Question

I’m having a very strange problem. I want a video to appear in landscape mode, but I can’t seem to make it work. Even if I can’t make it always show Landscape, at least I want it to show ok, and I can’t make that either!! Here is my code:

#import "SplashViewController.h"
#import "MainViewController.h"
#import "MediaPlayer/MediaPlayer.h"

@interface SplashViewController ()
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSTimer *timer;
@end

@implementation SplashViewController
@synthesize timer = _timer;

-(BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation
{
    return YES;
}

- (id)init
{
    if ([[UIDevice currentDevice] userInterfaceIdiom] == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone) {
        self = [self initWithNibName:@"SplashViewController_iPhone" bundle:nil];
    } else {
        self = [self initWithNibName:@"SplashViewController_iPad" bundle:nil];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [self.navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:YES];
}

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

    NSString *url = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"intro.mp4"];

    playerViewController = [[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:url]];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
    addObserver:self
    selector:@selector(movieFinishedCallback:)
    name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
    object:[playerViewController moviePlayer]];

    [playerViewController shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation: UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight];

    [self.view addSubview:playerViewController.view];

    //play movie
    MPMoviePlayerController *player = [playerViewController moviePlayer];
    player.scalingMode = MPMovieScalingModeAspectFill;
    [player play];
}

- (void) movieFinishedCallback:(NSNotification*) aNotification {
    MPMoviePlayerController *player = [aNotification object];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
    removeObserver:self
    name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
    object:player];
    [player stop];

    [player.view removeFromSuperview];

    [self loadMainView];
}

- (void)loadMainView 
{
    MainViewController *mainVC = [[MainViewController alloc] init];
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:mainVC animated:YES];
}

- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
}

@end

And here comes the weirdness…

If I start the app with my iPad physically in Landscape Mode, the video shows like this (please not that the bar at the top is shorter than the widht! :O)

If I then rotate the iPad to Portrait, it looks like this:

But then, if I start the app with my iPad physically in Portrait Mode, the video shows like this:

And if I then rotate the iPad to Landscape, it looks like this:

Which is GREAT! This final image is what I would like the video to always look like.
Any ideas what I might be doing wrong???

Thanks!

EDIT 1

Ok, with @Tark answer I was able to fix the player display issue. Now it’s showing fine no matter how I start the app. Thanks for that!! What is missing now is the always landscape mode.

I tried with the following methods:

-(BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation{
    return (toInterfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft || toInterfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight);
}

-(BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation{
    return UIInterfaceOrientationIsLandscape(toInterfaceOrientation);
}

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
    if (interfaceOrientation==UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight)
        return YES;
    return NO;
}

I also tried inserting the row
Initial interface orientation = Landscape (right home button)
In the Info.plist

What I’m getting is that if I start the app in Landscape mode, if I rotate the iPad to Portrait, it stays in Landscape. GREAT!
But if I start the app in Portrait mode, the video shows in Portrait mode. Once I rotate it to Landscape, I can’t rotate it back to Portrait, which is good, but I don’t want it to start in Portrait!

EDIT 2

Ok, now this is even more weird. If I try it on an iPhone, it works great. No matter if I start the app in Landscape or Portrait, the video is shown always in Landscape.

But if I try it on an iPad, the problem in EDIT 1 arises… :S

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Have you tried setting the frame of the MPMoviePlayerViewControllers view when you add it as a subview?

...
playerViewController.view.frame = self.view.bounds;
[self.view addSubview:playerViewController.view];
...

To make the app only run in landscape mode, you should make sure that you have only selected the orientations you want in the app plist. In Xcode 4 there is a handy Supported Interface Orientations section in the target settings, make sure you only select landscape here. If you still have the issue, you have to make sure that you are disabling autorotation on all visible controllers in the view stack.