Question

I’m building an application which supports both video playback and recording (not simultaneously, it’s just two separate features it provides). In order to make the videos play after the app enters background and gets back, I had to add an App plays audio item to Required background modes in the plist (I’m using MPMoviePlayerController for playback).

This, however, causes a problem with my video recording (I’m using UIImagePickerController for it). Basically, even after the picker is dismissed (either by the Cancel button or when it’s finished picking media), the app still keeps the audio recording session running.

If I remove the App plays audio item from the plist, the ImagePickerController’s audio session stops misbehaving, but then I can’t resume the playback of MPMoviePlayerViewController on switching to app from background mode.

Is there a way I can customise the handling of the audio session so that both the MPMoviePlayerController and UIImagePickerController can work properly?

Answer 1

yes, there is a way you can customize the handling of the audio session for what you desire: don’t try to set the App plays audio setting.

instead, in your AppDelegate code (which is usually in AppDelegate.m from the simple wizard projects provided), supply code in the applicationWillResignActive: method that will stop the playback in your MPMoviePlayerController, and then use applicationDidBecomeActive: to resume the playback at the point at which you paused it if so desired.

this will not only allow the video to be resumed after a temporary pause, but it will allow you to save the state so that the video can be resumed in case the app is removed from memory or in case the user causes it to be quit.