Converting CMTime to human readable time in objective-c

Question

So I have a CMTime from a video. How do I convert it into a nice string like in the video time duration label in the Photo App. Is there some convenience methods that handle this? Thanks.

AVURLAsset* videoAsset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:url options:nil];
CMTime videoDuration = videoAsset.duration;
float videoDurationSeconds = CMTimeGetSeconds(videoDuration);

score 41 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 09 '13 at 11:14

You can use this as well to get a video duration in a text format if you dont require a date format

AVURLAsset *videoAVURLAsset = [AVURLAsset assetWithURL:url];
CMTime durationV = videoAVURLAsset.duration;

NSUInteger dTotalSeconds = CMTimeGetSeconds(durationV);

NSUInteger dHours = floor(dTotalSeconds / 3600);
NSUInteger dMinutes = floor(dTotalSeconds % 3600 / 60);
NSUInteger dSeconds = floor(dTotalSeconds % 3600 % 60);

NSString *videoDurationText = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i:%02i:%02i",dHours, dMinutes, dSeconds];

`dTotalSeconds % 3600 % 60` is also `dTotalSeconds % 60` :) – Ja͢ck Dec 22 '14 at 05:59 — Ja͢ck, Dec 22 '14 at 05:59

score 18 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 05 '19 at 23:11

There is always an extension ;)

import CoreMedia

extension CMTime {
    var durationText:String {
        let totalSeconds = Int(CMTimeGetSeconds(self))
        let hours:Int = Int(totalSeconds / 3600)
        let minutes:Int = Int(totalSeconds % 3600 / 60)
        let seconds:Int = Int((totalSeconds % 3600) % 60)

        if hours > 0 {
            return String(format: "%i:%02i:%02i", hours, minutes, seconds)
        } else {
            return String(format: "%02i:%02i", minutes, seconds)
        }
    }
}

to use

videoPlayer?.addPeriodicTimeObserverForInterval(CMTime(seconds: 1, preferredTimescale: 1), queue: dispatch_get_main_queue()) { time in
    print(time.durationText)
}

Lifely · Answer 3 · 2015-04-27T09:42:22.713

13

You can use CMTimeCopyDescription, it work really well.

NSString *timeDesc = (NSString *)CMTimeCopyDescription(NULL, self.player.currentTime);
NSLog(@"Description of currentTime: %@", timeDesc);

edit: okay, i read the question too fast, this is not what your wanted but could be helpful anyway for debuging.

edit: as @bcattle commented, the implementation i suggested contain a memory leak with ARC. Here the corrected version :

NSString *timeDesc = (NSString *)CFBridgingRelease(CMTimeCopyDescription(NULL, self.player.currentTime));
NSLog(@"Description of currentTime: %@", timeDesc);

edited Apr 27 '15 at 09:42

answered Jul 26 '12 at 09:57

Lifely

1,035
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1

Yes! perfect for simple debbugging, and CMTimeRangeCopyDescription too, thanks! – Firula Oct 22 '12 at 20:40
3

This is great! Minor update, need to do a bridged cast: `(NSString*)CFBridgingRelease(CMTimeCopyDescription(NULL, self.player.currentTime))` – bcattle May 20 '14 at 23:05

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 04 '14 at 19:46

12

Based on combination of the question and comments above, this is concise:

AVURLAsset* videoAsset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:url options:nil];
CMTime videoDuration = videoAsset.duration;
float videoDurationSeconds = CMTimeGetSeconds(videoDuration);

NSDate* date = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSince1970:videoDurationSeconds];
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"UTC"]];
[dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss"];  //you can vary the date string. Ex: "mm:ss"
NSString* result = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:date];

answered Apr 04 '14 at 19:46

Brody Robertson

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2
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I've done some performance testing and using the NSDateFormatter is 120 times slower than using NSString stringWithFormat (ceekay's answer). – Animal Mother Nov 19 '14 at 19:22
3

Because you should not repeatedly create formatters. They're expensive to create. Create it once and keep it around. – uchuugaka Sep 23 '16 at 23:38

score 7 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Swift 3.0 ios 10 answer based codingrhythm answer...

extension CMTime {
var durationText:String {
    let totalSeconds = CMTimeGetSeconds(self)
    let hours:Int = Int(totalSeconds / 3600)
    let minutes:Int = Int(totalSeconds.truncatingRemainder(dividingBy: 3600) / 60)
    let seconds:Int = Int(totalSeconds.truncatingRemainder(dividingBy: 60))

    if hours > 0 {
        return String(format: "%i:%02i:%02i", hours, minutes, seconds)
    } else {
        return String(format: "%02i:%02i", minutes, seconds)
    }
  }
}

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered May 17 '19 at 11:18

Simple extension I use for displaying video file duration.

import CoreMedia

extension CMTime {
    var stringValue: String {
        let totalSeconds = Int(self.seconds)
        let hours = totalSeconds / 3600
        let minutes = totalSeconds % 3600 / 60
        let seconds = totalSeconds % 3600 % 60
        if hours > 0 {
            return String(format: "%i:%02i:%02i", hours, minutes, seconds)
        } else {
            return String(format: "%02i:%02i", minutes, seconds)
        }
    }
}

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Swift 4.2 extension

extension CMTime {
    var timeString: String {
        let sInt = Int(seconds)
        let s: Int = sInt % 60
        let m: Int = (sInt / 60) % 60
        let h: Int = sInt / 3600
        return String(format: "%02d:%02d:%02d", h, m, s)
    }
    
    var timeFromNowString: String {
        let d = Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: seconds)
        let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
        dateFormatter.dateFormat = "mm:ss"
        return dateFormatter.string(from: d)
    }
}

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 03 '17 at 11:58

4

For example you can use NSDate and it's description method. You can specify any output format you want.

> ` 
// First, create NSDate object using 
NSDate* d = [[NSDate alloc] initWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:seconds]; 
// Then specify output format 
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; [dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss"]; 
// And get output with 
NSString* result = [dateFormatter stringWithDate:d];`

edited Feb 03 '17 at 11:58

Mohd Sadham

435
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19

answered May 18 '12 at 14:55

Andreyz4k

116
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2

First, create NSDate object using `NSDate* d = [[NSDate alloc] initWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:seconds];` Then specify output format `NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; [dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss"];` And get output with `NSString* result = [dateFormatter stringWithDate:d];` – Andreyz4k May 18 '12 at 15:08
Thanks. it works, I used stringFromDate for the last method, but the problem is the time duration was 4.168334, yet the output is 0:36:15... Did I miss something? – randomor May 18 '12 at 15:38
So I eventually use `NSDate* d = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSince1970:audioDurationSeconds]; //Then specify output format NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; [dateFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"UTC"]]; [dateFormatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss"];` Setting the timeZone and changing the reference to 1973 seems to work. But what if I don't want the redundant zeros for the hours? – randomor May 18 '12 at 18:49
You should just remove HH from setting date format, they go for the hour numbers. – Andreyz4k May 19 '12 at 08:32
stringFromDate should be used. stringWithDate doesn't exists :) – Predrag Manojlovic May 22 '16 at 21:58

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 05 '15 at 07:20

1

here is the code for getting seconds from cmtime

NSLog(@"seconds = %f", CMTimeGetSeconds(cmTime));

answered Aug 05 '15 at 07:20

Asad Amodi

136
4
13

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 14 '16 at 21:20

0

Swift 3:

let time = kCMTimeZero
let timeString = time.toString()

answered Nov 14 '16 at 21:20

Meredith Elise

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Can you expound a little bit? – Adrian May 23 '17 at 19:43
1

Please use the [edit] link to explain how this code works and don't just give the code, as an explanation is more likely to help future readers. See also [answer]. [source](http://stackoverflow.com/users/5244995) – Jed Fox May 23 '17 at 21:14

Ravi Sharma · Answer 11 · 2017-11-22T11:13:39.203

A simplest way (without using NSDate and NSDateFormatter) to do this:-

Using Swift:-

        func updateRecordingTimeLabel()
        {

    // Result Output = MM:SS(01:23) 
    let cmTime = videoFileOutput.recordedDuration
                    var durationInSeconds = Int(CMTimeGetSeconds(cmTime))
                    let durationInMinutes = Int(CMTimeGetSeconds(cmTime)/60)
                    var strDuMin = String(durationInMinutes)

                    durationInSeconds = durationInSeconds-(60*durationInMinutes)
                    var strDuSec = String(durationInSeconds)

                    if durationInSeconds < 10
                    {
                        strDuSec = "0"+strDuSec
                    }
                    if durationInMinutes < 10
                    {
                        strDuMin = "0"+strDuMin
                    }
    // Output string
     let str_output = strDuMin+":"+strDuSec
print("Result Output : [\(str_output)]")

}

Converting CMTime to human readable time in objective-c

11 Answers11

Swift 4.2 extension