iPhone SDK:How do you play video inside a view? Rather than fullscreen

Solution 1:

As of the 3.2 SDK you can access the view property of MPMoviePlayerController, modify its frame and add it to your view hierarchy.

MPMoviePlayerController *player = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:url]];
player.view.frame = CGRectMake(184, 200, 400, 300);
[self.view addSubview:player.view];
[player play];

There's an example here: http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/44642/1954

Solution 2:

The best way is to use layers insted of views:

AVPlayer *player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:[NSURL url...]]; // 

AVPlayerLayer *layer = [AVPlayerLayer layer];

[layer setPlayer:player];
[layer setFrame:CGRectMake(10, 10, 300, 200)];
[layer setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor].CGColor];
[layer setVideoGravity:AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill];

[self.view.layer addSublayer:layer];

[player play];

Don't forget to add frameworks:

#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
#import "AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h"

Solution 3:

Swift

This is a self contained project so that you can see everything in context.

Layout

Create a layout like the following with a UIView and a UIButton. The UIView will be the container in which we will play our video.

Add a video to the project

If you need a sample video to practice with, you can get one from sample-videos.com. I'm using an mp4 format video in this example. Drag and drop the video file into your project. I also had to add it explicitly into the bundle resources (go to Build Phases > Copy Bundle Resources, see this answer for more).

Code

Here is the complete code for the project.

import UIKit
import AVFoundation

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    var player: AVPlayer?

    @IBOutlet weak var videoViewContainer: UIView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        initializeVideoPlayerWithVideo()
    }

    func initializeVideoPlayerWithVideo() {

        // get the path string for the video from assets
        let videoString:String? = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "SampleVideo_360x240_1mb", ofType: "mp4")
        guard let unwrappedVideoPath = videoString else {return}

        // convert the path string to a url
        let videoUrl = URL(fileURLWithPath: unwrappedVideoPath)

        // initialize the video player with the url
        self.player = AVPlayer(url: videoUrl)

        // create a video layer for the player
        let layer: AVPlayerLayer = AVPlayerLayer(player: player)

        // make the layer the same size as the container view
        layer.frame = videoViewContainer.bounds

        // make the video fill the layer as much as possible while keeping its aspect size
        layer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.resizeAspectFill

        // add the layer to the container view
        videoViewContainer.layer.addSublayer(layer)
    }

    @IBAction func playVideoButtonTapped(_ sender: UIButton) {
        // play the video if the player is initialized
        player?.play()
    }
}

Notes

• If you are going to be switching in and out different videos, you can use AVPlayerItem.
• If you are only using AVFoundation and AVPlayer, then you have to build all of your own controls. If you want full screen video playback, you can use AVPlayerViewController. You will need to import AVKit for that. It comes with a full set of controls for pause, fast forward, rewind, stop, etc. Here and here are some video tutorials.
• MPMoviePlayerController that you may have seen in other answers is deprecated.

Result

The project should look like this now.