How to play video with AVPlayerViewController (AVKit) in Swift

Question

How do you play a video with AV Kit Player View Controller in Swift?

override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        let videoURLWithPath = "http://****/5.m3u8"
        let videoURL = NSURL(string: videoURLWithPath)
        playerViewController = AVPlayerViewController()

        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
            self.playerViewController?.player = AVPlayer.playerWithURL(videoURL) as AVPlayer
        }
    }

Answer 1

Swift 3.x - 5.x

Necessary: import AVKit, import AVFoundation

AVFoundation framework is needed even if you use AVPlayer

If you want to use AVPlayerViewController:

let videoURL = URL(string: "https://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4")
let player = AVPlayer(url: videoURL!)
let playerViewController = AVPlayerViewController()
playerViewController.player = player
self.present(playerViewController, animated: true) {
    playerViewController.player!.play()
}

or just AVPlayer:

let videoURL = URL(string: "https://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4")
let player = AVPlayer(url: videoURL!)
let playerLayer = AVPlayerLayer(player: player)
playerLayer.frame = self.view.bounds
self.view.layer.addSublayer(playerLayer)
player.play()

It's better to put this code into the method: override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) or somewhere after.

---

Objective-C

AVPlayerViewController:

NSURL *videoURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4"];
AVPlayer *player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:videoURL];
AVPlayerViewController *playerViewController = [AVPlayerViewController new];
playerViewController.player = player;
[self presentViewController:playerViewController animated:YES completion:^{
  [playerViewController.player play];
}];

or just AVPlayer:

NSURL *videoURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4"];
AVPlayer *player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:videoURL];
AVPlayerLayer *playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:player];
playerLayer.frame = self.view.bounds;
[self.view.layer addSublayer:playerLayer];
[player play];