We are using AVPlayerLayer to play the content in iOS application. Some time there is a black screen occurred while playing the content but content continue playing audio during playback. This can be observed randomly during the playback also when initially starts playing the content or seek the content at specified time. This is not happening all the time but occurring frequently. Please note that we are using FairPlay Streaming protected content to play the video using AVPlayer.
Sometime we didn't get any such issue during whole playback and player play the content smoothly.
This issue is not related to the player as such. Rather it is because of the DRM flags used in the Fairplay license.
It looks like the HDCP enforcements is the one affecting your playback. The licensing server can set different flags for HDCP (HDCP not required, Type-0, Type-1). By default, Type-0 is enforced by the FPS server unless changed.
Generally, a 'Type-0' or a 'HDCP not required' enforcement should playback your content seamlessly.