通过HTTP流AAC音频时的AVPlayer延迟

Question

I'm using AVPlayer to stream an AAC audio from external server via HTTP like this:

AVPlayer *player = [[AVPlayer alloc] initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:myStreamURL]];
[player play];

This method works (it indeed plays audio) but not in a way I want it to work. The problem is that there is a very long delay (30 seconds) after invoking play method, then I have to wait 30 seconds looking on a spinning "downloading wheel" on status bar, and the audio plays fine but always after this delay, not earlier.

I think it actually downloads the audio, and plays it after it instead of streaming it.

I haven't figured how to resolve this issue so far, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It depends on the audio server, but what I do with AVPlayer is to observe player.currentItem.status property by KVO. When it becomes AVPlayerItemStatusReadyToPlay , invoke prerollAtRate . Then start playing within its completion handler.

[player prerollAtRate:1.0 completionHandler:^(BOOL finished){
    if (finished) {
        [player play];
    }
}];

Anyway, first it is recommended to observe "status" , "currentItem.status" and "currentItem.loadedTimeRanges" key paths on the AVPlayer instance, and log them when and how they change. You will see which part takes long time.