iPhone:Programmatically compressing recorded video to share?

Question

I have implemented an overlay view when calling camera view before recording the video.

pickerController.cameraOverlayView =myOverlay;

Video recording and saving the video into Album after recording the video and sharing via email etc. all works fine.

If i use video quality as "High quality", then the recorded video has become huge size. For example, if i record video for 30 seconds with high quality, recorded video has become around 30 - 40 mb.

pickerController.videoQuality = UIImagePickerControllerQualityTypeHigh;

How do i program to compress the high quality recorded video before sharing it, like how Apple does with built-in Video recorder?

Please guide me to resolve this.

Thanks!

UPDATED:

This is what i'm trying recently, but still no success: I want to compress the recorded video taken which comes to didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo and store in same photo album actual video path itself, not anywhere else. I tested the same video is compressed to very small size when i pick from photo library, but the same video taken from camera and came via didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo is not compressed, though i used the AVAssetExportSession code below.

- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info{

    NSString *mediaType = [info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerMediaType];


if ([mediaType isEqualToString:(NSString *)kUTTypeMovie])
{

    NSURL *videoURL = [info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerMediaURL];
    NSString *urlPath = [videoURL path];

    if ([[urlPath lastPathComponent] isEqualToString:@"capturedvideo.MOV"])
    {
        if (UIVideoAtPathIsCompatibleWithSavedPhotosAlbum (urlPath))
        {
            [self copyTempVideoToMediaLibrary :urlPath];


        }
        else
        {
            NSLog(@"Video Capture Error: Captured video cannot be saved...didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo()");                
        }
    }       
    else
    {
        NSLog(@"Processing soon to saved photos album...else loop of lastPathComponent..didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo()");
    }
}    
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}

- (void)copyTempVideoToMediaLibrary :(NSString *)videoURL {

        dispatch_queue_t mainQueue = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0);

dispatch_async(mainQueue, ^{

    ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init] autorelease];

    ALAssetsLibraryWriteVideoCompletionBlock completionBlock = ^(NSURL *assetURL, NSError *error) {
        NSLog(@"Saved URL: %@", assetURL);
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);

        if (assetURL != nil) {

            AVURLAsset *theAsset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:videoURL] options:nil];

            NSArray *compatiblePresets = [AVAssetExportSession exportPresetsCompatibleWithAsset:theAsset];

            AVAssetExportSession *exportSession = [[AVAssetExportSession alloc] initWithAsset:theAsset presetName:AVAssetExportPresetLowQuality];

            [exportSession setOutputURL:[NSURL URLWithString:videoURL]];
            [exportSession setOutputFileType:AVFileTypeQuickTimeMovie];

            [exportSession exportAsynchronouslyWithCompletionHandler:^ {
                switch ([exportSession status]) {
                    case AVAssetExportSessionStatusFailed:
                        NSLog(@"Export session faied with error: %@", [exportSession error]);
                        break;
                    default:
                        //[self mediaIsReady];
                        break;
                }
            }];
        }
    };

    [library writeVideoAtPathToSavedPhotosAlbum:[NSURL URLWithString:videoURL] completionBlock:completionBlock];
});
}

Answer 1

If you want to compress the video for remote sharing and keep the original quality for local storage on the iPhone, you should look into AVAssetExportSession or AVAssetWriter.

Also read up on how iOS manages Assets.

- (void)convertVideoToLowQuailtyWithInputURL:(NSURL*)inputURL 
                                   outputURL:(NSURL*)outputURL 
                                     handler:(void (^)(AVAssetExportSession*))handler
{
    [[NSFileManager defaultManager] removeItemAtURL:outputURL error:nil];
    AVURLAsset *asset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:inputURL options:nil];
    AVAssetExportSession *exportSession = [[AVAssetExportSession alloc] initWithAsset:asset presetName:AVAssetExportPresetLowQuality];
    exportSession.outputURL = outputURL;
    exportSession.outputFileType = AVFileTypeQuickTimeMovie;
    [exportSession exportAsynchronouslyWithCompletionHandler:^(void) 
    {
        handler(exportSession);
        [exportSession release];
    }];
}

- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info

{   
    NSURL *videoURL = [info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerMediaURL];
    NSURL *outputURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:@"/Users/josh/Desktop/output.mov"];
    [self convertVideoToLowQuailtyWithInputURL:videoURL outputURL:outputURL handler:^(AVAssetExportSession *exportSession)
     {
         if (exportSession.status == AVAssetExportSessionStatusCompleted)
         {
             printf("completed\n");
         }
         else
         {
             printf("error\n");

         }
     }];

}

Answer 2

I guess the video is already compressed by the h264 codec. But you can try to use AVFoundation to capture the video files from camera. But I suspect you'll end up with the same file sizes.

Here is some statistics for the 10 seconds video file recorded on the iPhone 4 with different quality pressets.

high (1280х720) = ~14MB = ~11Mbit/s
640 (640х480) = ~4MB = ~3.2Mbit/s
medium (360х480) = ~1MB = ~820Kbit/s
low (144х192) = ~208KB = ~170Kbit/s

Answer 3

pickerController.videoQuality = UIImagePickerControllerQualityTypeMedium;

These are all the values you can pick from.

UIImagePickerControllerQualityTypeHigh    = 0,
UIImagePickerControllerQualityType640x480 = 3,
UIImagePickerControllerQualityTypeMedium  = 1,  // default value
UIImagePickerControllerQualityTypeLow     = 2

Answer 4

Programmatically compressing video with using swift

And don't forgot to add - import AssetsLibrary

func convertVideoWithMediumQuality(inputURL : NSURL){

            let VideoFilePath = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: NSTemporaryDirectory()).URLByAppendingPathComponent("mergeVideo\(arc4random()%1000)d").URLByAppendingPathExtension("mp4").absoluteString
            if NSFileManager.defaultManager().fileExistsAtPath(VideoFilePath) {
                do {
                    try NSFileManager.defaultManager().removeItemAtPath(VideoFilePath)
                } catch { }
            } 

            let savePathUrl =  NSURL(string: VideoFilePath)!

            let sourceAsset = AVURLAsset(URL: inputURL, options: nil)

            let assetExport: AVAssetExportSession = AVAssetExportSession(asset: sourceAsset, presetName: AVAssetExportPresetMediumQuality)!
            assetExport.outputFileType = AVFileTypeQuickTimeMovie
            assetExport.outputURL = savePathUrl
            assetExport.exportAsynchronouslyWithCompletionHandler { () -> Void in

                switch assetExport.status {
                case AVAssetExportSessionStatus.Completed:
                    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {
                        do {
                            let videoData = try NSData(contentsOfURL: savePathUrl, options: NSDataReadingOptions())
                            print("MB - \(videoData.length / (1024 * 1024))")
                        } catch {
                            print(error)
                        }

                    })
                case  AVAssetExportSessionStatus.Failed:
                    self.hideActivityIndicator(self.view)
                    print("failed \(assetExport.error)")
                case AVAssetExportSessionStatus.Cancelled:
                    self.hideActivityIndicator(self.view)
                    print("cancelled \(assetExport.error)")
                default:
                    self.hideActivityIndicator(self.view)
                    print("complete")
                }
            }

        }

Answer 5

Try this few lines :

    [[NSFileManager defaultManager] removeItemAtURL:outputURL error:nil];
    AVURLAsset *urlAsset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:inputURL options:nil];
    AVAssetExportSession *session = [[AVAssetExportSession alloc] initWithAsset: urlAsset presetName:AVAssetExportPresetLowQuality];
    session.outputURL = outputURL;
    session.outputFileType = AVFileTypeQuickTimeMovie;
    [session exportAsynchronouslyWithCompletionHandler:^(void) 
    {
        handler(session);

    }];

Answer 6

I found an excellent custom class(SDAVAssetExportSession) to do the video compression. You can download it from this link.

After downloading add SDAVAssetExportSession.h and SDAVAssetExportSession.m files into your project, Then the below code will help to do the compression. In below code you can compress video by specifying resolution and bitrate

#import "SDAVAssetExportSession.h"


- (void)compressVideoWithInputVideoUrl:(NSURL *) inputVideoUrl
{
    /* Create Output File Url */

    NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
    NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
    NSString *finalVideoURLString = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"compressedVideo.mp4"];
    NSURL *outputVideoUrl = ([[NSURL URLWithString:finalVideoURLString] isFileURL] == 1)?([NSURL URLWithString:finalVideoURLString]):([NSURL fileURLWithPath:finalVideoURLString]); // Url Should be a file Url, so here we check and convert it into a file Url


    SDAVAssetExportSession *compressionEncoder = [SDAVAssetExportSession.alloc initWithAsset:[AVAsset assetWithURL:inputVideoUrl]]; // provide inputVideo Url Here
    compressionEncoder.outputFileType = AVFileTypeMPEG4;
    compressionEncoder.outputURL = outputVideoUrl; //Provide output video Url here
    compressionEncoder.videoSettings = @
    {
    AVVideoCodecKey: AVVideoCodecH264,
    AVVideoWidthKey: @800,   //Set your resolution width here
    AVVideoHeightKey: @600,  //set your resolution height here
    AVVideoCompressionPropertiesKey: @
        {
        AVVideoAverageBitRateKey: @45000, // Give your bitrate here for lower size give low values
        AVVideoProfileLevelKey: AVVideoProfileLevelH264High40,
        },
    };
    compressionEncoder.audioSettings = @
    {
    AVFormatIDKey: @(kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC),
    AVNumberOfChannelsKey: @2,
    AVSampleRateKey: @44100,
    AVEncoderBitRateKey: @128000,
    };

    [compressionEncoder exportAsynchronouslyWithCompletionHandler:^
     {
         if (compressionEncoder.status == AVAssetExportSessionStatusCompleted)
         {
            NSLog(@"Compression Export Completed Successfully");
         }
         else if (compressionEncoder.status == AVAssetExportSessionStatusCancelled)
         {
             NSLog(@"Compression Export Canceled");
         }
         else
         {
              NSLog(@"Compression Failed");

         }
     }];

}

To Cancel Compression Use Below Line Of code

 [compressionEncoder cancelExport]; //Video compression cancel

Answer 7

I cracked this.

Use exportSession.fileLengthLimit = 1048576 * 10 //10 MB

10MB is hard coded number. Use according to your required bitrate.