AVAssetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptor and CMTime

Question

I'm writing some frames to video with AVAssetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptor, and the behavior w.r.t. time isn't what I'd expect.

If I write just one frame:

 [videoWriter startSessionAtSourceTime:kCMTimeZero];
 [adaptor appendPixelBuffer:pxBuffer withPresentationTime:kCMTimeZero];

this gets me a video of length zero, which is what I expect.

But if I go on to add a second frame:

 // 3000/600 = 5 sec, right?
 CMTime nextFrame = CMTimeMake(3000, 600); 
 [adaptor appendPixelBuffer:pxBuffer withPresentationTime:nextFrame];

I get ten seconds of video, where I'm expecting five.

What's going on here? Does withPresentationTime somehow set both the start of the frame and the duration?

Note that I'm not calling endSessionAtSourceTime, just finishWriting.

Answer 1

Try looking at this example and reverse engineering to add 1 frame 5 seconds later...

Here is the sample code link: git@github.com:RudyAramayo/AVAssetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptorSample.git

Here is the code you need:

- (void) testCompressionSession
{
CGSize size = CGSizeMake(480, 320);


NSString *betaCompressionDirectory = [NSHomeDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"Documents/Movie.m4v"];

NSError *error = nil;

unlink([betaCompressionDirectory UTF8String]);

//----initialize compression engine
AVAssetWriter *videoWriter = [[AVAssetWriter alloc] initWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:betaCompressionDirectory]
                                                       fileType:AVFileTypeQuickTimeMovie
                                                          error:&error];
NSParameterAssert(videoWriter);
if(error)
    NSLog(@"error = %@", [error localizedDescription]);

NSDictionary *videoSettings = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:AVVideoCodecH264, AVVideoCodecKey,
                               [NSNumber numberWithInt:size.width], AVVideoWidthKey,
                               [NSNumber numberWithInt:size.height], AVVideoHeightKey, nil];
AVAssetWriterInput *writerInput = [AVAssetWriterInput assetWriterInputWithMediaType:AVMediaTypeVideo outputSettings:videoSettings];

NSDictionary *sourcePixelBufferAttributesDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                                                       [NSNumber numberWithInt:kCVPixelFormatType_32ARGB], kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey, nil];

AVAssetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptor *adaptor = [AVAssetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptor assetWriterInputPixelBufferAdaptorWithAssetWriterInput:writerInput
                                                                                                                 sourcePixelBufferAttributes:sourcePixelBufferAttributesDictionary];
NSParameterAssert(writerInput);
NSParameterAssert([videoWriter canAddInput:writerInput]);

if ([videoWriter canAddInput:writerInput])
    NSLog(@"I can add this input");
else
    NSLog(@"i can't add this input");

[videoWriter addInput:writerInput];

[videoWriter startWriting];
[videoWriter startSessionAtSourceTime:kCMTimeZero];

//---
// insert demo debugging code to write the same image repeated as a movie

CGImageRef theImage = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"Lotus.png"] CGImage];

dispatch_queue_t    dispatchQueue = dispatch_queue_create("mediaInputQueue", NULL);
int __block         frame = 0;

[writerInput requestMediaDataWhenReadyOnQueue:dispatchQueue usingBlock:^{
    while ([writerInput isReadyForMoreMediaData])
    {
        if(++frame >= 120)
        {
            [writerInput markAsFinished];
            [videoWriter finishWriting];
            [videoWriter release];
            break;
        }

        CVPixelBufferRef buffer = (CVPixelBufferRef)[self pixelBufferFromCGImage:theImage size:size];
        if (buffer)
        {
            if(![adaptor appendPixelBuffer:buffer withPresentationTime:CMTimeMake(frame, 20)])
                NSLog(@"FAIL");
            else
                NSLog(@"Success:%d", frame);
            CFRelease(buffer);
        }
    }
}];

NSLog(@"outside for loop");

}


- (CVPixelBufferRef )pixelBufferFromCGImage:(CGImageRef)image size:(CGSize)size
{
NSDictionary *options = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                         [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES], kCVPixelBufferCGImageCompatibilityKey, 
                         [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES], kCVPixelBufferCGBitmapContextCompatibilityKey, nil];
CVPixelBufferRef pxbuffer = NULL;
CVReturn status = CVPixelBufferCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, size.width, size.height, kCVPixelFormatType_32ARGB, (CFDictionaryRef) options, &pxbuffer);
// CVReturn status = CVPixelBufferPoolCreatePixelBuffer(NULL, adaptor.pixelBufferPool, &pxbuffer);

NSParameterAssert(status == kCVReturnSuccess && pxbuffer != NULL); 

CVPixelBufferLockBaseAddress(pxbuffer, 0);
void *pxdata = CVPixelBufferGetBaseAddress(pxbuffer);
NSParameterAssert(pxdata != NULL);

CGColorSpaceRef rgbColorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(pxdata, size.width, size.height, 8, 4*size.width, rgbColorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst);
NSParameterAssert(context);

CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, CGImageGetWidth(image), CGImageGetHeight(image)), image);

CGColorSpaceRelease(rgbColorSpace);
CGContextRelease(context);

CVPixelBufferUnlockBaseAddress(pxbuffer, 0);

return pxbuffer;
}

Answer 2

Have you tried using this as your first call

CMTime t = CMTimeMake(0, 600);
[videoWriter startSessionAtSourceTime:t];
[adaptor appendPixelBuffer:pxBuffer withPresentationTime:t];