AVPlayer won't play a different format - ios

Question

I am implementing a player with AVPlayer, which will play videos from a URL. This URL can be for "fixed-length" videos (that have a predetermined duration) and live videos (whose duration is unknown/not defined).
The fixed-length URLs I am using link to .mp4 files (using H264 codec), while the live videos have a .m3u8 extensions (but also H264).
I can play a number of .m3u8 URLs, but when I try to play the .mp4, it won't load.
However, if I start the app and play a .mp4 URL first, I can play other .mp4 URLs, but I can't switch to the .m3u8.
Both formats play fine, but there some issue when I switch from one to another.
These are the methods I use to instantiate and "clean" the player:
- (void)prepareAndPlayAutomatically:(BOOL)playAutomatically {
currentItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:videoURL];
[[self player] replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:currentItem];
[self.layer addSublayer:[self playerLayer]];
[[self player] addObserver:self forKeyPath:#"rate" options:0 context:nil];
[[self player] seekToTime:kCMTimeZero];
if (playAutomatically) {
[[self player] play];
}
}
- (void)clean {
[[self player] pause];
[[self player] seekToTime:kCMTimeZero];
[[self player] replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:nil];
[[self player] removeObserver:self forKeyPath:#"rate"];
[self removeFromSuperview];
}
[self player] will return a singleton AVPlayer instance;
[self playerLayer] will also return a singleton AVPlayerLayer instance;
- (AVPlayer *)player {
static dispatch_once_t once;
static AVPlayer *player;
dispatch_once(&once, ^{
player = [AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:currentItem];
});
return player;
}
- (AVPlayerLayer *)playerLayer {
static dispatch_once_t once;
static AVPlayerLayer *playerLayer;
dispatch_once(&once, ^{
playerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:[self player]];
});
return playerLayer;
}
I've narrowed down the problem to these singletons. If I remove the singleton pattern, no problem will occur, and I am able to play both kinds of videos.
Is there anything else I am supposed to do when I "clean" the player?

Answer 1

It seems that AVPlayer class is not intended for reuse for items with different video compositions.
From the docs on [AVPlayer replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:] method:
Special Considerations
The new item must have the same compositor as the item it replaces, or
have no compositor.

Answer 2

I too ran into same problem recently. I solved it by maintaining 2 instances of the AVQueuePlayer - One to play Mp4 and other for M3u8.
And switched between these players by hiding one player view and showing the other based on the video format (Mp4/M3u8).