UIImagePickerController won't record a video - objective-c

Question

I want to record a video with UIImagePickerController. My Problem is that the method [imagePickerController startVideoCapture]; always returns 0. I am testing the application with an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.1. Could somebody please help me with this:
- (IBAction)playButtonPushed:(id)sender
{
if ([UIImagePickerController isSourceTypeAvailable:UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera])
{
UIView *videoView = self.videoViewController.view;
UIImagePickerController *imagePickerController = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] >init];
imagePickerController.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
imagePickerController.mediaTypes = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects: (NSString >*)kUTTypeMovie, nil];
imagePickerController.showsCameraControls = NO;
imagePickerController.toolbarHidden = NO;
imagePickerController.wantsFullScreenLayout = YES;
imagePickerController.allowsEditing = YES;
imagePickerController.videoQuality = UIImagePickerControllerQualityTypeMedium;
imagePickerController.videoMaximumDuration = 30;
[imagePickerController startVideoCapture];
imagePickerController.cameraViewTransform = > CGAffineTransformScale(self.imagePickerViewController.cameraViewTransform, CAMERA_TRANSFORM, CAMERA_TRANSFORM);
imagePickerController.delegate = self;
[self.imagePickerViewController setCameraOverlayView:videoView];
NSLog(#"%s videoCapture: %d", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, [imagePickerController > startVideoCapture]
);
[self presentModalViewController:imagePickerViewController animated:YES];
}
}
- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info
{
NSLog(#"didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo");
NSURL *videoURL = [info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerMediaURL];
NSData *videoData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:videoURL];
}
- (void)imagePickerControllerDidCancel:(UIImagePickerController *)picker
{
NSLog(#"Cancel");
}

Answer 1

I had the same problem and Apple's documentation didn't help. That's because they missed to mention that startVideoCapture() can return false if you haven't set the capture mode to .video like this:
picker.cameraCaptureMode = .video
This worked for me and I'm able to capture videos now.

Answer 2

If im not mistaken, the "startVideoCapture" method is a bool
Taken straight from apple documentation:
startVideoCapture
Starts video capture using the camera specified by the UIImagePickerControllerCameraDevice property.
- (BOOL)startVideoCapture
Return Value
YES on success or NO on failure. This method may return a value of NO for various reasons, among them the following:
Movie capture is already in progress
The device does not support movie capture
The device is out of disk space
Discussion
Use this method in conjunction with a custom overlay view to initiate the programmatic capture of a movie. You can take more than one movie without leaving the interface, but to do so requires you to hide the default image picker controls.
Calling this method while a movie is being captured has no effect. You must call the stopVideoCapture method, and then wait until the associated delegate object receives an imagePickerController:didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo: message, before you can capture another movie.
Calling this method when the source type of the image picker is set to a value other than UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera results in the throwing of an NSInvalidArgumentException exception.
If you require additional options or more control over movie capture, use the movie capture methods in the AV Foundation framework. Refer to AV Foundation Framework Reference.
Availability
Available in iOS 4.0 and later.
Declared In
UIImagePickerController.h
stopVideoCapture
Stops video capture.
- (void)stopVideoCapture
Discussion
After you call this method to stop video capture, the system calls the image picker delegate’s imagePickerController:didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo: method.
Availability
Available in iOS 4.0 and later.
Declared In
UIImagePickerController.h

Answer 3

Think you need to call the startVideoCapture method after calling presentModalViewController:animated: and not before.
You probably also need a short delay (<1s?) after the UIImagePickerController has been presented on-screen and the animation has stopped, then call startVideoCapture, otherwise there are times where it will not start recording.

Answer 4

I had exactly the same problem. AndyV has it right, the recording won't start until the picker has been presented. I spent a lot of time trying to introduce a delay with sleep, but the simplest solution is to start a timer after displaying the picker using
NSTimer *timer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval: 1.0 target:self selector:#selector(startRecording) userInfo:nil repeats: NO];
Then ..
- (void)startRecording
{
BOOL result = [picker startVideoCapture];
}