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
Video
RSS for tagDive 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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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);
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?
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Video
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!
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 ?
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Video
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.
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Video
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?
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)
}
i use navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia to wake up camera, when i use constraint with '{video:{facingMode: {exact: 'user'}}}',occur a error"invalid constraint"
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!
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!
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.
After 18.2 IOS update, videos are not playing in Netflix, Amazon Prime and youtube
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Video
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
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
Can anyone explain how AVAssetExportSession works in iOS 18 and earlier versions?
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!
Hello,
I work on a video streaming app, and I have been working on this crash that we are seeing quite frequently (it is our #2 crasher at the moment). The stack trace indicates that an AVPictureInPictureController is being deallocated on a background thread. This leads to dangling AutoLayout constraints getting cleaned up, further resulting in an exception being thrown from the framework about the layout engine being accessed from a background thread.
We have internal analytics which indicate that the crash occurs after the user comes back to the app after putting it in the background, and switches playback from Picture in Picture mode back to the app's regular playback UI.
What has me puzzled here is that, as I'm sure you know, we have no control over the PIP UI. It is entirely system-provided, and there is none of our app's code in the stack trace. The whole process is even initiated by a KVO on an AVPlayerController property, and our app doesn't use that class directly anywhere. So how did we manage to cause this process to happen on a background thread?
Add to this the fact that the bug only appeared once we switched to compiling with Xcode 16, and is overwhelmingly present only on devices running iOS 18.
These factors lead me to believe that this is probably an OS issue. But before I go to file a feedback, I thought I would post here in case anyone has any ideas. I have attached an instance of the crash log to this post.
2025-01-08_17-32-45.7003_-0800-ea8d5c3323e0f1fc059cf83f6ec86377bdae1788.crash
I have AVPlayer with AVPictureInPictureController. Play video in app and picture In Picture works except one situation. Issue is: I pause video in application and during switch to background is not PiP activate. What do I wrong?
import UIKit
import AVKit
import AVFoundation
class ViewControllerSec: UIViewController,AVPictureInPictureControllerDelegate {
var pipPlayer: AVPlayer!
var avCanvas : UIView!
var pipCanvas: AVPlayerLayer?
var pipController: AVPictureInPictureController!
var mainViewControler : UIViewController!
var playerItem : AVPlayerItem!
var videoAvasset : AVAsset!
public func link(to parentViewController : UIViewController) {
mainViewControler = parentViewController
setup()
}
@objc func appWillResignActiveNotification(application: UIApplication) {
guard let pipController = pipController else {
print("PiP not supported")
return
}
print("PIP isSuspend: \(pipController.isPictureInPictureSuspended)")
print("PIP isPossible: \(pipController.isPictureInPicturePossible)"
if playerItem.status == .readyToPlay {
if pipPlayer.rate == 0 {
pipPlayer.play()
}
pipController.startPictureInPicture(). ---> Errorin log: Failed to start picture in picture.
} else {
print("Player not ready for PiP.")
}
}
private func setupAudio() {
do {
let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance()
try session.setCategory(.playback, mode: .moviePlayback)
try session.setActive(true)
} catch {
print("Audio session setup failed: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
@objc func playerItemDidFailToPlayToEnd(_ notification: Notification) {
if let error = notification.userInfo?[AVPlayerItemFailedToPlayToEndTimeErrorKey] as? Error {
print("Failed to play to end: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
}
func setup() {
setupAudio()
guard let videoURL = URL(string: "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.mp4/.m3u8") else { return }
videoAvasset = AVAsset(url: videoURL)
playerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: videoAvasset)
addPlayerObservers()
pipPlayer = AVPlayer(playerItem: playerItem)
avCanvas = UIView(frame: view.bounds)
pipCanvas = AVPlayerLayer(player: pipPlayer)
guard let pipCanvas else { return }
pipCanvas.frame = avCanvas.bounds
//pipCanvas.videoGravity = .resizeAspectFill
mainViewControler.view.addSubview(avCanvas)
avCanvas.layer.addSublayer(pipCanvas)
if AVPictureInPictureController.isPictureInPictureSupported() {
pipController = AVPictureInPictureController(playerLayer: pipCanvas)
pipController?.delegate = self
pipController?.canStartPictureInPictureAutomaticallyFromInline = true
}
let playButton = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 20, y: 50, width: 100, height: 50))
playButton.setTitle("Play", for: .normal)
playButton.backgroundColor = .blue
playButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(playTapped), for: .touchUpInside)
mainViewControler.view.addSubview(playButton)
let pauseButton = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 140, y: 50, width: 100, height: 50))
pauseButton.setTitle("Pause", for: .normal)
pauseButton.backgroundColor = .red
pauseButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(pauseTapped), for: .touchUpInside)
mainViewControler.view.addSubview(pauseButton)
let pipButton = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 260, y: 50, width: 150, height: 50))
pipButton.setTitle("Start PiP", for: .normal)
pipButton.backgroundColor = .green
pipButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(startPictureInPicture), for: .touchUpInside)
mainViewControler.view.addSubview(pipButton)
print("Error:\(String(describing: pipPlayer.error?.localizedDescription))")
NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: UIApplication.didEnterBackgroundNotification, object: nil, queue: nil) { [weak self] _ in
guard let self = self else { return }
if self.pipPlayer.rate == 0 {
self.pipPlayer.play()
pipController?.startPictureInPicture()
}
}
func addPlayerObservers() {
playerItem?.addObserver(self, forKeyPath: "status", options: [.old, .new], context: nil)
NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(playerDidFinishPlaying(_:)), name: .AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime, object: playerItem)
}
override func observeValue(forKeyPath keyPath: String?, of object: Any?, change: [NSKeyValueChangeKey : Any]?, context: UnsafeMutableRawPointer?) {
if keyPath == "status" {
if let statusNumber = change?[.newKey] as? NSNumber {
let status = AVPlayer.Status(rawValue: statusNumber.intValue)!
switch status {
case .readyToPlay:
print("Player is ready to play")
case .failed:
print("Player failed: \(String(describing: playerItem?.error))")
case .unknown:
print("Player status is unknown")
@unknown default:
fatalError()
}
}
}
}
@objc func playerDidFinishPlaying(_ notification: Notification) {
print("Video finished playing.")
}
deinit {
playerItem?.removeObserver(self, forKeyPath: "status")
NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
}
@objc func playTapped() {
pipPlayer.play()
}
@objc func pauseTapped() {
pipPlayer.pause()
}
@objc func startPictureInPicture() {
if let pipController = pipController, !pipController.isPictureInPictureActive {
pipController.startPictureInPicture()
}
}
@objc func stopPictureInPicture() {
if let pipController = pipController, pipController.isPictureInPictureActive {
pipController.stopPictureInPicture()
}
}
func pictureInPictureController(_ pictureInPictureController: AVPictureInPictureController, failedToStartPictureInPictureWithError error: Error) {
print("Failed to start PiP: \(error.localizedDescription)")
if let underlyingError = (error as NSError).userInfo[NSUnderlyingErrorKey] {
print("Underlying error: \(underlyingError)")
}
}
}
In my project, i want to add emoji to my video but emoji image becomes dark when add in hdr video, im trying to convert my emoji image to hdr format or create with hdr format but seems not work. I hope someone has experiences in this case could help me.