Check play state of AVPlayer
Solution 1
To get notification for reaching the end of an item (via Apple):
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
addObserver:<self>
selector:@selector(<#The selector name#>)
name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification
object:<#A player item#>];
And to track playing you can:
"track changes in the position of the playhead in an AVPlayer object" by using addPeriodicTimeObserverForInterval:queue:usingBlock: or addBoundaryTimeObserverForTimes:queue:usingBlock:.
Example is from Apple:
// Assume a property: @property (retain) id playerObserver;
Float64 durationSeconds = CMTimeGetSeconds([<#An asset#> duration]);
CMTime firstThird = CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(durationSeconds/3.0, 1);
CMTime secondThird = CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(durationSeconds*2.0/3.0, 1);
NSArray *times = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSValue valueWithCMTime:firstThird], [NSValue valueWithCMTime:secondThird], nil];
self.playerObserver = [<#A player#> addBoundaryTimeObserverForTimes:times queue:NULL usingBlock:^{
// Passing NULL for the queue specifies the main queue.
NSString *timeDescription = (NSString *)CMTimeCopyDescription(NULL, [self.player currentTime]);
NSLog(@"Passed a boundary at %@", timeDescription);
[timeDescription release];
}];
Solution 2
You can tell it's playing using:
AVPlayer *player = ...
if ((player.rate != 0) && (player.error == nil)) {
// player is playing
}
Swift 3 extension:
extension AVPlayer {
var isPlaying: Bool {
return rate != 0 && error == nil
}
}
Solution 3
In iOS10, there's a built in property for this now: timeControlStatus
For example, this function plays or pauses the avPlayer based on it's status and updates the play/pause button appropriately.
@IBAction func btnPlayPauseTap(_ sender: Any) {
if aPlayer.timeControlStatus == .playing {
aPlayer.pause()
btnPlay.setImage(UIImage(named: "control-play"), for: .normal)
} else if aPlayer.timeControlStatus == .paused {
aPlayer.play()
btnPlay.setImage(UIImage(named: "control-pause"), for: .normal)
}
}
As for your second question, to know if the avPlayer reached the end, the easiest thing to do would be to set up a notification.
NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(self.didPlayToEnd), name: .AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime, object: nil)
When it gets to the end, for example, you can have it rewind to the beginning of the video and reset the Pause button to Play.
@objc func didPlayToEnd() {
aPlayer.seek(to: CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(0, 1))
btnPlay.setImage(UIImage(named: "control-play"), for: .normal)
}
These examples are useful if you're creating your own controls, but if you use a AVPlayerViewController, then the controls come built in.
Solution 4
rate
is NOT the way to check whether a video is playing (it could stalled). From documentation of rate
:
Indicates the desired rate of playback; 0.0 means "paused", 1.0 indicates a desire to play at the natural rate of the current item.
Key words "desire to play" - a rate of 1.0
does not mean the video is playing.
The solution since iOS 10.0 is to use AVPlayerTimeControlStatus
which can be observed on AVPlayer
timeControlStatus
property.
The solution prior to iOS 10.0 (9.0, 8.0 etc.) is to roll your own solution. A rate of 0.0
means that the video is paused. When rate != 0.0
it means that the video is either playing or is stalled.
You can find out the difference by observing player time via: func addPeriodicTimeObserver(forInterval interval: CMTime, queue: DispatchQueue?, using block: @escaping (CMTime) -> Void) -> Any
The block returns the current player time in CMTime
, so a comparison of lastTime
(the time that was last received from the block) and currentTime
(the time that the block just reported) will tell whether the player is playing or is stalled. For example, if lastTime == currentTime
and rate != 0.0
, then the player has stalled.
As noted by others, figuring out whether playback has finished is indicated by AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification
.
Solution 5
A more reliable alternative to NSNotification
is to add yourself as observer to player's rate
property.
[self.player addObserver:self
forKeyPath:@"rate"
options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew
context:NULL];
Then check if the new value for observed rate is zero, which means that playback has stopped for some reason, like reaching the end or stalling because of empty buffer.
- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath
ofObject:(id)object
change:(NSDictionary<NSString *,id> *)change
context:(void *)context {
if ([keyPath isEqualToString:@"rate"]) {
float rate = [change[NSKeyValueChangeNewKey] floatValue];
if (rate == 0.0) {
// Playback stopped
} else if (rate == 1.0) {
// Normal playback
} else if (rate == -1.0) {
// Reverse playback
}
}
}
For rate == 0.0
case, to know what exactly caused the playback to stop, you can do the following checks:
if (self.player.error != nil) {
// Playback failed
}
if (CMTimeGetSeconds(self.player.currentTime) >=
CMTimeGetSeconds(self.player.currentItem.duration)) {
// Playback reached end
} else if (!self.player.currentItem.playbackLikelyToKeepUp) {
// Not ready to play, wait until enough data is loaded
}
And don't forget to make your player stop when it reaches the end:
self.player.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndPause;
Related videos on Youtube
Egil
Updated on July 08, 2022Comments
-
Egil over 1 year
Is there a way to know whether an
AVPlayer
playback has stalled or reached the end? -
Dermot over 10 yearsNot necessarily, it doesn't handle situations where the player stalls due an error in the file. Something I found out the hard way...
-
phi over 10 yearsAs Dermot said, if you try to play something while in airplane mode, the AVPlayer rate is still set to 1.0, since it implies the intention to play.
-
openfrog about 10 yearsIs there a better solution?
-
James Campbell almost 10 yearsThe AVPlayer has an error property, just check that it isn't nil as well as checking the rate isn't 0 :)
-
quemeful almost 9 yearsAVPlayer != AVAudioPlayer
-
Dan Rosenstark almost 9 yearsCaveats: all mentioned above in the answer that showed up two years before this one.
-
Aks almost 9 years@Yar I know also upvoted above answer but this is for swift and in Swift '!player.error' was not working for me it is allowed only for bool types so I have added the answer oops upvoted your comment by mistake to give reply using this stack overflow app :)
-
Dan Rosenstark almost 9 yearsMy concern is that I don't know how well the player.error not being nil actually works.
-
jomafer over 8 yearsNote that the answer has been updated to prevent @Dermot scenario. So this one actually works.
-
Montana Burr over 8 yearsYou could throw in a Boolean flag to check the play status.
-
Julian F. Weinert over 8 yearsWill not be working when playing video footage reverse (
- [AVPlayer setRate:-1.0]
), because-1.0
is less than 0. -
Julian F. Weinert over 8 yearsWill not be working when playing video footage reverse (
player.rate = -1.0
), because -1.0 is less than 0. -
maxkonovalov almost 8 yearsNotifications might cause problems if you change player's item, for example, with
-replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:
, and don't handle it properly. A more reliable way for me is to trackAVPlayer
's status using KVO. See my answer below for more details: stackoverflow.com/a/34321993/3160561 -
Hema Nandagopal almost 8 yearsnote that when using the above example with Swift,
player.error
is an optional not a bool, and so for this to compile, you'll need to change it toplayer.rate > 0 && (player.error == nil)
-
ToolmakerSteve almost 8 yearsI think also need notification of failure to reach end -
AVPlayerItemFailedToPlayToEndTimeNotification
. If this error happens, will never reach the end time. Or reading maz's answer, add to your code a check forplayer.error != nil
, in which case playback has "ended" due to error. -
ToolmakerSteve almost 8 yearsThis answer does NOT distinguish between "stalled" and "ended"! I think combine this answer with maxkonovalov's answer. And note Julian's comment, the test should be
player.rate != 0
, so that playing in reverse isn't considered stopped. -
ToolmakerSteve almost 8 yearsBTW, what did you find "not reliable" about using NSNotification of
AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification
? -
ToolmakerSteve almost 8 yearsAlso need notification of error?
AVPlayerItemFailedToPlayToEndTimeNotification
-
maxkonovalov almost 8 yearsToolmakerSteve, thanks for your note, added error check to my answer. For not reliable notifications - I came across the issue myself while implementing repeating and reusable player views in collection view, and KVO made things more clear, as it allowed to keep it all more local without different players' notifications interfering with each other.
-
oleynikd about 7 yearsThis will also not work after
player.replaceCurrentItem(with: nil)
when player is actually not playing, butplayer.rate
will still be != 0 -
Alex about 7 yearsI had the player stuck at rat 1.0 although I was not in airplane mode. So there some other condition that need to be included in the test.
-
technerd over 6 yearsEasy to use for iOS 10+
-
Cesare over 6 yearsHello Mr Stanev, thanks for your answer. This doesn't work for me (aka doesn't print anything in the console?)
-
Cesare over 6 yearsNevermind, it does work – my player was
nil
! But I need to know when the view starts (not ends). Any way to do that? -
Albert Renshaw about 6 yearsVery useful addition to my
Macros.m
, thank you.#define isAVPlayerPlaying(player) ((player.rate != 0) && (player.error == nil))
-
Sean Stayns over 4 years@objc func didPlayToEnd() for Swift 4.2
-
MyNameIsCaleb about 4 yearsThis provided answer may be correct, but it could benefit from an explanation. Code only answers are not considered "good" answers. Here are some guidelines for How do I write a good answer?. From review.
-
FontFamily over 2 yearsThis is not the right way to do this. The question wants to know when the player has reached the end. The user pausing playback will also activate this function, which will lead to unintended effects.