MPMoviePlayerController plays after canceling in 3.1.2 - iphone

Question

I have encountered a problem with the MPMoviePlayerController in 3.1.2.
If I cancel the player while it is still loading, the player closes. However, the video starts playing a few moments later in the background. The only ways to stop it are to play another video or close the app. This seems to work fine in 3.2+.
Here's what I'm doing:
- (void)loadMoviePlayer
{
// Register to receive a notification when the movie has finished playing.
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(moviePlayBackDidFinish:)
name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
object:nil];
if ([NSClassFromString(#"MPMoviePlayerController") instancesRespondToSelector:#selector(view)])
{
#if __IPHONE_OS_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED >= 30200
// running iOS 3.2 or better
MPMoviePlayerViewController *moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.mysite.com/myvideo.m3u8"]];
[moviePlayer.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
[moviePlayer.moviePlayer setControlStyle:MPMovieControlStyleFullscreen];
// [moviePlayer.moviePlayer setControlStyle:MPMovieControlStyleNone];
[self presentMoviePlayerViewControllerAnimated:moviePlayer];
[moviePlayer.moviePlayer prepareToPlay];
[moviePlayer.moviePlayer play];
#endif
}
else
{
MPMoviePlayerController *mMPPlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.mysite.com/myvideo.m3u8"]];
mMPPlayer.scalingMode=MPMovieScalingModeFill;
mMPPlayer.backgroundColor=[UIColor blackColor];
[mMPPlayer play];
}
}
- (void) moviePlayBackDidFinish:(NSNotification*)notification
{
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleBlackOpaque];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO];
// Remove observer
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
removeObserver:self
name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
object:nil];
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}
I added moviePlayBackDidFinish this morning. It gets called when I hit cancel, but dismissModalViewControllerAnimated doesn't seem to do anything. I also tried removeFromSuperView, but my player will not respond.
So, how can I make sure the player does not play after hitting "cancel"?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You may have come across an old bug in MPMoviePlayerController. Back in the days, we actually had to play an almost empty (black, silence) M4V after playing proper content to be sure the player does not attempt to continue playback in the background when stopping at certain stages. That bug manifests in audible sound but no picture of the aborted/stopped video.
There are however a few more things worth trying when stopping (assuming your instance of MPMoviePlayerController is called moviePlayer);
set the current playback position to the complete movie duration moviePlayer.currentPlaybackTime = moviePlayer.duration;
send another stop within your notification handler [moviePlayer stop];

Answer 2

In my case, I found that setting the following line would eventually stop the movie player from playing:
moviePlayer.contentURL = nil;
(with moviePlayer your instance of MPMoviePlayerController).