MPMoviePlayerController ends immediately - iphone

Question

I'm trying to load a 25-second mp4 movie from my resource file, but when I play it, my MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification selector is called immediately with MPMovieFinishReasonPlaybackEnded. When I log my playback state it shows this:
MPMoviePlaybackStatePlaying
MPMoviePlaybackStatePaused
MPMoviePlaybackStateStopped
MovieFinishReasonPlaybackEnded
MPMoviePlaybackStatePlaying
MPMoviePlaybackStatePaused
even though I only call the play method once. I hope someone can help me.
-- Edited to show my code:
MPMoviePlayerController* player = [[[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:movieURL] autorelease];
if (player)
{
self.moviePlayerController = player;
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(moviePlayBackDidFinish:)
name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
object:player];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(moviePlayerPlaybackStateDidChange:)
name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackStateDidChangeNotification
object:player];
player.contentURL = movieURL;
player.movieSourceType = MPMovieSourceTypeFile;
player.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleNone;
player.fullscreen = YES;
switch (orientation) {
case UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft:
player.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(90.0f * (M_PI / 180.0f));
break;
case UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight:
player.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(-90.0f * (M_PI / 180.0f));
break;
default:
break;
}
player.view.frame = self.view.bounds;
[self.view addSubview:player.view];
}
[self.moviePlayerController play]

Answer 1

Is self.moviePlayerController a retained property? If not, the MPMoviePlayerController instance will be released very quickly (by the autorelease), and you might get similar behaviour.

Answer 2

Without having any more of your code to look at, I would suggest trying to play another file that you know can play. For example, grab the movie from this sample project: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/MoviePlayer_iPhone/Introduction/Intro.html and see if it plays.
I had something similar happen to me when I was trying to play a file that wasn't properly formatted.
Hmm... I don't see what's wrong. Are you sure that movieURL is correct? How do you get it?
For the record, here is how I present movies, although it wouldn't have quite the same effect as what you're doing.
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:movieFileName ofType:#"m4v"];
// If path is NULL (the resource does not exist) return to avoid crash
if (path == NULL)
return;
NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
MPMoviePlayerViewController *mpViewController = [[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:url];
mpViewController.moviePlayer.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleFullscreen;
mpViewController.moviePlayer.shouldAutoplay = YES;
// NOTE: This can sometimes crash the app in the Simulator. This is a known bug
// in xcode: http://stackoverflow.com/a/8317546/472344
[self presentMoviePlayerViewControllerAnimated:mpViewController];
[mpViewController release];