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
");
         }
         else
         {
             printf("error
");

         }
     }];

}