Question

I have a simple HTTP server running that pretty much just serves an MP3 file in chunks of equal size. I’m writing an iOS app (for testing purposes), that basically takes a URL and streams the file through MPMovieController. Here’s my sample code:

MPMoviePlayerController *mp = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] init];
[mp setMovieSourceType:MPMovieSourceTypeStreaming];
mp.contentURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://127.0.0.1:8080"];
[mp play];

It works. BUT: on my http server I see multiple connections (first one breaks right away, second one streams to the end usually, although sometimes there is 3rd connection).

I know it’s not the server issue, since when I do this:

NSData *myData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://127.0.0.1:8080"]];

…then there’s only 1 connection that finishes reading and disconnects.

The question is: Why does MPMoviePlayerController need to establish and break those connections before finishing reading the file, why doesn’t it just keep waiting for more data to be written on the socket? I haven’t been able to find any relevant docs that would explain this 🙁

P.S. If you are curious why I need this, here’s a short explanation: I’m trying to emulate real life network scenarios where bytes are received by the MPMovieController in chunks with small delays of random length in between

Answer 1

You need to modify your server and add support for HTTP 206 Partial Content requests/responses. iOS requests movie data over HTTP this way.