Get list of playlists in Xamarin.iOS - xamarin.ios

Question

I am having difficulty in obtaining a collection of playlists for the iPhone with Xamarin.iOS. I want to populate a list of my custom objects with the playlist descriptions. I found a page in Apple documentation on how to do it in Obj-C. However, whatever I do in Xamarin I either get invalid cast exceptions or some other error.
Getting the playlists into a collection is OK. However, it is getting the name of the playlist after that where the problem lies.
private List<Playlist> GetPlaylists()
{
MPMediaQuery mq = MPMediaQuery.playlistsQuery;
// At this point mq.Collections has a reference to the playlists. However I have no way of getting the Name/Description of the playlist.
// Thats why I was attempting to use MPMediaPlaylist
// MPMediaPlaylist[] mp1 = mq.Collections as MPMediaPlaylist[]; - doesn't work - results in mp1 being null
List<Playlist> playlists = (from p in mq.Collections
select new Playlist () { PlaylistDescription = ((MPMediaPlaylist)p).ValueForProperty("MPMediaPlaylistPropertyName").ToString()}
).ToList();
return playlists;
}
Another variation I had was as follows (but again received an invalid cast exception in the iteration of the forearch i.e. MediaPlaylist in mp1):
MPMediaQuery mq = MPMediaQuery.playlistsQuery;
Array mp1 = mq.Collections as Array;
List<Playlist> playlists = new List<Playlist> ();
foreach (MPMediaPlaylist playlist in mp1) {
playlists.Add (new Playlist () { PlaylistDescription = playlist.ValueForProperty ("MPMediaPlaylistPropertyName").ToString() });
}
As I have commented i the code, I can get a handle on the playlists through the collections property on the query. However, I cannot get the Name/Title/Description of the playlist. That is why I was attempting to use the MPMediaPlaylist casting.
In the immediate window and watch window I tried to cast (MPMediaPlaylist)mq.collections[0] but again got an invalid cast exception.
I came across the following documentation in apple documentation for Obj-C but I have been unsuccessful in reproducing it as you can see above. I'd be very grateful if someone could cast an eye over what I have above and also this Objective-C link and advise.
Many thanks,
Tomás

Answer 1

I am just going to put this here.... if someone runs in to this problem in the future!
So to get list of playlists you should do the following:
MPMediaQuery playlistQuery = MPMediaQuery.PlaylistsQuery;
MPMediaItemCollection[] playlistCollection = playlistQuery.Collections;
foreach(MPMediaItemCollection collection in playlistCollection){
NSString key = MPMediaPlaylistProperty.Name;
string name = collection.ValueForKey(key).ToString();
//Do whatever you need with the info
}