Reinvent the video player - yaPlayer

My review of the just-released new, updated version:

You may remember my previous article reviewing the previous version of the multimedia player yaPlayer. Back then, I've stated the player is indeed very promising, albeit in some respects still inferior to the best ones (AVPlayerHD, GoodPlayer, It's Playing, HD Player Pro, ProPlayer etc.) in the AppStore.

A brand new version has just been released with a lot of changes. An AppStore update page (also showing the update of some other apps):

(click for a larger image, as usual)

Needless to say, as the update notes provide a lot of goodies, I've re-tested the player's performance and feature set.

Compared to the other players, performance-wise, in previous versions the most problematic was WMV and MS-MPEG4 playback and buffering.

Fortunately, WMV seems to be fixed – the half-resolution Full HD WMV videos are now decoded flawlessly. Full HD ones, of course, stutter – as with all the other players.

MS-MPEG4 playback, on the other hand, is still inferior to the best titles in this category; that is, I don't recommend this player for MS-MPEG4 playback.

Buffering is still an issue: you'll see the sand-clock a lot of times – far more often than with other players.

The following bugs and problems have remained:

- the “Birds” and the “Harry Potter” bug

- still no way to quickly fast forward / rewind, say, 10...30 seconds with a gesture

- still no support for any kind of embedded subtitles

Other remarks:

The excellent MPEG-2 and H.264 decoder remained the same – this player is (still) one of the most recommended one for MTS playback. Of course, you'll always want to remux them to MP4 / M4V files for flawless playback if you have the time. Also remember that full HD direct MTS playback is especially useful if you quickly need to check the AVCHD footage you've just shot via the Camera Connection Kit. If your iPad is jailbroken and do what I've shown HERE (a MacRumors thread), you'll be easily able to utilize your iPad without even touching a desktop computer for transcoding / iTunes File Sharing-importing.

Fortunately, the player supports AC-3 audio tracks. (I don't know whether this support will be removed in the future.)

Is there a lite version available or a way for us to try it out before buying?

If not, one question before I purchase. Can this stream videos from a URL, or does the video have to be copied into the app?

Thanks!

JTravers said:

Is there a lite version available or a way for us to try it out before buying?

If not, one question before I purchase. Can this stream videos from a URL, or does the video have to be copied into the app?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Not any kind of streaming support available. Go for GoodPlayer or exPlayer HD if you need streaming. (Note that the latter has just been dumbed down seriously.)

Menneisyys2 said:

Not any kind of streaming support available. Go for GoodPlayer or exPlayer HD if you need streaming. (Note that the latter has just been dumbed down seriously.)

Click to expand...

Any advice on a player with great 1080i/720p mpeg2 playback and streaming support?

Thanks.

JTravers said:

Any advice on a player with great 1080i/720p mpeg2 playback and streaming support?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

For playing back local ones, yaPlayer.

Unfortunately, while OPlayer and BUZZ Player support network streaming (and have a decent MPEG-2 decoder), the recent removal of AC-3 support rendered them useless for U.S. DVB TS playback if that's (original DVB recordings with AC-3 audio) what you want to play back.

Menneisyys2 said:

For playing back local ones, yaPlayer.

Unfortunately, while OPlayer and BUZZ Player support network streaming (and have a decent MPEG-2 decoder), the recent removal of AC-3 support rendered them useless for U.S. DVB TS playback if that's (original DVB recordings with AC-3 audio) what you want to play back.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, MPEG-2 files are usually so large that it only makes sense to either stream them or convert to h.264.

Looks nice however I am wondering if this app have no sound aswell with mkv files etc since the ac3-licence thing?

Menneisyys2 said:

For playing back local ones, yaPlayer.

Unfortunately, while OPlayer and BUZZ Player support network streaming (and have a decent MPEG-2 decoder), the recent removal of AC-3 support rendered them useless for U.S. DVB TS playback if that's (original DVB recordings with AC-3 audio) what you want to play back.

Click to expand...

I think the 4th gen ipad will finally fix 1080i mpeg-2 playback problems through brute force.

JTravers said:

Any advice on a player with great 1080i/720p mpeg2 playback and streaming support?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Passenger88 said:

Looks nice however I am wondering if this app have no sound aswell with mkv files etc since the ac3-licence thing?

Click to expand...

Fortunately, the player supports AC-3 audio tracks. (I don't know whether this support will be removed in the future.)

gonna give it a chance, installing now

Downloading now. I'm in afghanistan and I watch Dexter and Walking dead while I do my hour of cardio on a treadmill every day. Reencoding my downloads is a pita so I need AC3 audio decoding. Thanks for your write up bro, saved me some time swimming through all the possibilities on the app store.

Been using this for a week or two and I am satisfied with this app. No ac3 rights problems like goodplayer and other apps. And I also haven't experienced any lag issues with 720p files.

The only downside is that videos with subtitles in it it doesn't work. Only videos with seperate .srt files works at the moment. Though it still keeps saying the following error: this subtitle cannot load or something and you have to change the codec. I just picked Europe, windows or OS everytime and than it works. But it still a hassle that should be fixed imo. Like 90% of videoplayer Apps does't have this issue. If these problems can be fixed I would give it 5 stars.

Passenger88 said:

The only downside is that videos with subtitles in it it doesn't work. Only videos with seperate .srt files works at the moment.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's a big cons I've also pointed out in the above review.

A quick fix is using Subler (or any other tool with subtitle track extraction capabilities) to quickly extract the subtitle track in a file. Let me know if you need more info on how this is done.

Did this app get removed from the store?

Mosco said:

Did this app get removed from the store?

Click to expand...

It is. So is HD Player Pro. Probably because these two players still support AC-3? (HD Player Pro's latest version released yesterday only removed the less-used E-AC-3 and MTP, not the base AC-3 (see my dedicated article posted yesterday in this forum somewhere).)

What does this mean for people who have this App?

Passenger88 said:

What does this mean for people who have this App?

Click to expand...

You'll still be able to re-download it on your device if you've downloaded the app directly at least once. Nevertheless, make sure you don't delete the IPA as, as with HD Player Pro, it's still not known if and when they're back.

"Thanks", Dolby...

Noooo why did you make an update that removes Dolby, you should have deleted this one and just made a new player now I'm stuck with always having one update available. Crap

rsxmachine said:

Noooo why did you make an update that removes Dolby, you should have deleted this one and just made a new player now I'm stuck with always having one update available. Crap

Click to expand...

Dolby would have made Apple remove the "abandoned" yaPlayer from AppStore. (At least) the following players have been recently removed (and still missing!) from AppStore on Dolby's request:

flex: player
Replayer(HD)
LuberPlayer and LuberPlayerHD
QQPlayer and QQPlayerHD

And, of course, AVPlayer (removed in September by, back then, the dev.)

It would have been better if apple just removed it then you could come out with yaplayer2 without Dolby. Now everyone is stuck always having an update available. I doubt anyone wants to update since none of their movies will work.

rsxmachine said:

It would have been better if apple just removed it then you could come out with yaplayer2 without Dolby. Now everyone is stuck always having an update available. I doubt anyone wants to update since none of their movies will work.

Click to expand...

OIC - I thought you meant remaining as a purchasable, not (only) as a, for previous purchasers, re-downloadable item. It's the former that wouldn't work as Dolby & Apple are mercilessly removing all "infringing" apps (see the above list I've compiled).

Ya so just coming out with yaplayer 2 would have saved all owners from being forced to upgrade. Please remove yaplayer from App Store and make yaplayer 2

So since the update from yesterday we cannot watch videos with sound anymore like other apps like goodplayer etc?

Menneisyys2 said:

Dolby would have made Apple remove the "abandoned" yaPlayer from AppStore. (At least) the following players have been recently removed (and still missing!) from AppStore on Dolby's request:

flex: player

Click to expand...

flex has just been put back. Not a single word about removed AC-3 support in the app description. Will test and report back soon.

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Passenger88 said:

So since the update from yesterday we cannot watch videos with sound anymore like other apps like goodplayer etc?

Click to expand...

Yup. "Thanks", Dolby...