Dive into the world of video on Apple platforms, exploring ways to integrate video functionalities within your iOS,iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS or watchOS app.

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fcpxml asset-clip "tcFormat" attribute question
I'm trying to create code to generate an fcpxml file so I can automate Final Cut Pro timeline (project) creation. Here's an xml element that FCP successfully imports (and successfully creates a project/timeline). <project name="2013-08-09 19_23_07 (id).mov"> <sequence format="r1"> <spine> <asset-clip ref="r2" offset="0s" name="2013-08-09 19_23_07 (id).mov" start="146173027/60000s" duration="871871/60000s" tcFormat="DF" audioRole="dialogue"></asset-clip> </spine> </sequence> </project> The xml element example above was generated by exporting a simple timeline with a single clip. The problem I'm having is the media asset has timecode that gives a start time in relation to the timecode. When I try to remove timecode attributes and change the start time to "0s" <asset-clip ref="r2" offset="0s" name="2013-08-09 19_23_07 (id).mov" start="0s" duration="871871/60000s" audioRole="dialogue"></asset-clip> FCP complains with the import error: 2013-08-09 19_23_07 (id).fcpxml Invalid edit with no respective media. (/fcpxml[1]/project[1]/sequence[1]/spine[1]/asset-clip[1]) I guess the question is, does AVAsset provide a way to get the timecode information and the timecode based start offset, or is there a way to tell FCP to use a default start time independent of timecode?
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384
Oct ’24
Accessing Events from Video Device
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.
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632
Oct ’24
Using image instead of circles in particle system
Hi all, I'm working on a particle system. Got it to work using drawn circles. Now I want to replace the circle with an image. Trying to do so in Draw section, but not sure if that's the right place. Any suggestions for coding to: connect the image from BIN to Xcode to replace particles with the image(s). Kindly ty
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335
Oct ’24
How to Load Stereoscopic Video Using AVFoundation?
I’m currently working on an iOS project that involves loading and playing stereoscopic/spatial videos. I’m using the AVFoundation framework, specifically AVURLAsset, but I’m having trouble determining how to correctly load and handle stereoscopic videos. I would like to know: Any guidance or code snippets would be greatly appreciated, I´m not understanding pretty well the apple developer videos... Thank you in advance for your help! Best, Lau
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553
Oct ’24
Why VTPixelTransferSession is mark available above iOS16 on XCode 16
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);
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600
Oct ’24
High / prohibitive memory usage for AVAssetExportSession
I am making an app that can two two videos, and then stitch them together on the screen (one video on top half and the other on bottom half). This is achieved with AVMutableComposition, and then I am using AVAssetExportSession to export a mp4 file out: guard let export = AVAssetExportSession(asset: composition, presetName: AVAssetExportPreset1920x1080) else { return } export.exportAsynchronously { .... When the two input videos are around 1GB each, starting the export session immediately increases memory usage by ~2GB, as if it moves the input files into memory immediately (my guess), and at some point my app is killed for using too much memory. Is there a way to avoid this upfront memory usage and/or avoid getting killed?
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352
Oct ’24
slow motion video playback "ramp-up" stage
In iOS, when I use AVPlayerViewController to play back a slow motion video, it has a "ramp-up" stage at the start and a "ramp-down" stage at the end, and the video plays at the normal speed (i.e. not slow motion) during these stages. My question is: are these non-slow-motion stages defined in the video file itself? (e.g. some kind of meta data?) Or, is it just a playback approach used by AVPlayerViewController ? Thanks!
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509
Oct ’24
Spatial video export fails with AVAssetExportSession
We captured a spatial video with iPhone 15 pro. When we try to export the video with AVAssetExportSession and AVAssetExportPresetMVHEVC960x960 it always go failed state and exportSession.error?.localizedDescription yield "Operation Stopped" error. Code implementation is straight forward .. other HEVC file works well.This problem occurred with only mv-hevc file. func exportSpatialVideo(videoFilePath: String, outputUrl: URL){ let url:URL? = URL(fileURLWithPath: videoFilePath) let asset: AVAsset = AVAsset(url:url!) print(asset.description) print(asset.tracks.first?.mediaType.rawValue) let preset = "AVAssetExportPresetMVHEVC960x960" let exportSession:AVAssetExportSession = AVAssetExportSession(asset: asset, presetName: preset)! exportSession.outputURL = outputUrl exportSession.shouldOptimizeForNetworkUse = true exportSession.outputFileType = AVFileType.mov exportSession.exportAsynchronously(completionHandler: { switch exportSession.status { case .unknown: print("Unknown Error") case .waiting: print( "waiting ... ") case .exporting: print( "exporting ...") case .completed: print( "completed.") case .failed: print("failed.\(String(describing: exportSession.error?.localizedDescription))") case .cancelled: } }) } is there any solution for it ?
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456
Oct ’24
H.264 License
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?
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721
Oct ’24
Managing Excessive Memory Usage with AVAssetReader and AVASSETWriter
Hello, I.m deaf-blind programmer. I'm experiencing memory issues in my app. Essentially, I'm writing a video. In this output video, I get content from two sources. The first source is an already recorded video of 18 seconds (just for testing). It will be shown at the beginning of the output video. The second source is an array with photos and another array with audio buffers from AVSpeechSynthesizer.write(). The photos will be added along with the audio buffers to the output video, right after adding the 18-second video. So, in the end, the output video should be: 18-second video + array of photos as video images and, for audio, the buffers from AVSpeechSynthesizer.write(). However, my app crashes as soon as I start the first process. I'm using AVAssetWriter to write the video and AVAssetReader to read the video. Below, I'll show the code where I get the CMSampleBuffer. I'd like an example of how to add the 18-second video to the beginning of the output video. It doesn't need to be a big piece of code. Here it is: // Variables var audioReaderBuffers = [CMSAMPLEBUFFER]() var videoReaderBuffers = [(frame: CVPixelBuffer, time: CMTIME)]() // Get CMSampleBuffer of a video asset if let videoURL = videoURL { let videoAsset = AVAsset(url: videoURL) Task { let videoAssetTrack = try await videoAsset.loadTracks(withMediaType: .video).first! let audioTrack = try await videoAsset.loadTracks(withMediaType: .audio).first! let reader = try AVAssetReader(asset: videoAsset) let videoSettings = [ kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey: kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA, kCVPixelBufferWidthKey: videoAssetTrack.naturalSize.width, kCVPixelBufferHeightKey: videoAssetTrack.naturalSize.height ] as [String: Any] let readerVideoOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: videoAssetTrack, outputSettings: videoSettings) let audioSettings = [ AVFormatIDKey: kAudioFormatLinearPCM, AVSampleRateKey: 44100, AVNumberOfChannelsKey: 2 ] as [String : Any] let readerAudioOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: audioTrack, outputSettings: audioSettings) reader.add(readerVideoOutput) reader.add(readerAudioOutput) reader.startReading() // Video CMSampleBuffer while let sampleBuffer = readerVideoOutput.copyNextSampleBuffer() { autoreleasepool { if let imgBuffer = CMSampleBufferGetImageBuffer(sampleBuffer) { let pixBuf = imgBuffer as CVPixelBuffer let pTime = CMSampleBufferGetPresentationTimeStamp(sampleBuffer) videoReaderBuffers.append((frame: pixBuf, time: pTime)) } } } if let videoURL = videoURL { let videoAsset = AVAsset(url: videoURL) Task { let videoAssetTrack = try await videoAsset.loadTracks(withMediaType: .video).first! let audioTrack = try await videoAsset.loadTracks(withMediaType: .audio).first! let reader = try AVAssetReader(asset: videoAsset) let videoSettings = [ kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey: kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA, kCVPixelBufferWidthKey: videoAssetTrack.naturalSize.width, kCVPixelBufferHeightKey: videoAssetTrack.naturalSize.height ] as [String: Any] let readerVideoOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: videoAssetTrack, outputSettings: videoSettings) let audioSettings = [ AVFormatIDKey: kAudioFormatLinearPCM, AVSampleRateKey: 44100, AVNumberOfChannelsKey: 2 ] as [String : Any] let readerAudioOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: audioTrack, outputSettings: audioSettings) reader.add(readerVideoOutput) reader.add(readerAudioOutput) reader.startReading() while let sampleBuffer = readerVideoOutput.copyNextSampleBuffer() { autoreleasepool { if let imgBuffer = CMSampleBufferGetImageBuffer(sampleBuffer) { let pixBuf = imgBuffer as CVPixelBuffer let pTime = CMSampleBufferGetPresentationTimeStamp(sampleBuffer) }
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523
Nov ’24
iPhone Video Upload Error - reason unknown
Hi everyone, I'm developing a customization tool in which our customer can upload a mp3 or mp4 file that will be scannable through our AR application. On desktop and Android, this is working perfectly. For some reason however, on iPhone we're unable to load most of the video files. I've checked the clips, and they are .mov/h.264 files which are supported by iPhone. We're currently not sure how we can fix this issue to allow customers that own an iPhone to upload clips to our website. Any tips in the right direction are more than welcome. thanks in advance!
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489
Dec ’24
How to implement Picture-in-Picture (PiP) in Flutter for iOS using LiveKit without a video URL?
I am building a video conferencing app using LiveKit in Flutter and want to implement Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode on iOS. My goal is to display a view showing the speaker's initials or avatar during PiP mode. I successfully implemented this functionality on Android but am struggling to achieve it on iOS. I am using a MethodChannel to communicate with the native iOS code. Here's the Flutter-side code: import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart'; import 'package:flutter/services.dart'; class PipController { static const _channel = MethodChannel('pip_channel'); static Future<void> startPiP() async { try { await _channel.invokeMethod('enterPiP'); } catch (e) { if (kDebugMode) { print("Error starting PiP: $e"); } } } static Future<void> stopPiP() async { try { await _channel.invokeMethod('exitPiP'); } catch (e) { if (kDebugMode) { print("Error stopping PiP: $e"); } } } } On the iOS side, I am using AVPictureInPictureController. Since it requires an AVPlayerLayer, I had to include a dummy video URL to initialize the AVPlayer. However, this results in the dummy video’s audio playing in the background, but no view is displayed in PiP mode. Here’s my iOS code: import Flutter import UIKit import AVKit @main @objc class AppDelegate: FlutterAppDelegate { var pipController: AVPictureInPictureController? var playerLayer: AVPlayerLayer? override func application( _ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]? ) -> Bool { let controller: FlutterViewController = window?.rootViewController as! FlutterViewController let pipChannel = FlutterMethodChannel(name: "pip_channel", binaryMessenger: controller.binaryMessenger) pipChannel.setMethodCallHandler { [weak self] (call: FlutterMethodCall, result: @escaping FlutterResult) in if call.method == "enterPiP" { self?.startPictureInPicture(result: result) } else if call.method == "exitPiP" { self?.stopPictureInPicture(result: result) } else { result(FlutterMethodNotImplemented) } } GeneratedPluginRegistrant.register(with: self) return super.application(application, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: launchOptions) } private func startPictureInPicture(result: @escaping FlutterResult) { guard AVPictureInPictureController.isPictureInPictureSupported() else { result(FlutterError(code: "UNSUPPORTED", message: "PiP is not supported on this device.", details: nil)) return } // Set up the AVPlayer let player = AVPlayer(url: URL(string: "http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4")!) let playerLayer = AVPlayerLayer(player: player) self.playerLayer = playerLayer // Create a dummy view let dummyView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 1, height: 1)) dummyView.isHidden = true window?.rootViewController?.view.addSubview(dummyView) dummyView.layer.addSublayer(playerLayer) playerLayer.frame = dummyView.bounds // Initialize PiP Controller pipController = AVPictureInPictureController(playerLayer: playerLayer) pipController?.delegate = self // Start playback and PiP player.play() pipController?.startPictureInPicture() print("Picture-in-Picture started") result(nil) } private func stopPictureInPicture(result: @escaping FlutterResult) { guard let pipController = pipController, pipController.isPictureInPictureActive else { result(FlutterError(code: "NOT_ACTIVE", message: "PiP is not currently active.", details: nil)) return } pipController.stopPictureInPicture() playerLayer = nil self.pipController = nil result(nil) } } extension AppDelegate: AVPictureInPictureControllerDelegate { func pictureInPictureControllerDidStartPictureInPicture(_ pictureInPictureController: AVPictureInPictureController) { print("PiP started") } func pictureInPictureControllerDidStopPictureInPicture(_ pictureInPictureController: AVPictureInPictureController) { print("PiP stopped") } } Questions: How can I implement PiP mode on iOS without using a video URL (or AVPlayerLayer)? Is there a way to display a custom UIView (like a speaker’s initials or an avatar) in PiP mode instead of requiring a video? Why does PiP not display any view, even though the dummy video URL is playing in the background? I am new to iOS development and would greatly appreciate any guidance or alternative approaches to achieve this functionality. Thank you!
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701
Dec ’24
Does tvOS Support the Multiview Feature?
I've seen the Multiview feature on tvOS that displays a small grid icon when available. However, I only see this functionality in VisionOS using the AVMultiviewManager. Does a different name refer to this feature on tvOS? Relevant Links: https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/12opy5f/handson_with_the_new_multiview_split_screen/ https://www.pocket-lint.com/how-to-use-multiview-apple-tv/#:~:text=You'll%20see%20a%20grid,running%20at%20the%20same%20time.
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544
Dec ’24
Is Apple Log open to developers for 3rd party apps?
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
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465
Jan ’25
AVAssetWriter append audio/video streams concurrently in Real time recording setup
I see in most of the old sample codes from Apple that when using AVAssetWriter to append audio, video, and metadata samples in a real time camera recording setup, calls to .append(sampleBuffer) are either synchronised using an NSLock or all the samples are sent to the asset writer on the same dispatch queue thereby preventing concurrent writes. However I can't find any documentation that calls to assetWriterInput.append(sampleBuffer) for different media samples such as Audio and Video should not be done concurrently. Is it not valid for these methods to be executed in parallel for instance? `videoSamplesAssetWriterInput.append(videoSampleBuffer)` from DispatchQueue 1 `audioSamplesAssetWriterInput.append(audioSampleBuffer)` from DispatchQueue 2
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612
Jan ’25
Exporting Higher Resolution Spatial Videos in Final Cut
How do we export a spatial video at a higher resolution than 2200 x 2200? For example, I want to export a video that I edited in a spatial timeline as 4096 x 4096 resolution with spatial metadata to output as an MV-HEVC file. I looked under both Final Cut and Compressor export settings, but couldn't find a way to do this. Thanks for your help!
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460
Jan ’25