Why not init two MPMoviePlayerController in a view? - ios

Question

System： iOS 7.0
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSArray *docPaths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *audioPath = [[docPaths objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"test.mp4"];
if (YES == [fileManager fileExistsAtPath:audioPath])
{
MPMoviePlayerController *moviePlayer = nil;
//1
moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL: [NSURL fileURLWithPath:audioPath]];
[moviePlayer setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeAspectFit];
[moviePlayer setControlStyle: MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded];
[moviePlayer.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[moviePlayer.view setFrame: CGRectMake(20, 240, 80, 80)];
moviePlayer.shouldAutoplay = NO;
[moviePlayer prepareToPlay];
self.abcd = moviePlayer;
[self.view addSubview: moviePlayer.view];
//2
moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL: [NSURL fileURLWithPath:audioPath]];
[moviePlayer setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeAspectFit];
[moviePlayer setControlStyle: MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded];
[moviePlayer.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[moviePlayer.view setFrame: CGRectMake(20, 40, 80, 80)];
moviePlayer.shouldAutoplay = NO;
[moviePlayer prepareToPlay];
self.edf = moviePlayer;
[self.view addSubview: moviePlayer.view];
}
When I init two MPMoviePlayerControllers, why does it only display one？ If I only init #1, it's ok, and if only init #2, it's also ok, but if I init both #1 and #2, it only displays #2. Why is this happening? Thanks.

Answer 1

Can you elaborate on what you mean by it will only "display" one? You can add both views, but according to Apple's documentation:
Note: Although you can create multiple MPMoviePlayerController objects and present their views in your interface, only one movie player at a time can play its movie.
source: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/mediaplayer/reference/MPMoviePlayerController_Class/Reference/Reference.html

Answer 2

EDIT: See Sean's answer, that's probably the issue.
You need to create two different instances of MPMoviePlayerController. What you are doing is creating an instance of MPMoviePlayerController called moviePlayer and then overwriting it when you create the second. You want to create two unique instances, like:
MPMoviePlayerController *moviePlayer1 = nil;
MPMoviePlayerController *moviePlayer2 = nil;
//1
moviePlayer1 = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL: [NSURL fileURLWithPath:audioPath]];
[moviePlayer1 setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeAspectFit];
[moviePlayer1 setControlStyle: MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded];
[moviePlayer1.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[moviePlayer1.view setFrame: CGRectMake(20, 240, 80, 80)];
moviePlayer1.shouldAutoplay = NO;
[moviePlayer1 prepareToPlay];
self.abcd = moviePlayer1;
[self.view addSubview: moviePlayer1.view];
//2
moviePlayer2 = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL: [NSURL fileURLWithPath:audioPath]];
[moviePlayer2 setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeAspectFit];
[moviePlayer2 setControlStyle: MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded];
[moviePlayer2.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[moviePlayer2.view setFrame: CGRectMake(20, 40, 80, 80)];
moviePlayer2.shouldAutoplay = NO;
[moviePlayer2 prepareToPlay];
self.edf = moviePlayer2;
[self.view addSubview: moviePlayer2.view];
Another example of what you're doing is this:
NSString *string = nil; // first string is nil
string = #"red"; // then you create another string "red" and set it to string
string = #"blue"; // then you create another string "blue" and set it to string
No matter what you do, after this string will ALWAYS be "blue" and "red" is basically gone.