Achieve smooth video scrubbing with AVPlayer

Question

I am trying to achieve smooth video scrubbing with AVPlayer through UISlider I have searched and it seems Apple has a Technical Q&A and explain

Answer 1

try to add selectors to your slider like this at the begining:

playerView.timeSlider.addTarget(self, action: #selector(PlayerViewController.timeSliderBeganTracking(_:)), for:.touchDown) // moved
        playerView.timeSlider.addTarget(self, action: #selector(PlayerViewController.timeSliderEndedTracking(_:)), for: .touchUpInside)
        playerView.timeSlider.addTarget(self, action: #selector(PlayerViewController.timeSliderEndedTracking(_:)), for: .touchUpOutside )

then in timeSliderBeganTracking set isSeekInProgress to true and pause your player and invalidate timers and remove observers if you have any

then in timeSliderEndedTracking seek to current time like this :

let currentSeconds = Float64(self.playerView.timeSlider.value) container.player.seek(to: CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(currentSeconds, 100)) then add the observers and timers back and at the end set isSeekInProgress to false

HERE you can find a complete sample of creating a custom videoPlayer

Answer 2

I know this is an old problem, I encountered it too. The solution can help someone now. Apple sample make slider super smooth and pretty. To make the sample work:

private static var context = 1
func playVideo() {
  ...
  player.addObserver(self, forKeyPath: #keyPath(AVPlayer.currentItem.status), options: [.new, .initial], context: &VideoViewController.context)
  ...
 }

override public func observeValue(forKeyPath keyPath: String?, of object: Any?, change: [NSKeyValueChangeKey : Any]?, context: UnsafeMutableRawPointer?) {
    guard let keyPath = keyPath else { return }
    guard context == &VideoViewController.context else { return }
    switch keyPath {
    case #keyPath(AVPlayer.currentItem.status):
        if let newStatus = change.map({ $0[.newKey] as? NSNumber }), 
           let parsedNewStatus = newStatus.map({ AVPlayerItem.Status(rawValue: $0.intValue) ?? .unknown})  {
            playerCurrentItemStatus = parsedNewStatus
        } else {
            playerCurrentItemStatus = .unknown
        }
    default: break
    }
}

Observe and update playerCurrentItemStatus

Answer 3

On slider value change event, just call the

stopPlayingAndSeekSmoothlyToTime(CMTime.init(seconds: (player.currentItem?.asset.duration.seconds)!* slider.value, preferredTimescale: 1000))

The Apples sample code will change the player current time. You can also adjust toleranceBefore and toleranceAfter if you scrub the slider really fast.

Answer 4

Although I'm not using the same method as you do which is stopPlayingAndSeekSmoothlyToTime, I thought I should help you with the seeking action of the player.

func sliderValueChanged() {
    var timeToSeek = player.currentItem?.asset.duration.seconds
    timeToSeek = timeToSeek * Double(slider.value)
    player.seek(to: CMTimeMake(Int64(timeToSeek), 1))
}

Also you should set the slider.maximumValue to 1. Hope this helps.

Note: Please don't forget to handle currentItem optional value. If it is nil you should set the value 0 for timeToSeek variable.