AVPlayer layer inside a view does not resize when UIView frame changes

Question

I have a UIView which contains an AVPlayer to show a video. When changing orientation, I need to change the size and location of the video.

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Answer 1

I had this problem in Swift 2.3, and I solved writing a proper PlayerView class and setting it as subview:

import UIKit
import AVKit
import AVFoundation

class PlayerPreviewView: UIView {

    override class func layerClass() -> AnyClass {
        return AVPlayerLayer.self
    }

    var player: AVPlayer? {
        get {
            return playerLayer.player
        }

        set {
            playerLayer.player = newValue
        }
    }

    var playerLayer: AVPlayerLayer {
        return layer as! AVPlayerLayer
    }

    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
        playerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResize
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        playerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResize
    }

}

In the presenting ViewController:

private func play(asset asset: AVURLAsset){
    let playerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: asset)

    player = AVPlayer(playerItem: playerItem)
    player?.actionAtItemEnd = .None
    player?.muted = true

    playerPreviewView = PlayerPreviewView(frame: CGRectZero)
    view.addSubview(playerPreviewView)
    playerPreviewView.player = player


    playerPreviewView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
    view.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("H:|-0-[subview]-0-|", options: .DirectionLeadingToTrailing, metrics: nil, views: ["subview": playerPreviewView]))
    view.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("V:|-0-[subview]-0-|", options: .DirectionLeadingToTrailing, metrics: nil, views: ["subview": playerPreviewView]))


    player?.play()

    NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
                                                     selector: #selector(SplashScreenViewController.videoDidFinish),
                                                     name: AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification,
                                                     object: nil)
}

Answer 2

Any one searching for Xamarin Version as i was searching

don't add the AVPlayerLayer as sublayer but set the layer to Avplayer Layer

[Export("layerClass")]
public static Class LayerClass()
{
    return new Class(typeof(AVPlayerLayer));
}

The following line set the layer

(this.Layer as AVPlayerLayer).Player = _player;   // Acplayer

Answer 3

In the end I solved this by re-adding the AVPlayerLayer to the UIView. I'm not sure why changing the frame removed the layer, but it did. Here's the final solution:

//amend the frame of the view
[videoHolderView setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 768, 502)];

//reset the layer's frame, and re-add it to the view
AVPlayerLayer* playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.avPlayer];
playerLayer.frame = videoHolderView.bounds;
[videoHolderView.layer addSublayer:playerLayer];

Answer 4

For those of you who are only concerned with resizing the AVPlayer during device rotation, you can alter your layer frame in the viewWillTransition(to size: CGSize, with coordinator: UIViewControllerTransitionCoordinator) method as shown below.

//Swift 4
//Method in UIViewController
//Variable definitions are:
//self.layer is the AVPlayerLayer
//self.videoPlayerView is the view that the AVPlayerLayer is the sublayer of
override func viewWillTransition(to size: CGSize, with coordinator: UIViewControllerTransitionCoordinator) {
    super.viewWillTransition(to: size, with: coordinator)
    coordinator.animate(alongsideTransition: { context in
        self.layer.layoutIfNeeded()
        UIView.animate(
            withDuration: context.transitionDuration,
            animations: {
                self.layer.frame = self.videoPlayerView.bounds
            }
        )
    }, completion: nil)
}

This will animate your layer frame along with all the other views during the rotation.

Answer 5

In Swift 4 use

    playerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.resizeAspectFill

or whichever property of AVLayerVideoGravity you desire.

Answer 6

You can change the layer's frame by overriding the -layoutSubviews method:

- (void)layoutSubviews
{
    [super layoutSubviews];
    self.playerLayer.frame = self.bounds;
}