Extract thumbnail from video url

Question

I have to extract a thumbnail from a video (from url) and I use this code:

NSString *stringUrl = video.stringurl;
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:stringUrl];

AVURLAsset *asset = [[AVURLAsset alloc] initWithURL:url options:nil];
AVAssetImageGenerator *imageGenerator = [[AVAssetImageGenerator alloc]initWithAsset:asset];
[imageGenerator setRequestedTimeToleranceBefore:kCMTimeZero];
[imageGenerator setRequestedTimeToleranceAfter:kCMTimeZero];

CGImageRef imageRef = [imageGenerator copyCGImageAtTime:playerCurrentTime actualTime:&actualtime error:&error];
UIImage *thumbnail = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imageRef];

CGImageRelease(imageRef);

But sometime I have an error with copyCGImageAtTime and the thumbnail is not generated. The error is: Error save image Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11800 "The operation could not be completed"(OSStatus error -12792.)", NSLocalizedFailureReason=An unknown error occurred (-12792)}

Here is the link which I have read a solution but if a use fileURLWithPath: instead of URLWithString: the method add to the end of the url an "-- file://localhost/" that invalidates the url. So I don't know what I can do.

Answer 1

If you are using MPMoviePlayerController then you can use this code to generate thumbnail from video URL.

NSString *stringUrl = video.stringurl;
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:stringUrl];
MPMoviePlayerController *player = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:url];
UIImage *thumbnail = [player thumbnailImageAtTime:1.0 timeOption:MPMovieTimeOptionNearestKeyFrame];

But, using this code, player will start autoplaying audio. So, you have to stop the player with this code :

//Player autoplays audio on init
[player stop];

---

Update :

Error save image Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11800 "The operation could not be completed"(OSStatus error -12792.)", NSLocalizedFailureReason=An unknown error occurred (-12792)}

The Error is probably due to use of URLWithString . I think you should use -fileURLWithPath instead of URLWithString .

Sample Code :

NSString *stringUrl = video.stringurl;
NSURL *vidURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:stringUrl];

AVURLAsset *asset = [[AVURLAsset alloc] initWithURL:vidURL options:nil];
AVAssetImageGenerator *generate = [[AVAssetImageGenerator alloc] initWithAsset:asset];

NSError *err = NULL;
CMTime time = CMTimeMake(1, 60);

CGImageRef imgRef = [generate copyCGImageAtTime:time actualTime:NULL error:&err];
UIImage *thumbnail = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imgRef];

Answer 2

I'm trying as well to grab a screenshot from an HLS variable bitrate stream, IE M3U8, and none of the methods provided here worked for me.

I did succeed at the end. First you need to attach an AVPlayerItemVideoOutput to your player:

 self.playerAV = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:localURL];

    NSDictionary* settings = @{ (id)kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey : [NSNumber numberWithInt:kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA] };
    AVPlayerItemVideoOutput* output = [[AVPlayerItemVideoOutput alloc] initWithPixelBufferAttributes:settings];
    [self.playerAV.currentItem addOutput:output];

Now when you wanna grab the screenshot:

  CVPixelBufferRef pixelBuffer = [output copyPixelBufferForItemTime:player.currentTime itemTimeForDisplay:nil];
            CIImage *ciImage = [CIImage imageWithCVPixelBuffer:pixelBuffer];

            CIContext *temporaryContext = [CIContext contextWithOptions:nil];
            CGImageRef videoImage = [temporaryContext
                                     createCGImage:ciImage
                                     fromRect:CGRectMake(0, 0,
                                                         CVPixelBufferGetWidth(pixelBuffer),
                                                         CVPixelBufferGetHeight(pixelBuffer))];

            image = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:videoImage];
            image = [image cropImageToSize:maxSize withProportionDiffLargerThan:IMAGE_PROPORTION_DIFF];

            if ( videoImage )
            {
                CGImageRelease(videoImage);
            }

Answer 3

AVAssetImageGenerator does not work for HSL videos.

I was able to get an image from the HSL video using the sample code below.

Sample code :

CMTime currentTime = _player.currentItem.currentTime;
CVPixelBufferRef buffer = [_videoOutput copyPixelBufferForItemTime:currentTime itemTimeForDisplay:nil];
CIImage *ciImage = [CIImage imageWithCVPixelBuffer:buffer];
UIImage *thumbImage = [UIImage imageWithCIImage:ciImage];

Answer 4

on one of my app i've captured an image from the video url like this:

MPMoviePlayerController *player = [[[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:videoURL]autorelease];
UIImage  *thumbnail = [player thumbnailImageAtTime:0.0 timeOption:MPMovieTimeOptionNearestKeyFrame];

just passing the url object as videoURL and with the use of MPMoviePlayerController i successfully able to have the image all the time. hope you too will be able to do this with this simple code

Answer 5

If you are using AVPlayer, you can get the thumbnail like this:

AVAsset *asset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:sourceURL];
AVAssetImageGenerator *imageGenerator = [[AVAssetImageGenerator alloc]initWithAsset:asset];
CMTime time = CMTimeMake(1, 1);
CGImageRef imageRef = [imageGenerator copyCGImageAtTime:time actualTime:NULL error:NULL];
UIImage *thumbnail = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imageRef];
CGImageRelease(imageRef);  // CGImageRef won't be released by ARC