AVPlayer layer inside a view does not resize when

Question

I have a UIView which contains an AVPlayer to show a video. When changing orientation, I need to change the size and location of the video.

I'm not very experienced with resizing layers, so I'm having problems making the video resize.

I start by creating the AVPlayer and adding its player to my videoHolderView's layer:

NSURL *videoURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:videoPath];
self.avPlayer = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:videoURL];

AVPlayerLayer* playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.avPlayer];
playerLayer.frame = videoHolderView.bounds;
playerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspect;
playerLayer.needsDisplayOnBoundsChange = YES;

[videoHolderView.layer addSublayer:playerLayer];
videoHolderView.layer.needsDisplayOnBoundsChange = YES;

Then, at a later point, I change the size and location of the videoHolderView's frame:

[videoHolderView setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 768, 502)];

At this point, I need the avPlayer to resize to these same dimension. This doesn't happen automatically - the avPlayer stays at it's small size within the videoHolderView.

If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate any advice.

Thanks guys.

Answer 1

You can change the layer's frame by overriding the -layoutSubviews method:

- (void)layoutSubviews
{
    [super layoutSubviews];
    self.playerLayer.frame = self.bounds;
}

Answer 2

Actually you shouldn't add AVPlayer's layer as a sublayer. Instead of that you should use the following method, in the subclass of view in which you want to display AVPlayer.

+ (Class)layerClass
{
     return [AVPlayerLayer class];
}

And use the following line to add(set) the player layer.

[(AVPlayerLayer *)self.layer setPlayer:self.avPlayer];

Hope it helps;-)

Answer 3

Converting @Suran's solution to Swift 3:

First, create a class inheriting UIView where you override only 1 variable:

import UIKit
import AVFoundation

class AVPlayerView: UIView {
    override class var layerClass: AnyClass {
        return AVPlayerLayer.self
    }
}

Then add a simple UIView using the interface builder and change its class to the one you just created: AVPlayerView

Then, make an outlet for that view. Call it avPlayerView

@IBOutlet weak var avPlayerView: AVPlayerView!

Now, you can use that view inside your viewcontroller and access its avlayer like this:

let avPlayer = AVPlayer(url: video)
let castedLayer = avPlayerView.layer as! AVPlayerLayer
castedLayer.player = avPlayer
avPlayer.play()

The layer will now follow the constraints just like a regular layer would do. No need to manually change bounds or sizes.

Answer 4

Any one searching for Xamarin Version as i was searching

don't add the AVPlayerLayer as sublayer but set the layer to Avplayer Layer

[Export("layerClass")]
public static Class LayerClass()
{
    return new Class(typeof(AVPlayerLayer));
}

The following line set the layer

(this.Layer as AVPlayerLayer).Player = _player;   // Acplayer

Answer 5

theDunc's answer did not work for me. I found a solution that is more simple: I just needed to adjust the frame of the AVPlayerLayer after changing it in the UIView:

avPlayerLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.width, self.view.frame.size.height);

In this blog is stated, that a View's frame also affect that of the layer in it.

When you change a view’s frame, it’s simply changing the layer’s frame.

For this case, it is not true.

Answer 6

In the end I solved this by re-adding the AVPlayerLayer to the UIView. I'm not sure why changing the frame removed the layer, but it did. Here's the final solution:

//amend the frame of the view
[videoHolderView setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 768, 502)];

//reset the layer's frame, and re-add it to the view
AVPlayerLayer* playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.avPlayer];
playerLayer.frame = videoHolderView.bounds;
[videoHolderView.layer addSublayer:playerLayer];