MPMoviePlayerViewController not playing on 2nd run - objective-c

Question

I created a MPMoviePlayerViewController which plays a live video. However, if I play the video twice meaning opening the player, clicking done, and playing the stream again. The result is only a black screen with no controls of the MPMoviePlayerViewController. And I need to stop the simulator cause I think the application is crashing. Here's how I did it
- (void) playUrl:(NSURL *)movieInfo
{
NSURL *streamUrl = movieInfo;
MPMoviePlayerViewController *mpvc = [[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:streamUrl];
[[mpvc view] setFrame:self.view.bounds];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(movieFinishedCallback:)
name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
object:nil];
mpvc.moviePlayer.movieSourceType = MPMovieSourceTypeStreaming;
[mpvc.moviePlayer setControlStyle:MPMovieControlStyleFullscreen];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setShouldAutoplay:YES];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setFullscreen:NO animated:YES];
[mpvc setModalTransitionStyle:UIModalTransitionStyleCoverVertical];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeNone];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setUseApplicationAudioSession:NO];
[self presentMoviePlayerViewControllerAnimated:mpvc];
}
- (void) movieFinishedCallback:(NSNotification*) aNotification
{
MPMoviePlayerController *player = [aNotification object];
[player stop];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
object:player];
[player.view removeFromSuperview];
NSLog(#"stopped?");
}

Answer 1

I see that in your movieFinishedCallback: implementation, you remove the MPMoviePlayerController view, but in your playUrl: implementation, you are only setting the view's frame, presumably after you have already added the view in viewDidLoad.
One obvious change which is worth trying, is update you code to use the AVPictureInPictureController or AVPlayerViewController class from the AVKit framework, or the WKWebView class from WebKit. According to the MPMoviePlayerViewController docs, it is deprecated as of iOS 9:
The MPMoviePlayerViewController class is formally deprecated in iOS 9. (The MPMoviePlayerController class is also formally deprecated.) To play video content in iOS 9 and later, instead use the AVPictureInPictureController or AVPlayerViewController class from the AVKit framework, or the WKWebView class from WebKit.
Try moving the line where you add the view to the hierarchy, to the playUrl: method. Generally, it is good practice to have countering implementations in opposing methods for your event counterparts. For instance, implement a method to build and add a view when an event starts, and have a corresponding method where you tear down and remove the same view when the same event ends. But, I say 'generally' because there are always exceptions, and you may have very compelling reasons for not doing so. So, in this case, the opposing calls are presentMoviePlayerViewControllerAnimated: and dismissMoviePlayerViewControllerAnimated:, available from the UIViewController category.
After changing the view access to using dot-notation, to be consistent with your callback implementation, here is what your new playUrl: implemntation would look like, assuming you're adding the view to self.view:
- (void) playUrl:(NSURL *)movieInfo
{
NSURL *streamUrl = movieInfo;
MPMoviePlayerViewController *mpvc = [[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:streamUrl];
[mpvc.view setFrame:self.view.bounds];
[self.view addSubview:mpvc.view];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:#selector(movieFinishedCallback:)
name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
object:nil];
mpvc.moviePlayer.movieSourceType = MPMovieSourceTypeStreaming;
[mpvc.moviePlayer setControlStyle:MPMovieControlStyleFullscreen];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setShouldAutoplay:YES];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setFullscreen:NO animated:YES];
[mpvc setModalTransitionStyle:UIModalTransitionStyleCoverVertical];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeNone];
[mpvc.moviePlayer setUseApplicationAudioSession:NO];
[self presentMoviePlayerViewControllerAnimated:mpvc];
}
Another option is to simply not remove the player's view in your callback method. If that is not the culprit, then the next thing I would investigate is check if you are sending messages to nil objects. Also, see what happens when you take out all the implementation from movieFinishedCallback:, except for getting and stopping the player.
I hope that helps!

Answer 2

Fixed the issue by removing the [player.view removeFromSuperview] line