AVQueuePlayer: Loop last item in a queue (and eliminate hiccup) or loop last seconds of a video

Question

I am using AVQueuePlayer to play videos in sequence (although I have hiccups between plays). Now I'd like to:

1) Loop the last item in that sequence (not the full one).

2) In doing so, I'd also like to eliminate hiccups.

Below is my code to play the videos sequence. How could I achieve my 2 goals?

[super viewDidLoad];

NSString *secondVideoPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"vid_1" ofType:@"mov"];
NSString *firstVideoPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"vid_2" ofType:@"mov"];


AVPlayerItem *firstVideoItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:firstVideoPath]];
AVPlayerItem *secondVideoItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:secondVideoPath]];

queuePlayer = [AVQueuePlayer queuePlayerWithItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:firstVideoItem, secondVideoItem,nil]];

AVPlayerLayer *layer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:queuePlayer];
avPlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndNone;
layer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 1024, 768);

[self.view.layer addSublayer:layer];

[queuePlayer play];

Another method I'm thinking of would be the play 1 long video and loop the last few seconds of it. Perhaps I could also avoid hiccups that way. Would this approach be something achievable? If so, how to adapt the code below (that plays 1 video)?

[super viewDidLoad];
NSString *filepath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"vid_long" ofType:@"mov"];
NSURL *fileURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:filepath];
avPlayer = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:fileURL];

AVPlayerLayer *layer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:avPlayer];
avPlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndNone;
layer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 1024, 768);
[self.view.layer addSublayer: layer];

[avPlayer play];

Answer 1

Here is the solution to play the video in loop:-

queuePlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndNone; 
int k=0;
 [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                           selector:@selector(itemPlayEnded:)
                                               name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification
                                             object:[queuePlayer currentItem]];

- (void)itemPlayEnded:(NSNotification *)notification 
{
 k++;
 if(k<10-15 times)
 {
  AVPlayerItem *p = [notification object];
  [p seekToTime:kCMTimeZero];
 }
}

By Edited answer:- The above answer play the same files but this works for me. It play the last added file in loop:

- (void)itemPlayEnded1:(NSNotification *)notification
{
    NSString *secondVideoPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"video2" ofType:@"mp4"];
      k=0;
    AVPlayerItem *secondVideoItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:secondVideoPath]];
    // AVPlayerItem *p = [notification object];
    NSMutableArray *currentItemArray = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:secondVideoItem,nil];
    AVQueuePlayer* queuePlayer = [[AVQueuePlayer alloc] initWithItems:currentItemArray];
    [queuePlayer play];
    queuePlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndNone;

    AVPlayerLayer *layer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:queuePlayer];
    avPlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerItemStatusReadyToPlay;
    layer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 1024, 768);        
    [self.view.layer addSublayer:layer];       

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(itemPlayEnded:)
                                                 name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification
                                               object:[queuePlayer currentItem]];

}

Answer 2

best way I could find was this

observe for each playeritem in AVQueuePlayer.

queuePlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndNone;
for(AVPlayerItem *item in items) {
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self 
            selector:@selector(nextVideo:) 
            name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification 
            object:item ];
}

on each nextVideo insert the currentItem again to queue it for playback. make sure to seek to zero for each item. after advanceToNextItem the AVQueuePlayer will remove the currentItem from queue. we just reinsert.

-(void) nextVideo:(NSNotification*)notif {
    AVPlayerItem *currItem = notif.userInfo[@"object"];
    [currItem seekToTime:kCMTimeZero];
    [queuePlayer advanceToNextItem];
    [queuePlayer insertItem:currItem afterItem:nil];
}

Answer 3

The only way I've found to do this that is actually reliable is by adopting Apple's Using AVQueuePlayer to demonstrate loop playback sample. You need to add your own code to play an initial video and then loop a different one, but the method works better than any other I've tried.