How to play video inside a UIView without controls, like a background/wallpaper?

Question

The goal is to playback video file (*.mp4) inside a UIView without controls.

It will serve as a background/wallpaper on the ViewController and other controls, i.e. table

Answer 1

Swift

In Swift it is similar. Add the video to your resource bundle. My fuller answer is here.

import UIKit
import AVFoundation

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    var player: AVPlayer?

    @IBOutlet weak var videoViewContainer: UIView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        initializeVideoPlayerWithVideo()
    }

    func initializeVideoPlayerWithVideo() {

        // get the path string for the video from assets
        let videoString:String? = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "SampleVideo_360x240_1mb", ofType: "mp4")
        guard let unwrappedVideoPath = videoString else {return}

        // convert the path string to a url
        let videoUrl = URL(fileURLWithPath: unwrappedVideoPath)

        // initialize the video player with the url
        self.player = AVPlayer(url: videoUrl)

        // create a video layer for the player
        let layer: AVPlayerLayer = AVPlayerLayer(player: player)

        // make the layer the same size as the container view
        layer.frame = videoViewContainer.bounds

        // make the video fill the layer as much as possible while keeping its aspect size
        layer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.resizeAspectFill

        // add the layer to the container view
        videoViewContainer.layer.addSublayer(layer)
    }

    @IBAction func playVideoButtonTapped(_ sender: UIButton) {
        // play the video if the player is initialized
        player?.play()
    }
}

Answer 2

I've reached the goal with the native AVPlayer

1.Used AVFoundation:

#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>

2.Used property for player:

@property (nonatomic) AVPlayer *avPlayer;

3.Added video file into "Video" folder and added "Video" into project

4.Initialized the player

NSString *filepath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"shutterstock_v885172.mp4" ofType:nil inDirectory:@"Video"];
NSURL *fileURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:filepath];
self.avPlayer = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:fileURL];
self.avPlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndNone;

AVPlayerLayer *videoLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.avPlayer];
videoLayer.frame = self.view.bounds;
videoLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill;
[self.view.layer addSublayer:videoLayer];

[self.avPlayer play];

5.Subscribed for event - video did play to the end

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(itemDidFinishPlaying:) name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification object:[self.avPlayer currentItem]]; 

6.Resumed video playing from the very start in related method

- (void)itemDidFinishPlaying:(NSNotification *)notification {
    AVPlayerItem *player = [notification object];
    [player seekToTime:kCMTimeZero];
}