AVPlayer Stops Buffering - ios

Question

Im trying to fully load a video URL into an AVPlayer before the user is able to play the video, for seamless playback.
I add two observers to the AVPlayerItem:
[item addObserver:self forKeyPath:#"loadedTimeRanges"
options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew context:&timeRanges];
[item addObserver:self forKeyPath:#"playbackBufferFull"
options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew context:&playbackBufferFull];
I wait until value is equal to the duration of the video - fully loaded.
if (context == &timeRanges) {
NSLog(#"BUFFERING");
NSArray *timeRanges = (NSArray *)[change objectForKey:NSKeyValueChangeNewKey];
CMTimeRange timerange = [timeRanges[0] CMTimeRangeValue];
CGFloat value = CMTimeGetSeconds(CMTimeAdd(timerange.start, timerange.duration));
CGFloat duration = CMTimeGetSeconds(self.player.currentItem.duration);
NSLog(#"VALUE:DURATION == %f:%f", value, duration);
if(value == duration) {
NSLog(#"FINISHED");
[self prerollVideoPlayer];
}
return;
}
But this rarely happens. The player usually stops buffering at around 3 for a five second video. Then the "playbackBufferFull" is called
if (context == &playbackBufferFull){
if (self.player.currentItem.playbackBufferFull) {
NSLog(#"IS FULL");
//[self prerollVideoPlayer];
}
return;
}
How can I increase the buffer size? Or how to buffer the rest of the video once playbackBufferFull is called? The videos being played, are only five seconds long.

Answer 1

Take a look at the preferredForwardBufferDuration property on AVPlayerItem.
Something like this should work:
AVPlayerItem* theItem = self.player.currentItem;
theItem.preferredForwardBufferDuration = CMTimeGetSeconds( theItem.duration );
Then you can observe playback buffer full, like you show in your code, to begin playback.