iPad 3.2 & [MPMoviePlayerController setFullScreen:] not showing up

Question

I have an universal application that plays movies from the internet. It has to support 3.1.x as well as 4.x.

In order to get this to work, I have a branch in the code that detects pre-3.2 devices and utilizes MPMoviePlayerController as it is supposed to work there.

This is how I prepare the player to play the remote movie:

- (void)registerForMovieNotifications {
    //for 3.2 devices and above
    if ([moviePlayer respondsToSelector:@selector(loadState)]) {
        LOG(@"moviePlayer responds to loadState, this is a 3.2+ device");

        //register the notification that the movie is ready to play
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                 selector:@selector(moviePlayerLoadStateChanged:)
                                                     name:MPMoviePlayerLoadStateDidChangeNotification
                                                   object:nil];

        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                 selector:@selector(didExitFullScreen:) 
                                                     name:MPMoviePlayerDidExitFullscreenNotification
                                                   object:nil];

        LOG(@"preparing moviePlayer...");
        [moviePlayer prepareToPlay];



       } else {
            //for pre-3.2 devices
            LOG(@"This is a 3.1.x device");

            //register the notification that the movie is ready to play
            [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                     selector:@selector(moviePreloadDidFinish:)
                                                         name:MPMoviePlayerContentPreloadDidFinishNotification
                                                       object:nil];
        }

        //handle when the movie finished
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                 selector:@selector(moviePlayBackDidFinish:)
                                                     name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
                                                   object:nil];
    }
    - (void)readyPlayer {
        if (!moviePlayer) {
            moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:movieURL];
        } else {
            [moviePlayer setContentURL:movieURL];
        }

        [self registerForMovieNotifications];
    }

Later on I get this notification, and it sets up the movie player's view, etc.

- (void) moviePlayerLoadStateChanged:(NSNotification*)notification {
    LOG(@"3.2/4.x - moviePlayerLoadStateChanged:");
    //unless state is unknown, start playback
    if ([moviePlayer loadState] != MPMovieLoadStateUnknown) {
        //remove observer
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                                        name:MPMoviePlayerLoadStateDidChangeNotification
                                                      object:nil];

        //set the frame of the movie player to match
        self.view.autoresizesSubviews = YES;

        [[moviePlayer view] setFrame:self.view.bounds];
        [[moviePlayer view] setAutoresizingMask:UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight];
        [[moviePlayer view] setAutoresizesSubviews:YES];

        //add movie player as a subview
        [self.view addSubview:moviePlayer.view];
        [moviePlayer setFullscreen:YES];

        //play the movie
        [moviePlayer play];

    }
}

And the movie plays. This works perfectly on iPhone 4.2, 4.3, iPad 4.2, 4.3, but it fails on iPad 3.2. The movie plays but all I get is a black screen.

If I remove the [moviePlayer setFullscreen:YES] call I get a visible playing movie in 3.2, however it isn't "fullscreen" and so it doesn't have the Done button and there's no way for me to dismiss the screen.

I'd love some help on what's going on here. Thanks!

Wish I had a device running 3.2 to test this for you. It does look like it might be a bug in 3.2. Did you try calling setFullscreen:animated: instead, just in case? — Nathan Eror
Remove all the view-handling from the notification handler. Leaving just the moviePlayer play method in place. Do that view-specific stuff earlier on. hth — Till

Ben Scheirman Ben Scheirman · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-14T05:23:46

I was able to come to an acceptable solution, but I still feel this might be a bug.

If I skip the call to setFullScreen and instead just manually set the controlStyle to MPMovieControlStyleFullScreen then it gives me a view that is mostly correct (the toolbar is about 40 pixels too low).

Then I can get the Done button, which triggers the moviePlayer:didFinishPlaying callback.

So it stinks I now have a smelly if 3.2 branch of logic in my code, but hopefully most people will be on 4.0 anyway.

iPad 3.2 & [MPMoviePlayerController setFullScreen:] not showing up

1 Answers