AVPlayer replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem isn't working over AirPlay

Originator:ben
Number:rdar://14275234 Date Originated:26/06/2013
Status:Closed Resolved:
Product:iOS SDK Product Version:>= iOS5
Classification:Serious Bug Reproducible:Always
 
Summary:
While using AVPlayer over AirPlay the method replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem: doesn't do a thing.

Steps to Reproduce:
Set up an AVPlayer, create AVPlayerItem, play over AirPlay and invoke replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem: after some time.

Expected Results:
AVPlayer/AirPlay should playback the new item.

Actual Results:
Nothing.

Regression:
Our app runs on >= iOS 5.1, I was able to reproduce it with various versions up to 6.1.4.

Notes:


[UPDATE]
Works on iOS7 beta 2 and AppleTV beta

Comments

I ran into this issue as well and found a workaround on iOS 5, 6, and 7 (legacy mode). This happens because the AVPlayerItem status never changes to ReadyToPlay after calling replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem: while on AirPlay.

The following workaround results in ReadyToPlay status being reached:

1) Before calling replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem: set AVPlayer property allowsExternalPlayback (iOS 6+) or allowsAirPlayVideo (iOS 5) to NO. I do this in my setContentURL: method which eventually ends up calling replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:.

if ([self.player respondsToSelector:@selector(setAllowsExternalPlayback:)]) { self.player.allowsExternalPlayback = NO; // iOS 6 } else { self.player.allowsAirPlayVideo = NO; // iOS 5 }

2) After calling replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem: set them back to YES. I do this in the KVO callback for AVPlayer.currentItem.

if ([self.player respondsToSelector:@selector(setAllowsExternalPlayback:)]) { self.player.allowsExternalPlayback = YES; // iOS 6 } else { self.player.allowsAirPlayVideo = YES; // iOS 5 }

By jessewolff at Sept. 16, 2013, 10:52 p.m. (reply...)

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