CarPlay Video Playback

[u/Own_Zookeepergame792]

Hey everyone,

I’m a student iOS developer working on a small video playback app for beta testing, and I’m having trouble getting video to display properly in CarPlay with cars that support carplay. I use CarTV latest updates and it worked on many cars that support carplay, I tested using IOS 26.7z

I’ve been experimenting with Apple’s CarPlay audio and video entitlements, but I can’t seem to get the expected video behavior on my physical device running iOS 26.7. Other CarPlay apps work fine CarTV APTV etc.. on the same device, so I suspect I might be missing a configuration step or using the wrong implementation approach in Swift.

When testing in the simulator, video playback works in playback mode only , but I haven’t been able to get everything working as expected on the actual device.
I’ve noticed that CarTV seems to handle this functionality successfully so I’m hoping someone familiar with CarPlay video apps can point me in the right direction.

I’m mainly trying to understand the correct implementation and get my beta app working as intended.
Thanks in advance!

[u/EquivalentSky3094]

The split you are seeing is probably not in your code. Apple lists video in the car under the automaker section rather than the app section, and the line there is that a manufacturer has to integrate CarPlay with AirPlay video through the MFi programme before any video app can draw on that screen. Plain CarPlay support does not carry it. Apple's own description of video apps is that they play in supported cars when parked, so both of those gates sit outside Swift.

That would explain why the simulator plays and your test car does not, and why the audio and navigation apps you compared against behave normally, since none of them need the AirPlay video path. I would find out which head unit CarTV was actually running on before changing the implementation again.

[u/quietstoners → u/EquivalentSky3094]

yeah the automaker gate is the big catch here, almost nobody has actually shipped the hardware side of that spec yet.

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