AVPlayerViewController not deallocating immediately

Question

I am playing a video in my app in TVos. I am using AVPlayerViewController to play the video. But when i press Menu button on Apple Tv remote i goes back to the view controller from which i came here but video continues to play and after 8 or 10 second it gets deallocated. This is really a bad bug and i am stuck on this for few days. Any help will be highly appreciated.

Here is my code for the view controller.

import Foundation
import UIKit
import AVKit


class ViewController : UIViewController {


    var avplayerVC : AVPlayerViewController?
    var recentlyWatchedTimer : NSTimer?
    var lessonToWatch : Lesson?


    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()


        if let urlVideo = lessonToWatch?.lessonurl {

            let activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(frame: CGRectMake(self.view.frame.size.width / 2.0, self.view.frame.size.height / 2.0, 30.0, 30.0))
            let asset : AVURLAsset = AVURLAsset(URL: NSURL.init(string: urlVideo)!, options: nil)
            let keys = ["playable"];
            avplayerVC = AVPlayerViewController()

            weak var weakSelf = self

            asset.loadValuesAsynchronouslyForKeys(keys) { () -> Void in
                dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), { () -> Void in
                    weakSelf!.avplayerVC?.player =  AVPlayer(playerItem: AVPlayerItem(asset: asset))
                    weakSelf!.avplayerVC?.player?.seekToTime(kCMTimeZero)


                    print("Status 1: " +  "\(self.avplayerVC?.player?.status.rawValue)")
                    print(self.view?.frame)
                    // doesn't work

                    weakSelf!.avplayerVC?.view.frame =  self.view.frame
                    activityIndicator.stopAnimating()
                    activityIndicator.removeFromSuperview()
                    weakSelf!.view.addSubview((self.avplayerVC?.view!)!)
                    weakSelf!.avplayerVC?.player?.play()
                    weakSelf!.recentlyWatchedTimer = NSTimer.scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval(20.0, target: self, selector: "addToRecentlyWatched" , userInfo: nil, repeats: false)
                                    })
            }

            print("In LessonPlayViewController View Did Load")
            self.view.addSubview(activityIndicator)
            activityIndicator.startAnimating()
        }

    }


    func addToRecentlyWatched() {
        if let lesson = lessonToWatch {
            DataManager.sharedInstance.addRecentlyWatch(lesson)
        }
        recentlyWatchedTimer?.invalidate()
    }

    deinit {
        print("deinit")
        avplayerVC?.view.removeFromSuperview()
        avplayerVC?.player = nil
        avplayerVC = nil
    }

    // MARK : AVPlayerViewControllerDelegate


}

Answer 1

You want to use weakSelf in all places inside the async callback block, but you're printing self.view.frame at once place.

Answer 2

You should use a capture list to make sure all references to self are weak within the closure. Then use a guard to check that the references are still valid within the closure.

import Foundation
import UIKit
import AVKit
import AVFoundation


class ViewController : UIViewController {


    var avplayerVC : AVPlayerViewController?
    var recentlyWatchedTimer : NSTimer?
    var lessonToWatch : Lesson?


    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()


        if let urlVideo = lessonToWatch?.lessonurl {

            let activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(frame: CGRectMake(self.view.frame.size.width / 2.0, self.view.frame.size.height / 2.0, 30.0, 30.0))
            let asset : AVURLAsset = AVURLAsset(URL: NSURL.init(string: urlVideo)!, options: nil)
            let keys = ["playable"];
            avplayerVC = AVPlayerViewController()

            asset.loadValuesAsynchronouslyForKeys(keys) { [weak self] in
                dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) { [weak self] in
                    guard let vc = self, playerVC = vc.avplayerVC else {
                        return
                    }

                    playerVC.player = AVPlayer(playerItem: AVPlayerItem(asset: asset))
                    playerVC.player?.seekToTime(kCMTimeZero)


                    print("Status 1: " +  "\(playerVC.player?.status.rawValue)")
                    print(vc.view?.frame)
                    // doesn't work

                    playerVC.view.frame = vc.view.frame
                    activityIndicator.stopAnimating()
                    activityIndicator.removeFromSuperview()
                    vc.view.addSubview(playerVC.view)
                    playerVC.player?.play()
                    vc.recentlyWatchedTimer = NSTimer.scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval(20.0, target: vc, selector: "addToRecentlyWatched" , userInfo: nil, repeats: false)
                }
            }

            print("In LessonPlayViewController View Did Load")
            self.view.addSubview(activityIndicator)
            activityIndicator.startAnimating()
        }

    }


    func addToRecentlyWatched() {
        if let lesson = lessonToWatch {
            DataManager.sharedInstance.addRecentlyWatch(lesson)
        }
        recentlyWatchedTimer?.invalidate()
    }

    deinit {
        print("deinit")
        avplayerVC?.view.removeFromSuperview()
        avplayerVC?.player = nil
        avplayerVC = nil
    }

    // MARK : AVPlayerViewControllerDelegate


}

More on capture lists: https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/AutomaticReferenceCounting.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014097-CH20-ID57

Edit

Also note that you should explicitly stop the video playback when leaving the view controller and not rely on the player to stop the playback as part of its deallocation. I.e. in viewDidDisappear or alike.