AVPlayerViewController not deallocating immediately - ios

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.