How to access NSData/NSURL of slow motion videos using PhotoKit

GuillermoMP picture GuillermoMP · Oct 2, 2014 · Viewed 7.3k times · Source

Working with new Photo framework, I can access the NSData of PHAssets using requestImageDataForAsset. I can also access the file URL using the PHImageFileURLKey of the returned info NSDictionary.

[[PHImageManager defaultManager] requestImageDataForAsset:asset options:nil resultHandler:^(NSData *imageData, NSString *dataUTI, UIImageOrientation orientation, NSDictionary *info) {

                //imageData contains the correct data for images and videos
                NSLog(@"info - %@", info);
                NSURL* fileURL = [info objectForKey:@"PHImageFileURLKey"];
}];

This works fine for images and normal videos.

However, when the asset is a PHAssetMediaSubtypeVideoHighFrameRate (slow motion video), the returned data corresponds to a JPG file containing the first frame of the video (both the NSData, the dataUTI and the info dictionary point to the same jpg file). As example, this is the URL and the dataUTI returned for a slow motion video:

PHImageFileURLKey = "file:///var/mobile/Media/PhotoData/Metadata/DCIM/100APPLE/IMG_0642.JPG"; PHImageFileUTIKey = "public.jpeg";

Why is this happening? How can i access the NSData/NSURL of the slow motion video instead of this JPG preview?

Answer

GuillermoMP picture GuillermoMP · Oct 2, 2014

After going nuts and testing every single option I found the problem.

The responsable of returning JPG images for slow motion videos is the default PHImageRequestOptionsVersionCurrent value for the PHImageRequestOptions.version property.

Simply assign the version to PHImageRequestOptionsVersionUnadjusted or PHImageRequestOptionsVersionOriginal will return the original slow motion video.

PHImageRequestOptions * imageRequestOptions = [[PHImageRequestOptions alloc] init];

imageRequestOptions.version = PHImageRequestOptionsVersionUnadjusted;
// or 
imageRequestOptions.version = PHImageRequestOptionsVersionOriginal;

I consider this as an unexpected behaviour, since i am not expecting that the "current" version of a slow motion video is a still image (maybe a video with the slow motion effect applied, but not a photo).

Hope this is usefull to someone.