HTTP Live Streaming with AVPlayer in iOS 4.0?

Question

Is it possible to use HTTP Live Streaming with AVPlayer on iOS 4.0? This was clearly a documented feature of 4.0. However, if I run Apple's SitchedStreamPlayer sample code on my 3GS running iOS 4.0.1, clicking "Load Movie" does not play the stream, but gives an error:

2011-06-21 13:14:49.428 StitchedStreamPlayer[680:307] The asset's tracks were not loaded due to an error: Cannot Open

MPMediaPlayer is able to play the same stream on the same device. However, I need a working solution with AVPlayer.

Does anyone know how to get Apple's StichedStreamPlayer code to work on 4.0? The Runtime Requirements say it should work on "iOS 4.0 or later".

Thanks!

Solution

This is a bug in 4.0, but I found a workaround. Here is the correct way to load video with AVPlayer:

    AVPlayer *player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://qtdevseed.apple.com/addemo/ad.m3u8"]];
// now use KVO to decide when it's ready to play
// works in both 4.3 and 4.0.1

 

The code from StitchedStreamPlayer works in 4.3 but not 4.0.1:

AVURLAsset *asset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://qtdevseed.apple.com/addemo/ad.m3u8"] options:nil];
    NSArray *tracksKeys = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:kTracksKey, kDurationKey, kPlayableKey, nil];
    [asset loadValuesAsynchronouslyForKeys:tracksKeys completionHandler:
     ^{
         NSError *error = nil;
         AVKeyValueStatus status = [asset statusOfValueForKey:[tracksKeys objectAtIndex:0] error:&error];
         NSLog(@"status=%@,error=%@",(status==AVKeyValueStatusLoaded?@"Loaded":status==AVKeyValueStatusFailed?@"Failed":@"?!"),error);
     }];

// output in 4.3: status=Loaded,error=(null)
// output in 4.0.1:  status=Failed,error=Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11828 "Cannot Open" UserInfo=0x15f2a0 {NSLocalizedFailureReason=This media format is not supported., NSUnderlyingError=0x1599e0 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -12847.)", NSLocalizedDescription=Cannot Open}

 

For more info see the old version of StitchedStreamPlayer.