How to play YouTube content on tvOS

Question

How would one play a YouTube video on Apple tvOS?

YouTube\'s embed feature works in iOS 9 as the OS has a UIWebView we can embed it into. The new tvOS does not incl

Answer 1

I used this one https://cocoapods.org/pods/youtube-parser

Youtube.h264videosWithYoutubeURL(testURL) { (videoInfo, error) -> Void in
    if let videoURLString = videoInfo?["url"] as? String,
         videoTitle = videoInfo?["title"] as? String {
             print("\(videoTitle)")
             print("\(videoURLString)")
             self.playVideo(videoURLString)
    }
}

Answer 2

XCDYouTubeKit has been a popular way to directly play a YouTube video on iOS for a while, and the developer recently updated it to support the new AppleTV.

Here's the code from the Objective-C example:

AVPlayerViewController *playerViewController = [AVPlayerViewController new];
[self presentViewController:playerViewController animated:YES completion:nil];

__weak AVPlayerViewController *weakPlayerViewController = playerViewController;
[[XCDYouTubeClient defaultClient] getVideoWithIdentifier:playlistItem.snippet.resourceId.videoId completionHandler:^(XCDYouTubeVideo * _Nullable video, NSError * _Nullable error) {
    if (video)
    {
        NSDictionary *streamURLs = video.streamURLs;
        NSURL *streamURL = streamURLs[XCDYouTubeVideoQualityHTTPLiveStreaming] ?: streamURLs[@(XCDYouTubeVideoQualityHD720)] ?: streamURLs[@(XCDYouTubeVideoQualityMedium360)] ?: streamURLs[@(XCDYouTubeVideoQualitySmall240)];
        weakPlayerViewController.player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:streamURL];
        [weakPlayerViewController.player play];
    }
    else
    {
        [self dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
    }
}];

Swift example here.

Answer 3

As an addition to Daniel Storm's answer, you can also achieve this with the new TVML language using the code:

<lockup videoURL="http://mp4-url.mp4">
<img src="video thumbnail.jpg" />
</lockup>

(for this to work you'll need the direct video file (mp4) which also is not allowed by the Youtube TOS)

EDIT, found also the .JS solution: How do I play a video on tvOS for Apple TV?

Answer 4

Swift 2.0 version of Daniel Storm's answer:

let youTubeString : String = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE"
let videos : NSDictionary = HCYoutubeParser.h264videosWithYoutubeURL(NSURL(string: youTubeString))
let urlString : String = videos["medium"] as! String
let asset = AVAsset(URL: NSURL(string: urlString)!)

let avPlayerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset:asset)
let avPlayer = AVPlayer(playerItem: avPlayerItem)
let avPlayerLayer  = AVPlayerLayer(player: avPlayer)
avPlayerLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.width, self.view.frame.height);
self.view.layer.addSublayer(avPlayerLayer)
avPlayer.play()

Answer 5

Sadly, even an Apple Staff person echoed the “negative” on this. From an Apple Developer Forums thread on the topic:

There is no support for WebViews on tvOS, and so an iframe implementation will not work. TVML does not offer this capability.

Answer 6

After some trying I'm happy to announce that:

youtube://watch/video_id

will open the YouTube app and play the YouTube video.

Enjoy.