Play video in iOS from a URL

Question

I want to play a videos on iOS from a URL. I don't want to use AVPlayerViewController by the way.

I’m using youtube-dl for learning purposes. This gets me the raw url of a video on youtube such as:

https://r3---sn-ab5l6nzk.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?upn=3VzVwzrmNT8&lmt=1471130096030949&ratebypass=yes&source=youtube&mime=video%2Fmp4&itag=22&pl=27&ipbits=0&expire=1492204641&sparams=dur,ei,expire,id,initcwndbps,ip,ipbits,ipbypass,itag,lmt,mime,mm,mn,ms,mv,pl,ratebypass,requiressl,source,upn&requiressl=yes&ei=AejwWMOXBIiD8wST6aK4CA&dur=663.394&key=cms1&ip=209.95.50.62&id=o-AAVxdc4Jw2onrtv50WYrfSHZNJAfNfmHE5otD3yIdGhU&signature=10A385D37D76E6695D4F49732B0BB3A0DA4F9700.4D0BB88220F8B24145A92AEB384E86432DB6FFC3&redirect_counter=1&req_id=50cca232f5fba3ee&cms_redirect=yes&ipbypass=yes&mm=31&mn=sn-ab5l6nzk&ms=au&mt=1492182931&mv=m

I want to learn how to play this on iOS. But I'm not sure if this url refers to:

• A file-based asset

OR

• An HTTP Live Stream

In the url above, I see there is a Fmp4, does this mean it’s an HTTP live stream?

Based on this question, it states you can’t directly use an AVURLAsset. Based on AVFoundation guide, that seems to be correct. Please see where red arrow is pointing:

But this other Apple documentation seems to contradict the above:

Should I create an AVURLAsset directly or an AVPlayerItem directly?

If I create the AVPlayerItem directly, isn’t this synchronous and therefore will freeze the UI?

Answer 1

[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback error:nil];
    NSURL *videoURL = [NSURL URLWithString:"your video url"];
    AVPlayer *player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:videoURL];
    AVPlayerViewController *playerViewController = [AVPlayerViewController new];
    playerViewController.player = player;
    [self presentViewController:playerViewController animated:YES completion:^{
        [player play];
    }];