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# AVFoundation

Work with audiovisual assets, control device cameras, process audio, and configure system audio interactions.

## Overview

AVFoundation combines several major technology areas that together encompass a wide range of tasks for inspecting, playing, capturing, and processing audiovisual media on Apple platforms.

## Topics

### Essentials

  <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Updates/AVFoundation>

### Common

[Media assets](/documentation/AVFoundation/media-assets)

Load media assets from files and streams to inspect their attributes, tracks, and embedded metadata.

[Media reading and writing](/documentation/AVFoundation/media-reading-and-writing)

Read images from video, export to alternative formats, and perform sample-level reading and writing of media data.

[Media types and utilities](/documentation/AVFoundation/media-types-and-utilities)

Identify the types of content and file formats that AVFoundation supports.

[Video settings](/documentation/AVFoundation/video-settings)

Configure video processing settings using standard key and value constants.

[Audio settings](/documentation/AVFoundation/audio-settings)

Configure audio processing settings using standard key and value constants.

### Playback

[Media playback](/documentation/AVFoundation/media-playback)

Manage the playback of media assets and interstitial content, independent of how you present that content in your interface.

[Offline playback and storage](/documentation/AVFoundation/offline-playback-and-storage)

Download streamed content to disk to allow offline playback, and define policies to automatically remove downloaded assets.

[Streaming and AirPlay](/documentation/AVFoundation/streaming-and-airplay)

Stream content wirelessly to other devices using AirPlay, and handle requests involving FairPlay-protected assets.

[Sample buffer playback](/documentation/AVFoundation/sample-buffer-playback)

Create custom controllers to play and synchronize the timing of sample buffer streams.

### Capture

[Capture setup](/documentation/AVFoundation/capture-setup)

Configure built-in cameras and microphones, and external capture devices, for media capture.

[Photo capture](/documentation/AVFoundation/photo-capture)

Capture high-quality still images, Live Photos, and supporting photo data.

[Audio and video capture](/documentation/AVFoundation/audio-and-video-capture)

Capture audio and video directly to media files, or capture streams of media for direct access to media sample buffers.

[Additional data capture](/documentation/AVFoundation/additional-data-capture)

Capture additional data including depth and metadata, and synchronize capture from multiple outputs.

### Editing

[Composite assets](/documentation/AVFoundation/composite-assets)

Combine tracks and segments of tracks from multiple assets into a composite asset that you can play or process.

[QuickTime movies](/documentation/AVFoundation/quicktime-movies)

Access the contents of a QuickTime movie file, and perform sample-level edits of its media tracks.

[Video effects](/documentation/AVFoundation/video-effects)

Define standard video transition effects, synchronize layer animations with media timing, and create custom video compositors.

[Audio mixing](/documentation/AVFoundation/audio-mixing)

Define how to mix the audio levels from multiple audio tracks over an asset’s duration.

### Audio

[Audio playback, recording, and processing](/documentation/AVFoundation/audio-playback-recording-and-processing)

Play, record, and process audio; configure your app’s system audio behavior.

[Speech synthesis](/documentation/AVFoundation/speech-synthesis)

Configure voices to speak strings of text.

### Errors

[`AVFoundationErrorDomain`](/documentation/AVFoundation/AVFoundationErrorDomain)

The error domain of AVFoundation errors.

[`AVError`](/documentation/AVFoundation/AVError-swift.struct)

A structure that defines the errors that framework operations can generate.

### Errors

[`AVFoundationErrorDomain`](/documentation/AVFoundation/AVFoundationErrorDomain)

The error domain of AVFoundation errors.

[`AVError.Code`](/documentation/AVFoundation/AVError-swift.struct/Code)

An enumeration that defines the errors that framework operations can generate.

### Macros

[Macros](/documentation/AVFoundation/AVFoundation-macros)


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