Extract thumbnail from video url

Question

I have to extract a thumbnail from a video (from url) and I use this code:

NSString *stringUrl = video.stringurl;
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:stringUrl         


        

Answer 1

I'm trying as well to grab a screenshot from an HLS variable bitrate stream, I.E. M3U8, and none of the methods provided here worked for me.

I did succeed at the end. First you need to attach an AVPlayerItemVideoOutput to your player:

 self.playerAV = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:localURL];

    NSDictionary* settings = @{ (id)kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey : [NSNumber numberWithInt:kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA] };
    AVPlayerItemVideoOutput* output = [[AVPlayerItemVideoOutput alloc] initWithPixelBufferAttributes:settings];
    [self.playerAV.currentItem addOutput:output];

Now when you wanna grab the screenshot:

  CVPixelBufferRef pixelBuffer = [output copyPixelBufferForItemTime:player.currentTime itemTimeForDisplay:nil];
            CIImage *ciImage = [CIImage imageWithCVPixelBuffer:pixelBuffer];

            CIContext *temporaryContext = [CIContext contextWithOptions:nil];
            CGImageRef videoImage = [temporaryContext
                                     createCGImage:ciImage
                                     fromRect:CGRectMake(0, 0,
                                                         CVPixelBufferGetWidth(pixelBuffer),
                                                         CVPixelBufferGetHeight(pixelBuffer))];

            image = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:videoImage];
            image = [image cropImageToSize:maxSize withProportionDiffLargerThan:IMAGE_PROPORTION_DIFF];

            if ( videoImage )
            {
                CGImageRelease(videoImage);
            }