Playing two videos in sequence withou any gap or pause between them in iOS 5 - objective-c

Question

In my app, I should play firstvideo at once, and then play second video, which will on repeat. So, at first I used MPMoviePlayerController, but there already was a black screen between two videos. So, I read somewhere, that in my case I should use AVFoundation. That's whe I use AVQueuePLayer with two AVPLayerItem, which I create with my NSURL. But issue is, that after first video finished, there is a long pause. Nearly for 0.5 sec, before second vide o starts. How remove it? What way to use? So, I really appreciate any help! I need it very much, as soon as possible. Thanks!
Here all my methods which I use:
- (void) configureAVPlayer {
self.queuePlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndPause;
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
addObserver:self
selector:#selector(playerItemDidReachEnd:)
name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification
object:self.queuePlayer];
self.isFirstVideoFinished = NO;
[self playVideos];
}
- (void) playVideos {
[self setPlayerItemsForQueue];
[self.videoHolder setPlayer:self.queuePlayer];
}
- (void) setPlayerItemsForQueue {
NSURL *fileURL = [[NSBundle mainBundle]
URLForResource:[self getStringForMode:self.currentMode] withExtension:#"mp4"];
NSMutableString *secondFile = [self getStringForMode:self.currentMode];
[secondFile appendString:#"Second"];
NSURL *secondFileUrl = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:secondFile withExtension:#"mp4"];
AVAsset *firstAsset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:fileURL];
AVPlayerItem *firstVideoItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset:firstAsset];//[AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:fileURL];
AVAsset *secondAsset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:secondFileUrl];
AVPlayerItem *secondVideoItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset:secondAsset];//[AVPlayerItem playerItemWithURL:secondFileUrl];
self.queuePlayer = [AVQueuePlayer queuePlayerWithItems: [NSArray arrayWithObjects:firstVideoItem, secondVideoItem,nil]];
for (AVPlayerItem *playerItem in self.queuePlayer.items) {
[playerItem addObserver: self forKeyPath: #"status" options:0 context:NULL];
}
}
- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object
change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context {
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
if ([(AVPlayerItem *)object status] == AVPlayerItemStatusReadyToPlay) {
[self.queuePlayer play];
}
});
}
- (void) playerItemDidReachEnd:(NSNotification*) notification {
NSMutableString *secondFile = [self getStringForMode:self.currentMode];
[secondFile appendString:#"Second"];
NSURL *secondFileUrl = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:secondFile withExtension:#"mp4"];
AVPlayerItem *playerItem = [[ AVPlayerItem alloc ] initWithURL:secondFileUrl];
if ([self.queuePlayer canInsertItem:playerItem afterItem:[notification object]]) {
[self.queuePlayer insertItem: playerItem afterItem: nil ];
}
}

Answer 1

Yes, multiple AVPlayer objects are your best option.
I solved this problem with a main timer function which monitored the current playback time of firstVideoItem, and when it was 0.01 seconds from the end, I would flip the players on the alpha channel, so secondVideoItem was visible, then play secondVideoItem.
I also used [secondVideoItem seekToTime:CMTimeMakeWithSeconds(1,1)] before issuing the play command to make sure the second video was initialised and ready to play. This helped a lot.