Multiple videos with AVPlayer

Question

I am developing an iOS app for iPad that needs to play videos in some part of the screen. I have several video files that needs to be played after each other in an order tha

Answer 1

Update — https://youtu.be/7QlaO7WxjGg

Here's your answer using a collection view as an example, which will play 8 at a time (note that no memory management of any kind is necessary; you may use ARC):

    - (UICollectionViewCell *)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView cellForItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    UICollectionViewCell *cell = (UICollectionViewCell *)[collectionView dequeueReusableCellWithReuseIdentifier:kCellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];

    // Enumerate array of visible cells' indexPaths to find a match
    if ([self.collectionView.indexPathsForVisibleItems
         indexOfObjectPassingTest:^BOOL(NSIndexPath * _Nonnull obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL * _Nonnull stop) {
             return (obj.item == indexPath.item);
         }]) dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
             [self drawLayerForPlayerForCell:cell atIndexPath:indexPath];
         });


    return cell;
}

- (void)drawPosterFrameForCell:(UICollectionViewCell *)cell atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    [self.imageManager requestImageForAsset:AppDelegate.sharedAppDelegate.assetsFetchResults[indexPath.item]
                                                          targetSize:AssetGridThumbnailSize
                                                         contentMode:PHImageContentModeAspectFill
                                                             options:nil
                                                       resultHandler:^(UIImage *result, NSDictionary *info) {
                                                           cell.contentView.layer.contents = (__bridge id)result.CGImage;
                                                       }];
}

- (void)drawLayerForPlayerForCell:(UICollectionViewCell *)cell atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    cell.contentView.layer.sublayers = nil;
    [self.imageManager requestPlayerItemForVideo:(PHAsset *)self.assetsFetchResults[indexPath.item] options:nil resultHandler:^(AVPlayerItem * _Nullable playerItem, NSDictionary * _Nullable info) {
        dispatch_sync(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            if([[info objectForKey:PHImageResultIsInCloudKey] boolValue]) {
                [self drawPosterFrameForCell:cell atIndexPath:indexPath];
            } else {
                AVPlayerLayer *playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:[AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:playerItem]];
                [playerLayer setVideoGravity:AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill];
                [playerLayer setBorderColor:[UIColor whiteColor].CGColor];
                [playerLayer setBorderWidth:1.0f];
                [playerLayer setFrame:cell.contentView.layer.bounds];
                [cell.contentView.layer addSublayer:playerLayer];
                [playerLayer.player play];
            }
        });
    }];
}

The drawPosterFrameForCell method places an image where a video cannot be played because it is stored on iCloud, and not the device.

Anyway, this is the starting point; once you understand how this works, you can do all the things you wanted, without any of the glitches, memory-wise, that you described.