Xcode Objective-C IOS - How to play two videos next to each other?

Question

I want to play two videos next to each other. When building Mac apps I did this by using a AVPlayer object. It is a view that you could place inside of your ViewController.

But when I tried to find the AVPlayer object in the object library in an IOS project it didn't show up. Only the AVKit Player View Controller did.

But the AVKit Player View Controller always plays videos full screen in a separate ViewController. I have searched the internet to find a way to display two videos next to each other but so far, I have not found anything useful.

So my question is: Is there any way that I can display two videos next to each other in an IOS application?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 10 '17 at 06:59

// ViewController.h

@import AVFoundation;
@import AVKit;
@property(nonatomic, readonly) AVPlayerItem *currentItem;

// ViewController.m

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
     i=0;
     [self videoPlay:[_passdataArr valueForKey:@"videoUrl"]];


}

-(void)videoPlay:(NSArray*)links
{
    NSLog(@"1");
    //create an AVPlayer
    _detailView.hidden=YES;
//    NSMutableArray *videolinksArr=[[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
//    videolinksArr=_videoLinkArr;
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",links]];

    // create a player view controller
    player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:url];
    AVPlayerViewController *controller = [[AVPlayerViewController alloc] init];

    [self addChildViewController:controller];
    [self.view addSubview:controller.view];

    controller.view.frame = self.bgimg.frame;
    controller.player = player;
    controller.showsPlaybackControls = YES;
    player.closedCaptionDisplayEnabled = NO;
    [player pause];
    [player play];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(AllVideoPlay:) name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification object:_currentItem];



}

-(void)AllVideoPlay:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{
    NSLog(@"2");

    NSArray *temp = _videoLinkArr[i];
    [self videoPlay:temp];
    i++;
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 08 '17 at 21:31

AVPlayer has been available on iOS since iOS 4. AVPlayer is a controller object that manages the playback of media assets with no UI elements directly tied to it, which is why it is not located in the IB object library. Rather you can build your own UI using AVPlayerLayer our use Apple's standard AVPlayerViewController, which includes default controls and standard playback behavior. The fastest way to get two videos playing side-by-side is to embed two instances of AVPlayerViewController inside another view controller. If you are using storyboards your code could be as short as:

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
}

- (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
    if ([segue.destinationViewController isKindOfClass:[AVPlayerViewController class]] && [segue.identifier isEqualToString:@"First Player"])
    {
        AVPlayerViewController *avPlayerViewController = (AVPlayerViewController *)segue.destinationViewController;
        avPlayerViewController.player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL: [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://devstreaming.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2016/703rx8zlfedjfom6l93/703/hls_vod_mvp.m3u8"]];
        [avPlayerViewController.player play];

    } else if ([segue.destinationViewController isKindOfClass:[AVPlayerViewController class]] && [segue.identifier isEqualToString:@"Second Player"])
    {
        AVPlayerViewController *avPlayerViewController = (AVPlayerViewController *)segue.destinationViewController;
        avPlayerViewController.player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL: [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://devstreaming.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2016/703rx8zlfedjfom6l93/704/hls_vod_mvp.m3u8"]];
        [avPlayerViewController.player play];
    }
}

@end

Or something similar. Where most of the work is done by two container views and embed segues to two AVPlayerViewControllers If you are looking to have custom video UI, you can look at Apple's PIP sample code where they show how you can use key value observing to a video player with custom UI.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 08 '17 at 21:46

But the AVKit Player View Controller always plays videos full screen in a separate ViewController

That's false. If you want the movie view to appear as a subview, make the AVPlayerViewController a child view controller. Start with the Container View Controller in the storyboard and make an Embed segue to an AVPlayerViewController.

Or, you could use AVPlayer without an AVPlayerViewController (in code).

Xcode Objective-C IOS - How to play two videos next to each other?

3 Answers3