The documentation for AVPlayer states the following:
[The] player works equally well with local and remote media files
However, the documentation for AVAudioPlayer states the following:
Apple recommends that you use this class for audio playback unless you are playing audio captured from a network stream
For the work I am doing I need some of the capabilities of AVAudioPlayer, but all my audio is being streamed. The main thing I need from AVAudioPlayer that AVPlayer does not have is the "playing" property. It is difficult to build a player UI without that property, among others.
So what is the difference between AVPlayer and AVAudioPlayer that makes the latter unsuitable for network streaming? Is there a way to get some of the info from AVPlayer that AVAudioPlayer provides such as the "playing" property?
AVPlayer can play from AVPlayerItem using AVURLAsset with an iPod library url. The AVAudioPlayer cannot play from an iPod library url.
AVPlayer has no volume property and requires the use of the system volume setting which can be controlled only by the hardware switch or an MPVolumeView. But you can set the mix volume of AVAudioPlayer.
AVPlayer seems to report an incorrect currentTime after seeking. But AVAudioPlayer reports accurately.
7 years after...
From a point of view with dependence on Swift and CocoaPods, so my answer is comparing for iOS 8+ only.
1. iPod library support
identical support since iOS6
2. volume control
identical support:
You can set the mix volume of AVAudioPlayer directly.
You can set the mix volume of AVPlayer with an AVAudioMix on the AVPlayerItem
3. seeking control
both AVPlayer and AVAudioPlayer seem to report an incorrect currentTime after seeking:
for AVAudioPlayer, it is suggested to stop() the AVAudioPlayer before seeking
for AVPlayer, it is suggested to pass the option AVURLAssetPreferPreciseDurationAndTimingKey when initializing AVURLAssets. And rely on values given by observer block.
4. changing source
you need only one AVPlayer to play multiple files
you need multiple AVAudioPlayer to play multiple files
The AVPlayer actually has a similar property as the playing property of AVAudioPlayer.
Take a look at the rate property.
Related
This is my requirement. I have set of audio files(mp3, wav mostly). My app's interface will have a list of these sound names and a toggle ON/OFF switch for each of the sound item. On switching a sound ON it should start playing and vice versa. If more than one sound is ON then they should be played simultaneously. I can switch any sound ON/OFF while the sound is playing and it should switch off instantly.
What classes are best suggested for this behavior ? Do I need to mix the sounds etc or just instantiate multiple AVAudioPlayer instances ???
Please guide me in making an efficient app.
Thanks!
Use different instance of AVAudioPlayer for playing simultaneously.
Now maintain list of AVAudioPlayer instance into NSMutableArray depending on state ON/OFF. if state ON then play audio add AVAudioPlayer instance in array and if state OFF then stop audio remove AVAudioPlayer instance from array.
You can user openAL to do your task. Here is the link to get it https://github.com/kstenerud/ObjectAL-for-iPhone .
While streaming when encountering slow connectivity the AVPlayer may choose to play the lowest bit-rate in the HTTP Live Streaming playlist.
Is there a way to identify this transition?
I've tried observing the AVPlayerItem "tracks" property via KVO to see when it contains only audio but in most cases the tracks property isn't changed even though the player switched to the audio only stream.
I found out that the AVPlayerItem tracks property was not dependable on the simulator but somewhat more dependable on the actual device (with a ~5 seconds deviation).
Whenever the tracks property changes (you can find out when via KVO) you should traverse the tracks and see if there are any tracks with 'mediaType' set to AVMediaTypeVideo.
If there are none then you can conclude that you are in an audio only state.
I am developing an iPhone application in which I play videos using MPMoviePlayerController.
Sometimes, some of the videos don't play immediately after I call play on MPMoviePlayerController.
I have called prepareToPlay and in the notified method of MPMediaPlaybackIsPreparedToPlayDidChangeNotification, I am calling play on MPMoviePlayerController.
Could someone help in identifying the problem here?
Thanks,
Laxmilal
From my answer in a similar thread (reducing-the-initial-delay-when-playing-remote-video-content) - Note this fragment of the solution is valid for both, remote and local video content.
Use theMPMoviePlayerController.movieSourceTypeproperty when initializing your
player to cut down the media
recognition delay.
From the MPMoviePlayerController Class Reference:
The default value of this property is
MPMovieSourceTypeUnknown. This
property provides a clue to the
playback system as to how it should
download and buffer the movie content.
If you know the source type of the
movie, setting the value of this
property before playback begins can
improve the load times for the movie
content. If you do not set the source
type explicitly before playback, the
movie player controller must gather
this information, which might delay
playback.
It looks like both of them can play audio file.
What is the difference between AVAudioPlayer and MPMusicPlayerController?
Welcome any comment
Thanks
interdev
Read the class reference
MPMusicPlayerController: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/mediaplayer/reference/MPMusicPlayerController_ClassReference/Reference/Reference.html
You use an MPMusicPlayerController object, or music player, to play media items from the iPod library.
AVAudioPlayer: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/AVFoundation/Reference/AVAudioPlayerClassReference/Reference/Reference.html
An instance of the AVAudioPlayer class, called an audio player, provides playback of audio data from a file or memory.
Apple recommends that you use this class for audio playback unless you are playing audio captured from a network stream or require very low I/O latency.
HI all
i am playing a video(.mp4 format) without sound (i mean it doesn't have sound it is a mute video ) and in the background i am playing an audio file (.mp3 format) when i play my code through simulator it works fine as i want like when i tap on the video it is just mute but behind i am playing the audio so for user it seems that video has this sound but when i installed my code in device and play video than it doesn't work like so it play video but without sound than how can i play an audio and a video together in the above format ?
actually we are not just playing a single video or audio file it just comes from an array by choosing randomly and same for the audio file so we cann't do this i think so any other idea for it ??
Should we use another format for audio aur video for doing this thing ??
thanks for the help
Balraj verma
The problem is that the default Audio Session does not allow audio mixing.
In the Reference Library (Working with Movie Players) they say you should use a mixable category configuration for your audio session, for example the Ambient category. In the Application Delegate:
AVAudioSession *audioSession = [AVAudioSession sharedInstance];
NSError *setCategoryError = nil;
[audioSession setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient error: &setCategoryError];
Apple's documentation states that some audio formats are not suited to be played back simultaneously because of hardware restrictions. See Playing Multiple Sounds Simultaneously for more details.
A solution for you would be to use PCM encoded audio which should allow simultaneous playback.
I would like to add that I managed to play two mp3 audio files at the same time on 3G and 3GS iPhones. Which shouldn't be possible according to documentation but worked for me.
You can rather use the an instance of AvAudioPlayer in a new thread. Use the following link to see how does this work
http://www.mobileorchard.com/easy-audio-playback-with-avaudioplayer/
create an instance of MPMoviePlayer to start playback of videos.
Hope this will work.
You should combine the audio and video using some video editing software like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Using the software to "composite" audio and video together is not a good idea and adds additional overhead, synchronization issues, etc.
As far as I know, you can't play AVAudioPlayer and MPMoviePlayer at the same time.