 stack.alignment = .center stack.distribution = .equalCentering stack.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false view.addSubview(stack) NSLayoutConstraint.activate([ playerContainerView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.topAnchor, constant: 20), playerContainerView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor), playerContainerView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor), playerContainerView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 200), stack.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: playerContainerView.bottomAnchor, constant: 20), stack.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor) ]) // Action playButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapPlay), for: .touchUpInside) stopButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapStop), for: .touchUpInside) replayButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didTapReplayFromStart), for: .touchUpInside) } private func setupPlayer() { // AVURLAsset -> AVPlayerItem → AVPlayer let asset = AVURLAsset(url: videoURL) let item = AVPlayerItem(asset: asset) self.playerItem = item let player = AVPlayer(playerItem: item) player.automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = true self.player = player let layer = AVPlayerLayer(player: player) layer.videoGravity = .resizeAspect playerContainerView.layer.addSublayer(layer) layer.frame = playerContainerView.bounds self.playerLayer = layer // Notification if let observeForComplete { NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(observeForComplete) } if let playerItem { observeForComplete = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver( forName: AVPlayerItem.didPlayToEndTimeNotification, object: playerItem, queue: .main ) { [weak self] _ in guard self != nil else { return } Task { @MainActor in print("Play finished.") } } } } // MARK: - Actions @objc private func didTapPlay() { player?.play() } @objc private func didTapStop() { player?.pause() } // RePlay @objc private func didTapReplayFromStart() { player?.seek(to: .zero, toleranceBefore: .zero, toleranceAfter: .zero) { [weak self] _ in self?.player?.play() } } } I would greatly appreciate an official response from Apple engineering on whether this is an intentional change, a regression, or an API contract clarification, and what the recommended approach is going forward. Thank you.

(This only started happening as of Xcode 26.) I know macOS and watchOS don't support this property, but all other platforms do (did?) up until I upgraded Xcode. Now when I compile I get this: Value of type 'AVPlayerItem' has no member 'externalMetadata'

Hello everyone, I'm looking for a definitive clarification on how to completely disable all video stabilization, including the hardware OIS, using AVFoundation. The goal is to achieve a completely raw, unstabilized video feed, which is crucial when using external equipment like gimbals to avoid conflicting stabilization motions. My research points to using the AVCaptureConnection property preferredVideoStabilizationMode and setting it to AVCaptureVideoStabilizationMode.off. The documentation for the .off case states: A mode that doesn’t stabilize video capture. This description is slightly ambiguous. It's unclear whether this only affects software-level stabilization (EIS, EIS+OIS, etc) or if it guarantees the complete deactivation of the physical OIS module. For professional video applications, this is a critical distinction. So, I'd like to ask the community: Has anyone been able to definitively confirm that setting preferredVideoStabilizationMode to .off also disables the hardware OIS? Are there any known tests or documentation that prove this behavior? Is there an alternative or more direct method to ensure the OIS module is physically inactive during video capture? What is the community's best practice for ensuring absolutely no stabilization is applied to the video pipeline? Any insights or shared experiences on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi, trying to wrap my head around Xcode's FXPlug. I already sell Final Cut Pro titles for a company. These titles were built in motion. However, they want me to move them to an app and I'm looking for any help on how to accomplish this *What the app should do is: Allow users with an active subscription to our website the ability to access titles within FCPX and if they are not an active subscriber, for access to be denied.

When setting the now playing info for playing media in MPNowPlayingInfoCenter we can set artwork. But it seems the Apple API for creating the artwork is crashing on iOS 18 (FB15145734). On iOS 17 this gave the warning that the completion handler was not run on the main thread. I've tried to seek help here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78989543/swift-data-race-with-appkit-mpmediaitemartwork-function/78990231?noredirect=1#comment139277425_78990231 but it seems that it's not possible to override the completion handler and therefor it's up to Apple to fix this issue. .task { await MainActor.run { let nowPlayingInfoCenter = MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default() var nowPlayingInfo = [String: Any]() let image = NSImage(named: "image")! // warning: data race detected: @MainActor function at MPMediaItemArtwork/ContentView.swift:22 was not called on the main thread nowPlayingInfo[MPMediaItemPropertyArtwork] = MPMediaItemArtwork(boundsSize: image.size, requestHandler: { _ in // Not on main thread here! return image }) nowPlayingInfoCenter.nowPlayingInfo = nowPlayingInfo } } I'm wondering if there is an alternative method to set the now playing artwork?

I have an intra-oral video device that's supported by Apple's AVCaptureDevice. I can use the AV classes to connect to the device and get video. However, this device has a button that's used to acquire still images from the video stream. I can't use the IOUSBDeviceInterface to do an asynchronous read, because the Apple driver has the device opened exclusively. How do I go about receiving the button event in this scenario? I know which pipe to read, based on a bus analyzer when I run this on Windows, I just need to know how to access that pipe when the device is opened by another process.

Hello, First, some version and software details: Software: iOS 18.1 Hardware: iPhone 14 Pro Max and later Xcode: 16.0 Summary: AVAssetReader is not concatenating a video at the beginning of the output video. The output video should contain a scene of me introducing the content, followed by a blue screen with AVSpeechSynthesizer reading out a text that I pasted above the "Generate Video" button. Details: Now, let's talk about the app. Basically, I’m developing an app that generates a video with the following features: My app will create an output video that is split into an opening scene followed by a fully blue screen. The opening scene will be taken from a video I choose from my gallery. I will read the opening video using AVAssetReader as usual. After the opening scene, I will use the content of a text read by AVSpeechSynthesizer.write(). After the opening scene, the synthesized audio will start playing while the blue screen is displayed. All of this is already defined in the attached project. Each project file has a comment at the beginning introducing its content. How to test: Write something in the field above the "Generate Video" button. For example, type "Hello, world!" Then, press the "Library" button and select a video from the gallery, about 30 seconds long. That’s it. Press the "Generate Video" button. The result I’ve experienced is a crash or failure to generate the video. Practical example of what I want to achieve: Suppose I record a 30-second video where I say, "I’m going to tell you the story of Snow White." Then, I paste the "Snow White" story into the field above the "Generate Video" button. The output video should contain me saying, "I’m going to tell you the story of Snow White." After that, the AVSpeechSynthesizer will read the story I pasted, while displaying a blue screen. I look forward to a solution. Thank you very much! convertToCMSampleBuffer.swift convertToPixelBuffer.swift createInputs.swift createVideo.swift test.swift saveVideo.swift TestApp.swift editingVideo.swift sampleReaderProvider.swift misc.swift sampleProvider.swift

I am developing an iOS app that uses YOLOv8 for object detection and aims to detect objects at 60 FPS using the UltraWide camera. My goal is to process every frame within captureOutput and utilize the detected data (such as coordinates) for each one. I have a question regarding how background thread processing behaves in this scenario. Does the size of the YOLO model (n, s, m, etc.) or the weight of the operations inside captureOutput affect the number of frames that can be successfully processed? Specifically, I would like to know if all frames will be processed sequentially with a delay due to heavy processing in the background, or if some frames will be dropped and not processed at all. Any insights on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

xcode 16: VT_EXPORT void VT_EXPORT OSStatus VTPixelTransferSessionCreate( CM_NULLABLE CFAllocatorRef allocator, CM_RETURNS_RETAINED_PARAMETER CM_NULLABLE VTPixelTransferSessionRef * CM_NONNULL pixelTransferSessionOut) API_AVAILABLE(macos(10.8), ios(16.0), tvos(16.0), visionos(1.0)) API_UNAVAILABLE(watchos); xcode 15: VT_EXPORT OSStatus VTPixelTransferSessionCreate( CM_NULLABLE CFAllocatorRef allocator, CM_RETURNS_RETAINED_PARAMETER CM_NULLABLE VTPixelTransferSessionRef * CM_NONNULL pixelTransferSessionOut) VT_AVAILABLE_STARTING(10_8);

Hello, I will use AVFoundation's AVAssetWriter and AVPlayer for H.264 and H.265 encoding and decoding in my app. It will be used commercially, so I would like to know if I need to pay any licensing fees for H.264 and H.265 encoding and decoding.

I’m using AVFoundation in my iPhone application to encode a video in MP4 format with H.264, which can then be shared or exported. Do I need to pay a license for using the H.264 format to MPEG LA? Or are these fees already covered by Apple? I’ve read articles suggesting that Apple covers these fees when encoding is done through its native APIs (or via its dedicated encoding hardware components), but I haven’t found any explicit confirmation of this point in the various documentation or contracts... Did I miss something?

We have had the same video player in our app for at least 5 years with few issues but the iOS 18 updated has now resulted in video playback for our users who have downloaded the video for offline viewing is now played at 2x speed.

Hello, To create a test project, I want to understand how the video and audio settings would look for a destination video whose content comes from a source video. I obtained the output from the source video in the audio and video tracks as follows: let audioSettings = [ AVFormatIDKey: kAudioFormatLinearPCM, AVSampleRateKey: 44100, AVNumberOfChannelsKey: 2 ] as [String : Any] var audioOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: audioTrack!, outputSettings: audioSettings) // Video let videoSettings = [ kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey: kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA, kCVPixelBufferWidthKey: videoTrack!.naturalSize.width, kCVPixelBufferHeightKey: videoTrack!.naturalSize.height ] as [String: Any] var videoOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: videoTrack!, outputSettings: videoSettings) With this, I'm obtaining the CMSampleBuffer using AVAssetReader.copyNextSampleBuffer . How can I add it to the destination video? Should I use a while loop, considering I already have the AVAssetWriter set up? Something like this: while let buffer = videoOutput.copyNextSampleBuffer() { if let imgBuffer = CMSampleBufferGetImageBuffer(sampleBuffer) { let frame = imgBuffer as CVPixelBuffer let time = CMSampleBufferGetPresentationTimeStamp(sampleBuffer) adaptor.append(frame, withMediaTime: time) } } Lastly, regarding the destination video. How should the AVAssetWriterInput for audio and PixelBuffer of the destination video be set up? Provide an example, something like: let audioSettings = […] as [String: Any] Looking forward to your response.

Since iOS/iPadOs/tvOS 18 then we have run into a new problem with streaming of FairPlay encrypted video. On the affected streams then the audio plays perfectly but the video freezes for periods of a few seconds, so it will freeze for 5s or so, then be OK for a few seconds then freeze again. It is entirely reproducible when all the following are true the video streams were produced by a particular encoder (or particular settings, not sure on that) the video must be encrypted device is running some variety of iOS 18 (or iPadOS or tvOS) the device is an affected device Known devices are AppleTV 4K 2nd Gen iPad Pro 11" 1st and 2nd gen Devices known not to show the problem are all other AppleTV models iPhone 13 Pro and 16 Pro If we stream the same content, but unencrypted, then it plays perfectly, or if you play the encrypted stream on, say, tvOS 17. When the freezing occurs then we can see in the console logs repeating blocks of lines like the following default 18:08:46.578582+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDecodeFrameResponse(): Frame# 5771 DecodeFrame failed with error 0x0000013c default 18:08:46.578756+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDecodeFrameInternal(): failed - error: 316 default 18:08:46.579018+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDecodeFrameInternal(): avdDec - Frame# 5771, DecodeFrame failed with error: 0x13c default 18:08:46.579169+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDisplayCallback(): Asking fig to drop frame # 5771 with err -12909 - internalStatus: 315 also more relevant looking lines: default 18:17:39.122019+0000 kernel AppleAVD: avdOutbox0ISR(): FRM DONE (cid: 2.0, fno: 10970, codecT: 1) FAILED!! default 18:17:39.122155+0000 videocodecd AppleAVD: AppleAVDDisplayCallback(): Asking fig to drop frame # 10970 with err -12909 - internalStatus: 315 default 18:17:39.122221+0000 kernel AppleAVD: ## client[ 2.0] @ frm 10970, errStatus: 0x10 default 18:17:39.122338+0000 kernel AppleAVD: decodeFailIdentify(): VP error bit 4 has EP3B0 error default 18:17:39.122401+0000 kernel AppleAVD: processHWResponse(): clientID 2.0 frameNumber 10970 error 315, offsetIndex 10, isHwErr 1 So it would seem to me that one of the following must be happening: When these particular HLS files are encrypted then the data is being corrupted in some way that played back on iOS 17 and earlier but now won't on 18+, or There's a regression in iOS 18 that means that this particular format of video data is corrupted on decryption If anyone has seen similar behaviour, or has any ideas how to identify which of the two scenarios it is, please say. Unfortunately we don't have control of the servers so can't make changes there unless we can identify they are definitely the cause of the problem. Thanks, Simon.

My app currently captures video using an AVCaptureSession set with the AVCaptureSessionPreset1920x1080 preset. However, I'd like to update this behavior, such that video can be recorded at a range of different resolutions. There isn't a preset aligning to each desired resolution, so I thought I'd instead directly set the AVCaptureDeviceFormat. For any desired resolution, I would find the format that is closest without going under the desired resolution, and then crop it down as a post-processing step. However, what I've observed is that there can be a range of available formats for a device at each resolution, with various differing settings. Presumably there is logic within AVCaptureSession that selects a reasonable default based on all these different settings, but since I am applying the format directly, I think I don't have a way to make use of that default logic? And it is undocumented? Does this mean that the only way to select a format is to implement a comparison function that considers all different values of all different properties on AVCaptureDeviceFormat, and then sort the formats according to this comparator? If so, what if some new property is added to AVCaptureDeviceFormat in the future? The sort would not take this new property into account, and the function might select a format with some new undesired property. Are there any guarantees about what types for formats will be supported on a device? For example, can I take for granted that a '420v' format will exist at each resolution? If so I could filter the formats down only to those with this setting without risking filtering out all of the supported formats. I suspect I may be missing something obvious. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm trying to add metadata every second during video capture in the Swift sample App "AVMultiCamPiP". A simple string that changes every second with a write function triggered by a Timer. Can't get it to work, no matter how I arrange it, always ends up with the error "Cannot create a new metadata adaptor with an asset writer input that has already started writing". This is the setup section: // Add a metadata input let assetWriterMetaDataInput = AVAssetWriterInput(mediaType: .metadata, outputSettings: nil, sourceFormatHint: AVTimedMetadataGroup().copyFormatDescription()) assetWriterMetaDataInput.expectsMediaDataInRealTime = true assetWriter.add(assetWriterMetaDataInput) self.assetWriterMetaDataInput = assetWriterMetaDataInput This is the timed metadata creation which gets triggered every second: let newNoteMetadataItem = AVMutableMetadataItem() newNoteMetadataItem.value = "Some string" as (NSCopying & NSObjectProtocol)? let metadataItemGroup = AVTimedMetadataGroup.init(items: [newNoteMetadataItem], timeRange: CMTimeRangeMake( start: CMClockGetTime( CMClockGetHostTimeClock() ), duration: CMTime.invalid )) movieRecorder?.recordMetaData(meta: metadataItemGroup) This function is supposed to add the metadata to the track: func recordMetaData(meta: AVTimedMetadataGroup) { guard isRecording, let assetWriter = assetWriter, assetWriter.status == .writing, let input = assetWriterMetaDataInput, input.isReadyForMoreMediaData else { return } let metadataAdaptor = AVAssetWriterInputMetadataAdaptor(assetWriterInput: input) metadataAdaptor.append(meta) } I have an older code example in objc which works OK, but it uses "AVCaptureMetadataInput appendTimedMetadataGroup" and writes to an identifier called "quickTimeMetadataLocationNote". I'd like to do something similar in the above Swift code ... All suggestions are appreciated !

We have developed a simple video player Swift application for macOS, which uses the AVFoundation Framework. A special feature of this app is the ability to play the video backward with speeds like -0.25x, -0.5x, and -1.0x. MP4 video file is played directly from the local file system, video codec is h.264, and audio AAC. Video files are huge, like 10 GB, and a length of 3 hours. Playing video in reverse direction works well on a Macbook Air with M1 or M2 chip. When we run the same app with the same video on a Macbook Air with M3 chip the reverse playback is much worse. Playback might stutter badly, especially in the latter part of the video. This same behavior also happens in Apple's Quicktime video player when playing in the reverse direction with -1x speed. What's even more strange is that at one point of a time, the video playback is totally smooth, but again, after a while, the playback is stuttering. For example, this morning reverse playback worked 100 % smoothly, then I rebooted the Mac and tried again: the result was stuttering. After this the Mac stayed idle for several hours and I tried to reverse play video again: smooth performance! My conclusion: M3 playback works fine if the stars in the sky are aligned correctly. :-) So it's not only our app, but also Quicktime player is having exactly the same behavior. And only with the M3 chip. The same symptom appears with another similar M3 Mac, so it can't be a single fault. At the same time, open-source video player iina can reverse play the video well on the same Mac. All Macs have otherwise identical configuration: 16 GB RAM and macOS 15.1.1. Have you experienced the same problem? Any chance to solve this problem? I really hope that the M4 chip Mac is behaving better here.

I am creating an AVComposition and using it with an AVPlayer. The player works fine and doesn't consume much memory when I do not set playerItem.videoComposition. Here is the code that works without excessive memory usage: func configurePlayer(composition: AVMutableComposition, videoComposition: AVVideoComposition) { player.pause() player.replaceCurrentItem(with: nil) let playerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: composition) player.play() } However, when I add playerItem.videoComposition = videoComposition, as in the code below, the memory usage becomes excessive: func configurePlayer(composition: AVMutableComposition, videoComposition: AVVideoComposition) { player.pause() player.replaceCurrentItem(with: nil) let playerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: composition) playerItem.videoComposition = videoComposition player.play() } Issue Details: The memory usage seems to depend on the number of video tracks in the composition, rather than their duration. For instance, two videos of 30 minutes each consume less memory than 40 videos of just 2 seconds each. The excessive memory usage is showing up in the Other Processes section of Xcode's debug panel. For reference, 42 videos, each less than 30 seconds, are using around 1.4 GB of memory. I'm struggling to understand why adding videoComposition causes such high memory consumption, especially since it happens even when no layer instructions are applied. Any insights on how to address this would be greatly appreciated. Before After I initially thought the problem might be due to having too many layer instructions in the video composition, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Even when I set a videoComposition without any layer instructions, the memory consumption remains high.

Hello! I am building a video camera app and trying to implement Apple log for iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro. I am not seeing a lot of documentation on it and notice the amount of apps that use it on the app is rather limited. Less an 5 to be exact. Is Apple Log recording a feature that is accessible to developers? Here is a link to documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturecolorspace/applelog