Display iPhone Movies in Portrait Mode (Updated)

The figure below shows the same movie as played back in landscape and portrait:

Play Movies in Portrait Mode

The code below is from the previous post and shows how to configure the movie player view to display in landscape:

MPMoviePlayerController *mp =  [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc]
     initWithContentURL:movieURL];
 
...
 
- (void) moviePlayerLoadStateChanged:(NSNotification*)notification 
{
  ...
  // Rotate the view for landscape playback
  [[self view] setBounds:CGRectMake(0, 0, 480, 320)];
  [[self view] setCenter:CGPointMake(160, 240)];
  [[self view] setTransform:CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(M_PI / 2)]; 
 
  // Set frame of movieplayer
  [[mp view] setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 480, 320)];
 
  ...
}

To playback a movie in portrait mode is as easy as removing the code for the rotation and changing the frame of the movieplayer. I’ve also added a call to scale the movie so it fills the screen, this will maintain the aspect ratio.

- (void) moviePlayerLoadStateChanged:(NSNotification*)notification 
{
  ...
  // Rotate the view for landscape playback
  //   [[self view] setBounds:CGRectMake(0, 0, 480, 320)];
  //  [[self view] setCenter:CGPointMake(160, 240)];
  //  [[self view] setTransform:CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(M_PI / 2)]; 
 
  // Set frame of movieplayer
  // [[mp view] setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 480, 320)];
  [[mp view] setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 160, 320, 160)];
 
  // Scale uniformly, maintaining aspect ratio
  [mp setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeAspectFill];
 
  ...
}

This approach works on 3.2 (iPad) as well as 4.0 and greater. Needless to say, given the large display on the iPad this is a nice alternative as the user can watch videos without rotating the device.

Source Code

Download the source code to build an iPhone app that displays movies in portrait mode.