I am trying to compress video taken with the users camera from UIImagePickerController (Not an existing video but one on the fly) to upload to my server and take a small amount of time to do so, so a smaller size is ideal instead of 30-45 mb on newer quality cameras.
Here is the code to do a compression in swift for iOS 8 and it compresses wonderfully, i go from 35 mb down to 2.1 mb easily.
func convertVideo(inputUrl: NSURL, outputURL: NSURL)
{
//setup video writer
var videoAsset = AVURLAsset(URL: inputUrl, options: nil) as AVAsset
var videoTrack = videoAsset.tracksWithMediaType(AVMediaTypeVideo)[0] as AVAssetTrack
var videoSize = videoTrack.naturalSize
var videoWriterCompressionSettings = Dictionary(dictionaryLiteral:(AVVideoAverageBitRateKey,NSNumber(integer:960000)))
var videoWriterSettings = Dictionary(dictionaryLiteral:(AVVideoCodecKey,AVVideoCodecH264),
(AVVideoCompressionPropertiesKey,videoWriterCompressionSettings),
(AVVideoWidthKey,videoSize.width),
(AVVideoHeightKey,videoSize.height))
var videoWriterInput = AVAssetWriterInput(mediaType: AVMediaTypeVideo, outputSettings: videoWriterSettings)
videoWriterInput.expectsMediaDataInRealTime = true
videoWriterInput.transform = videoTrack.preferredTransform
var videoWriter = AVAssetWriter(URL: outputURL, fileType: AVFileTypeQuickTimeMovie, error: nil)
videoWriter.addInput(videoWriterInput)
var videoReaderSettings: [String:AnyObject] = [kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey:kCVPixelFormatType_420YpCbCr8BiPlanarVideoRange]
var videoReaderOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: videoTrack, outputSettings: videoReaderSettings)
var videoReader = AVAssetReader(asset: videoAsset, error: nil)
videoReader.addOutput(videoReaderOutput)
//setup audio writer
var audioWriterInput = AVAssetWriterInput(mediaType: AVMediaTypeAudio, outputSettings: nil)
audioWriterInput.expectsMediaDataInRealTime = false
videoWriter.addInput(audioWriterInput)
//setup audio reader
var audioTrack = videoAsset.tracksWithMediaType(AVMediaTypeAudio)[0] as AVAssetTrack
var audioReaderOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: audioTrack, outputSettings: nil) as AVAssetReaderOutput
var audioReader = AVAssetReader(asset: videoAsset, error: nil)
audioReader.addOutput(audioReaderOutput)
videoWriter.startWriting()
//start writing from video reader
videoReader.startReading()
videoWriter.startSessionAtSourceTime(kCMTimeZero)
//dispatch_queue_t processingQueue = dispatch_queue_create("processingQueue", nil)
var queue = dispatch_queue_create("processingQueue", nil)
videoWriterInput.requestMediaDataWhenReadyOnQueue(queue, usingBlock: { () -> Void in
println("Export starting")
while videoWriterInput.readyForMoreMediaData
{
var sampleBuffer:CMSampleBufferRef!
sampleBuffer = videoReaderOutput.copyNextSampleBuffer()
if (videoReader.status == AVAssetReaderStatus.Reading && sampleBuffer != nil)
{
videoWriterInput.appendSampleBuffer(sampleBuffer)
}
else
{
videoWriterInput.markAsFinished()
if videoReader.status == AVAssetReaderStatus.Completed
{
if audioReader.status == AVAssetReaderStatus.Reading || audioReader.status == AVAssetReaderStatus.Completed
{
}
else {
audioReader.startReading()
videoWriter.startSessionAtSourceTime(kCMTimeZero)
var queue2 = dispatch_queue_create("processingQueue2", nil)
audioWriterInput.requestMediaDataWhenReadyOnQueue(queue2, usingBlock: { () -> Void in
while audioWriterInput.readyForMoreMediaData
{
var sampleBuffer:CMSampleBufferRef!
sampleBuffer = audioReaderOutput.copyNextSampleBuffer()
println(sampleBuffer == nil)
if (audioReader.status == AVAssetReaderStatus.Reading && sampleBuffer != nil)
{
audioWriterInput.appendSampleBuffer(sampleBuffer)
}
else
{
audioWriterInput.markAsFinished()
if (audioReader.status == AVAssetReaderStatus.Completed)
{
videoWriter.finishWritingWithCompletionHandler({ () -> Void in
println("Finished writing video asset.")
self.videoUrl = outputURL
var data = NSData(contentsOfURL: outputURL)!
println("Byte Size After Compression: \(data.length / 1048576) mb")
println(videoAsset.playable)
//Networking().uploadVideo(data, fileName: "Test2")
self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
})
break
}
}
}
})
break
}
}
}// Second if
}//first while
})// first block
// return
}
Here is the code for my UIImagePickerController that calls the compress method
func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [NSObject : AnyObject])
{
// Extract the media type from selection
let type = info[UIImagePickerControllerMediaType] as String
if (type == kUTTypeMovie)
{
self.videoUrl = info[UIImagePickerControllerMediaURL] as? NSURL
var uploadUrl = NSURL.fileURLWithPath(NSTemporaryDirectory().stringByAppendingPathComponent("captured").stringByAppendingString(".mov"))
var data = NSData(contentsOfURL: self.videoUrl!)!
println("Size Before Compression: \(data.length / 1048576) mb")
self.convertVideo(self.videoUrl!, outputURL: uploadUrl!)
// Get the video from the info and set it appropriately.
/*self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: { () -> Void in
//self.next.enabled = true
})*/
}
}
As i mentioned above this works as far as file size reduction, but when i get the file back (it is still of type .mov) quicktime cannot play it. Quicktime does try to convert it initially but fails halfway through (1-2 seconds after opening the file.) I've even tested the video file in AVPlayerController but it doesn't give any info about the movie, its just a play button without ant loading and without any length just "--" where the time is usually in the player. IE a corrupt file that won't play.
Im sure it has something to do with the settings for writing the asset out wether it is the video writing or the audio writing I'm not sure at all. It could even be the reading of the asset that is causing it to be corrupt. I've tried changing the variables around and setting different keys for reading and writing but i haven't found the right combination and this sucks that i can compress but get a corrupt file out of it. I'm not sure at all and any help would be appreciated. Pleeeeeeeeease.