Simultaneous AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and AVCaptureMovieFileOutput

Question

I need to be able to have AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and AVCaptureMovieFileOutput working at the same time. The below code works, however, the video recording does not. The didFinishRecordingToOutputFileAtURL delegate is called directly after startRecordingToOutputFileURL is called. Now if i remove AVCaptureVideoDataOutput from the AVCaptureSession by simply commenting out the line:

[captureSession addOutput:captureDataOutput];

The video recording works but then the SampleBufferDelegate is not called (which i need).

How can i go about having AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and AVCaptureMovieFileOutput working simultaneously.

- (void)initCapture {
 AVCaptureDeviceInput *captureInput = [AVCaptureDeviceInput deviceInputWithDevice:[AVCaptureDevice defaultDeviceWithMediaType:AVMediaTypeVideo] error:NULL]; 

 captureDataOutput = [[AVCaptureVideoDataOutput alloc] init]; 
 [captureDataOutput setSampleBufferDelegate:self queue:dispatch_get_main_queue()]; 

 m_captureFileOutput = [[AVCaptureMovieFileOutput alloc] init];

 NSString* key = (NSString*)kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey; 
 NSNumber* value = [NSNumber numberWithUnsignedInt:kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA]; 
 NSDictionary* videoSettings = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:value forKey:key]; 

 [captureDataOutput setVideoSettings:videoSettings]; 

 captureSession = [[AVCaptureSession alloc] init]; 

 [captureSession addInput:captureInput];
 [captureSession addOutput:m_captureFileOutput]; 
 [captureSession addOutput:captureDataOutput]; 

 [captureSession beginConfiguration]; 
 [captureSession setSessionPreset:AVCaptureSessionPresetLow]; 
 [captureSession commitConfiguration]; 

 [self performSelector:@selector(startRecording) withObject:nil afterDelay:10.0];
 [self performSelector:@selector(stopRecording) withObject:nil afterDelay:15.0];

 [captureSession startRunning];
}


- (void) startRecording
{
    [m_captureFileOutput startRecordingToOutputFileURL:[self tempFileURL] recordingDelegate:self];

}

- (void) stopRecording
{
    if([m_captureFileOutput isRecording])
 [m_captureFileOutput stopRecording];

}


- (NSURL *) tempFileURL
{
 NSString *outputPath = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"%@%@", NSTemporaryDirectory(), @"camera.mov"];
 NSURL *outputURL = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath:outputPath];
 NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
 if ([fileManager fileExistsAtPath:outputPath]) {
  [[NSFileManager defaultManager] removeItemAtPath:outputPath error:nil];
 [outputPath release];
 return [outputURL autorelease];
}



- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureFileOutput *)captureOutput didStartRecordingToOutputFileAtURL:(NSURL *)fileURL fromConnections:(NSArray *)connections
{
 NSLog(@"start record video");
}

- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureFileOutput *)captureOutput didFinishRecordingToOutputFileAtURL:(NSURL *)outputFileURL fromConnections:(NSArray *)connections error:(NSError *)error
{
 NSLog(@"end record");
}


- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureOutput *)captureOutput didOutputSampleBuffer:(CMSampleBufferRef)sampleBuffer fromConnection:(AVCaptureConnection *)connection 
{ 
      // do stuff with sampleBuffer
}

I should add i am getting the error:

Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-12780 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -12780.)" UserInfo=0x23fcd0 {AVErrorRecordingSuccessfullyFinishedKey=false}

from

- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureFileOutput *)captureOutput didFinishRecordingToOutputFileAtURL:(NSURL *)outputFileURL fromConnections:(NSArray *)connections error:(NSError *)error

Cheers

There is a proven working way to do this. More in this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4944083/can-use-avcapturevideodataoutput-and-avcapturemoviefileoutput-at-the-same-time — Oded Ben Dov, Jun 17 '12 at 11:49

score 38 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 11 '15 at 12:10

38

I have contacted an engineer at Apple's support and he told me that simultaneous AVCaptureVideoDataOutput + AVCaptureMovieFileOutput use is not supported. I don't know if they will support it in the future, but he used the word "not supported at this time".

I encourage you to fill a bug report / feature request on this, as I did (bugreport.apple.com), as they measure how hard people want something and we perhaps can see this in a near future.

edited Aug 11 '15 at 12:10

Mustafa

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answered Feb 13 '11 at 18:35

Duck

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2

Be sure to see Oded's comment above with a working solution: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4944083/can-use-avcapturevideodataoutput-and-avcapturemoviefileoutput-at-the-same-time – Stan James Jun 06 '14 at 20:56
@StanJames is it still the case today where oded's workaround is the best approach to using AVCaptureVideoDataOutput + AVCaptureMovieFileOutput simultaneously? – Crashalot Feb 06 '16 at 23:18
@StanJames if the goal is to create two videos simultaneously could you use two AVAssetWriters (with only AVCaptureVideoDataOutput) instead of both AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and AVCaptureMovieFileOutput? – Crashalot Feb 06 '16 at 23:34
Does anyone have an updates on whether this is still impossible or not? – Stephen Paul Nov 14 '16 at 20:36
@SpaceDog Could you provide a proof of this? – Alexander Yakovlev Feb 14 '17 at 08:50
@SashaKid - This was 6 years ago. At the time I have opened a paid technical incident to ask that and this was what they answered me, but like I said, that was 6 years ago. Perhaps it is possible to do that today, I don't know. – Duck Feb 15 '17 at 15:27
@SpaceDog I see that it's still not possible to have both AVCaptureVideoDataOutput + AVCaptureMovieFileOutput. My delegate method AVCaptureVideoDataOutputSampleBufferDelegate not called :-( – Alexander Yakovlev Feb 16 '17 at 08:07
To be honest, that's kind of ridiculous. There are so many situations where you'd need both and 7 years later it's still not possible. – willbattel Jun 29 '18 at 04:25
Apple never fixes anything that is important, unless it blows on them by the press. They fix what commercially makes sense for them. I have bugs there since 2008 that were never fixed and will ever be fixed. – Duck Jun 29 '18 at 11:17
03.2020 still nothing T_T – Artem Zaytsev Mar 22 '20 at 15:55

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '13 at 17:46

Although you cannot use AVCaptureVideoDataOutput, you can use AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer simultaneously with AVCaptureMovieFileOutput. See the "AVCam" example on Apple's Website.

In Xamarin.iOS, the code looks like this:

var session = new AVCaptureSession();

var camera = AVCaptureDevice.DefaultDeviceWithMediaType(AVMediaType.Video);
var  mic = AVCaptureDevice.DefaultDeviceWithMediaType(AVMediaType.Audio);
if(camera == null || mic == null){
    throw new Exception("Can't find devices");
}

if(session.CanAddInput(camera)){
    session.AddInput(camera);
}
if(session.CanAddInput(mic)){
   session.AddInput(mic);
}

var layer = new AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session);
layer.LayerVideoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.ResizeAspectFill;
layer.VideoGravity = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer.GravityResizeAspectFill;

cameraView = new UIView();
cameraView.Layer.AddSublayer(layer);

var filePath = System.IO.Path.Combine( Path.GetTempPath(), "temporary.mov");
var fileUrl = NSUrl.FromFilename( filePath );

var movieFileOutput = new AVCaptureMovieFileOutput();
var recordingDelegate = new MyRecordingDelegate();
session.AddOutput(movieFileOutput);

movieFileOutput.StartRecordingToOutputFile( fileUrl, recordingDelegate);

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '20 at 06:07

Still 9 years later Apple apparently does not seem to want this to work together.

But you can easily work with AVAssetWriter.

You can't use AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and AVCaptureMovieFileOutput on the same time. But you can use AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and analyse or modify on the data, then use AVAsseWriter to write the frames to a file.

Source: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/98113

How to save video with output using AVAssetWriter:

Save AVCaptureVideoDataOutput to movie file using AVAssetWriter in Swift

Simultaneous AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and AVCaptureMovieFileOutput

3 Answers3

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