MPMoviePlayerController still leaking

Question

I release the MPMoviePlayerController but the memory allocation and the living objects are sill higher than before the object allocation. However if i reallocate the object it doesn't leak more. My application actually uses alot of media files and the memory consumption it's high. I would like to free up completely the unneeded memory to avoid memory warnings.

Movie player release:

        player.initialPlaybackTime = -1;
        [player.view removeFromSuperview];
        [player stop];
        [player release];

Movie player alloc:

    NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"video0_hd.mov" ofType:nil]];
    player = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:url];
    player.view.frame = placeholder.frame;
    [self.view addSubview:player.view];
    [player play];

Answer 1

Have you tried Build and Analyze (Build>Build and Analyze), this could show you the exact line memory is leaking (if any).

Right now, I've got a feeling the problem is where you define the NSURL.

Answer 2

Are you running this code on a device or on the simulator? The simulator gives a bunch of false leaks (such as in AudioToolbox, CoreVideo, etc.). Also, the simulator seems to cache the entire video and not release it properly whereas the device buffers only what it needs along the way.

I tested your code on the simulator with an mp4 video and I had similar results to what you were saying (10 live objects each time a video was played, with none dying... 20mb allocated, and 5mb left even after releasing). The living objects and memory allocation would keep growing and growing on the simulator.

However, on my iPhone (with a 20mb video) it only allocated 900kb of memory total for the app, with no appreciable change when starting/stopping/releasing the video. It always stayed right around 900kb for the 10 times I tested it (starting/stopping/releasing).

Looks like just another time you can't trust the simulator.

The code I was testing with:

NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"SomeMovieFile" ofType:@"mp4"]];

MPMoviePlayerController *newPlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:url];

self.player = newPlayer;  
[newPlayer release];

[self.view addSubview:player.view];  // for my example, I didn't set the frame location, but no difference that would do
[player play];

Then in another button I stopped it and released the player:

[player.view removeFromSuperview];    
player.initialPlaybackTime = -1;
[player stop];
self.player = nil;  // this is just a habit of mine.. calling stop should unload the buffers though
[player release];