Add AVPlayerLayer to UIViewController

Question

Is it possible to display AVPlayerLayer inside a UIViewController which is later on displayed in UIView.

The sample code of what I'm trying to do:

...
UIView *parentView = reinterpret_cast<UIView *>(window->winId());

AVPlayer *_player;
AVURLAsset *_asset;
AVPlayerItem *_playerItem;
AVPlayerLayer *m_playerLayer;
_player = [[AVPlayer alloc] init];
NSURL *baseURL = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString: @"http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/bipbopall.m3u8"];
_asset = [AVURLAsset assetWithURL:baseURL];
_playerItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset: _asset];
[_player replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:_playerItem];
m_playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:_player];

// works with AVPlayerViewController
// AVPlayerViewController *playerController = [[AVPlayerViewController alloc] init];
// playerController.player = _player;

UIViewController *viewController = [[UIViewController alloc] init];
[viewController.view.layer addSublayer:m_playerLayer];

viewController.view.frame = CGRectMake(this->x(), this->y(), this->width(), this->height());
[parentView addSubview:viewController.view];

[_player play];
...

It works if I try to add the player to AVPlayerViewController and then display it, but I would want to use only AVPlayerLayer since I don't need video controls as I'll implement the functionality separately.

Answer 1

You can use AVPlayerViewController with

avController.showsPlaybackControls = false;

---

Or simply add the layer

_player = [[AVPlayer alloc] init];
NSURL *baseURL = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString: @"http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/bipbopall.m3u8"];
_asset = [AVURLAsset assetWithURL:baseURL];
_playerItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset: _asset];
[_player replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:_playerItem];
m_playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:_player];
m_playerLayer.frame = self.view.bounds;
[self.view.layer addSublayer:m_playerLayer ]; 
[_player play];