AVPlayer layer inside a view does not resize when UIView frame changes

Question

I have a UIView which contains an AVPlayer to show a video. When changing orientation, I need to change the size and location of the video.

<

Answer 1

Actually you shouldn't add AVPlayer's layer as a sublayer. Instead of that you should use the following method, in the subclass of view in which you want to display AVPlayer.

+ (Class)layerClass
{
     return [AVPlayerLayer class];
}

And use the following line to add(set) the player layer.

[(AVPlayerLayer *)self.layer setPlayer:self.avPlayer];

Hope it helps;-)

Answer 2

Found a great article by Marco Santarossa that shows multiple approaches to fixing. https://marcosantadev.com/calayer-auto-layout-swift/

I used his first suggestion to reset the layer frame during viewDidLayoutSubViews() event.

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
    super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()
    playerLayer.frame = view.layer.bounds
}

Answer 3

theDunc's answer did not work for me. I found a solution that is more simple: I just needed to adjust the frame of the AVPlayerLayer after changing it in the UIView:

avPlayerLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.width, self.view.frame.size.height);

In this blog is stated, that a View's frame also affect that of the layer in it.

When you change a view’s frame, it’s simply changing the layer’s frame.

For this case, it is not true.

Answer 4

  playerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFit;

Answer 5

To get to playerLayer, you need to loop through videoHolderView.layer.sublayers and change each one.

this is what I did in Swift 2.2

if let sublayers = videoHolderView.layer.sublayers{
    for layer in sublayers where layer is AVPlayerLayer{
        layer.frame.size = ... // change size of the layer here
    }
}

Answer 6

Converting @Suran's solution to Swift:

First, create a class inheriting UIView where you override only 1 variable:

import UIKit
import AVFoundation

class AVPlayerView: UIView {
    override class var layerClass: AnyClass {
        return AVPlayerLayer.self
    }
}

Then add a simple UIView using the interface builder and change its class to the one you just created: AVPlayerView

Then, make an outlet for that view. Call it avPlayerView

@IBOutlet weak var avPlayerView: AVPlayerView!

Now, you can use that view inside your viewcontroller and access its avlayer like this:

let avPlayer = AVPlayer(url: video)
let castedLayer = avPlayerView.layer as! AVPlayerLayer
castedLayer.player = avPlayer
avPlayer.play()

The layer will now follow the constraints just like a regular layer would do. No need to manually change bounds or sizes.