PowerPlayer review/report/feedback

Couple of questions:

1. Is it possible to transfer files into the app via FTP?

2. At issues running in iOS 6 yet?

Cheers

Thank you for those answers. One more question: does the app remember playback position for all files even if it is restarted?

hustmobile said:

Thanks.

1 For MP4/M4V file supports, GoodPlayer is better
2 For SMB support, GoodPlayer is better. PowerPlayer does not support SMB streaming, GoodPlayer does.
3 Both apps supports .srt Open in

PowerPlayer is better at HD MKV playback.


If you have purchased GoodPlayer or PowerPlayer, we can send the free promo code of the other app to you. You need not to purchase both apps. Please send us email powerplayer@hustmobile.com for the promo codes.

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hey, thanks for this app, works perfectly on my new ipad but only 720p
little problem with subtitles with mkv fastsub.

its possible to have a free code for download the other app goodplayer ? thanks

hustmobile said:

PowerPlayer 1.7 released, 3 audio supports(AC-3(A52), E-AC-3 and TrueHD(MLP) ) removed. iPhone 5 supported.

What's New in Version 1.7

!!! Back up older PowerPlayer version before upgrading, please check the following update log first!!!
1 Please note: due to patent reasons, the AC-3(A52), E-AC-3 and TrueHD(MLP) audio supports are removed from this PowerPlayer 1.7 version. Please back up older PowerPlayer version before upgrading!!!
2 iPhone 5 and iOS 6 supported

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/powerplayer/id520818788?mt=8

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Could you please look into the problem of the new version's complete inability to play back any MKV file with a compliant AAC track in it - along with an AC-3 one? Nothing is played back in the new version, not even using software decoding.

Here's a complete article I've written of BUZZ Player's (similar) AC-3 drop, where I've elaborated on the new PowerPlayer bug too. I paste the entire article here as I've linked to the test videos I've used in the BUZZ Player part and not that of PowerPlayer and it would take me far too much time to completely rewrite/edit the stuff. Sorry for the length - I tend to be VERY thorough when writing articles. (Note that this is a sligthtly edited version of my article - I've removed all links to my previous articles so that noone can accuse me with self-promotion.)

Excellent hardware MKV player "BUZZ Player" also drops essential AC-3 support

The player I recommend, along with the (currently, not AppStore-based) AVPlayer(HD), the most for non-DTS (that is, mostly, AC-3) MKV's on non-jailbroken devices has been BUZZ Player - it has had one of the best MKV behind-the-curtains demuxing and hardware playback.

Unfortunately, as was easy to predict, the latest update entirely removed AC-3 support, practically rendering the player pretty much useless for any (except for AAC-only - see below) kind of MKV playback. Again, as has already been stated, MKV's with DTS - the other most commonly used audio format in MKV's - audio can't be played back by the player, as opposed to ones with (up until 4.0.1) AC-3 or AAC tracks. AAC tracks are used very rarely in current MKV's because of their being non-native DVD / Blu-ray audio formats and comparative inferiority, particularly to DTS. Unfortuntaley, the new, 4.0.2 version refuses to play MKV's with not only DTS, but also AC-3 audio tracks using hardware decoding (it uses software decoding), even if the MKV does have a (still-compatible) AAC audio track.
I've annotated this in the AppStore update notes below (click for a larger version), along with the similar Power/GoodPlayer updates:


The solution? As has been (partly - there, I haven't mentioned all versions of BUZZ Player are incompatible with MKV's with an AC-3 + AAC double audio track) explained in my older articles, either

1. back up the old (4.0.1) version of BUZZ Player before updating and, then, just overwrite the updated version with the older one or

2. remux your MKV's to have an AAC audio track only. Note that you absolutely must delete the AC-3 audio track from the file (as with DTS) if you do want the player to play it back: if you do leave the original AC-3 track there (along with the converted AAC one), the pre-4.0.2 versions of the player won't open it at all, while the new 4.0.2 will only play back it using software decoding. (An example of such an AC-3 + AAC file is HERE. Feel free to play with it, test it in different players etc.) Purely AAC MKV files will be played back in every version. An example of them is HERE - as with the previous one, feel free to test it. (Finally, should you want to play with a strictly AC-3-only MKV test file with the same footage than the other two, HERE it is.)

3, should you have purchased the 3.x version of BUZZ Player, it won't be updated as the new version is a completely different product (also see an older article of mine) and the 3.x series will not be updated any more. Fortunately, the 3.x series has equally good MKV playback performance as that of the now-current 4.x series. That is, if you have both (3.x and 4.x) versions, stick with the older, discontinued one for strictly MKV playback, should you want to avoid manual fiddling with overwriting dumbed-down, updated versions of the player with the still AC-3-enabled 4.0.0 or 4.0.1 one (4.0.2 and later versions, as you can also see in the screenshot above, don't support AC-3 any more). As has been explained in my previous BUZZ Player review, the two versions can happily co-exist on the same iDevice so selective playback (you watch MKV's in the old and other stuff in the new version) is certainly possible. (Every cloud has a silver lining - at least there is an advantage of moving to a completely different product as there is, now, point in keeping the two different versions of the player on your iDevice.)

Of course, it's possible the BUZZ Player developers offer AC-3 support in the future in the form of an optional In-App Purchase - nothing is certain, though.

Verdict

Unfortunately, the "in the new version, the MKV files can only have an AAC track in them" is a very severe restriction - basically, you'll end up having to remux all your MKV's and, what is even worse, also delete the, compared to AAC tracks, vastly superior DTS / AC-3 audio tracks so that the files are played back using hardware and not software decoding. I'll talk to the developers about fixing this major problem. If you can, stick with the old version(s) for AC-3 playback - as explained in Bullet 3 above, even the not-any-longer-updated 3.x series will do fine and, as it won't ever be updated, you can avoid having to manually restore it after an update - as opposed to the now-current new version.

What about the other hardware MKV players?

I've tested some other hardware MKV players, of which two had new versions.

PowerPlayer: As has been emphasized above, it also had to drop AC-3 support in the new (1.7) version. In the latter, MKV's with AC-3 tracks won't be opened at all, even if they also have AAC or DTS audio tracks (that is, ones that are compatible with the player). As opposed to the AAC-only one now compatible with version 1.7, the previous (1.6) version played back all the three test files (AAC-only; AAC + AC-3; AC-3 only - all linked to in Bullet 2 above) using hardware decoding. Nevertheless, it's still a bit stuttering so I still don't recommend it over the smoother BUZZ Player or AVPlayer(HD) for MKV playback. The playback of the DTS-only Monsters (it's HERE, linked from HERE) is plain awful compared to the other hardware players - the current PowerPlayer still can't properly play back MKV's with DTS tracks, it seems.


It's Playing 3.5: it seems to have problems with the three MKV files above - it switches to software decoding with all of them. I'll discuss this issue with the developers and update the article with the news. (The DTS-only Monsters was played back almost (meaning a little stuttering now and then) flawlessly.)


AVPlayer HD: all the three files are played back flawlessly; so does with the DTS-only Monsters.


1080 MKV Player: the yesterday-released, new (2.02) version is compatible with all the three audio configurations (as was the previous version). I assume the Pro version is also compatible as it has the same update description (iOS 6 + iPhone 5-compliance) as the free (tested) one. The DTS Monsters is played back flawlessly too.


The current versions of the two jailbreak-only players, XBMC and RushPlayer+, both play all the AAC/AC-3 test files flawlessly (and the DTS-only Monsters too). Nevertheless, don't forget that XBMC, as of the current, today's(!) build of 12.0-0~alpha7, still doesn't support the high-resolution screen of the iPad 3 so high-resolution videos, while hardware accelerated, don't look as good as in, say, RushPlayer+.


I haven't tested the AppStore-based (not to be mistaken for the vastly better and just-recommended Cydia-based "+" version!) RushPlayer and EC Player because I don't recommend them for MKV playback and there is no new version of those titles. As soon as new versions of any of these players are released, I post a compatibility report update.

I like the performance of power player in playing mkv videos but I just have troubles to read the subtitles as its position is always at far bottom so please developers update the program with the ability to control the subtitle position and make it movable and I will stick with this player for all my mkvs , thanks.

Menneisyys2 said:

Verdict[/B]

Unfortunately, the "in the new version, the MKV files can only have an AAC track in them" is a very severe restriction - basically, you'll end up having to remux all your MKV's and, what is even worse, also delete the, compared to AAC tracks, vastly superior DTS / AC-3 audio track

Click to expand...

tl;dr version: unjailbroken iPads are now useless for mkv-playback? I have AVPlayerHD from before the purge, but can't say the future of mkv playback on iPad looks great.

I see there's another app called AnyPlayerHD.
Has anybody tried that? Does it have all the codecs and all?

Cybbe said:

tl;dr version: unjailbroken iPads are now useless for mkv-playback? I have AVPlayerHD from before the purge, but can't say the future of mkv playback on iPad looks great.

Click to expand...

It all depends on

- whether AC-3 will be removed from e.g. HD Player Pro / 1080 Player / AVPlayerHD (if and when it returns to the AppStore) and

- whether HustMobile / the BUZZ Player folks etc. start licensing AC-3 etc.

Nevertheless, it's always worth jailbreaking - a JB'n iPad is so much better than a jailed one. Just two top apps I'm continuously using and couldn't imagine my life without them: f.lux and Quasar... And there are still a lot more excellent apps for JB'n iPads.

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cvs said:

I see there's another app called AnyPlayerHD.
Has anybody tried that? Does it have all the codecs and all?

Click to expand...

Sure I have - even written a review of it. Not recommended. Let me paste the review here (so that I don't need to link to my blog):

So far, I haven't dedicated a separate article to AnyPlayer (AppStore link) because I didn't consider it a viable alternative to the most powerful players in the AppStore (It's Playing, GoodPlayer, AVPlayerHD / ProPlayer, BUZZ Player) or, for jailbroken iDevices, Cydia (XBMC, RushPlayer+).

Today's update boasts better performance (as usual, click the image for a bigger version!):



so I took the time to update my previous (so far, internal, albeit you can also access it in the dedicated column in the under-construction version chart of my forthcoming iOS Multimedia bible) notes on the app's behavior.

To make it short: unfortunately, it seems there isn't any performance fixes, at least not any I could notice. For example,

1, the Full HD MKV files (with H.264) still play decidedly slower than with AVPlayerHD / ProPlayer (which boast the best Full HD software decoder). Not even 720p (see the Harry Potter test video) H.264 is decoded properly in software.

2, quarter-FHD-resolution WMV files, while play back pretty good (but, with the VC-1 Advanced, WMA Pro test file, with some stuttering at the end) are still suffering from the same low-color-resolution bug I've pointed out in my WMV bible

3, the MSMPEG4 decoder is still as bad as used to be and WAY worse than that of the best players (see my post HERE for a list)

4, still no ASS subtitle support, still no OGG support, still no embedded subtitles for TS (DVB) files (at least they do work for MKV's), still no audio track selection, still no volume / brightness boosting, still the same problems with accessing UPnP shares as before etc.; that is, no new functionality / bugfixes of major bugs at all.

There is only one pretty much unique feature in this app, the color saturation change. However, now that It's Playing (which also has saturation setting, even when playing back H.264 streams in hardware!) has been fixed and made one of the best players, I simply don't see any point in not preferring it to AnyPlayer(HD).

All in all, stay away. It's simply not as good as the best players out there and definitely NOT worth its price tag.

Thanks Menneisyys2 !!

So, based on the fact that the codecs are absent in the Powerplayer/Goodplayer apps, I should go for the recommended "It's playing", right?

cvs said:

Thanks Menneisyys2 !!

So, based on the fact that the codecs are absent in the Powerplayer/Goodplayer apps, I should go for the recommended "It's playing", right?

Click to expand...

I'd say It's Playing is, currently, the second best (available in the AppStore) player for MKV's. Give a try to HD Player Pro first, it has better (more stuttering-free) playback, albeit certainly lacks DSP's, which make It's Playing unique. And, of course, consider jailbreaking and using XBMC / RushPlayer+. And, if you've previously purchased AVPlayerHD, use that for MKV HW-decoded playback, it's unbeatable at that.

Cybbe said:

Thanks, I guess the downsides of the wall-garden approach are slowly sinking in. Do you have any dirt on why AVPlayerHD was removed? Patent reasons or otherwise behaviour contrary to silly App Store rules? I know officially they mentioned "bugs" but it's been away for too long for that to ring true.

Click to expand...

Not because of bugs - but I may not tell you more, sorry.

Stuttering on 720p MKV

Great thread. I really love using PowerPlayer in conjunction with FileBrowser. However, I've noticed some audio glitches with MKVs. It will cut out every so often. My current setup is an Apple AirPort Extreme with a USB powered HDD attached to it. Anybody else have experience with a similar setup?

I purchased PowerPlayer specifically to play VOB format, since it claimed that ability. However, my VOB files do not play on my iPad Mini. The VOB files are from an unprotected DVD, and each DVD contains 4 or 5 VOB files of about 30 minutes each.

Does PowerPlayer truly play VOB format? Any idea why my VOB files do not play?

Thanks,
Tom

Hi I just recently purchased Powerplayer, I am running serviio on a qnap server and using Powerplayer to stream via DLNA.

Video quality is excellent for all files including HD, however for all Audio it seems to be crackling constantly. This is the same on an ipad 4th gen and an iphone 5.

Is there a setting that can fix this or is this a known issue?

Thanks

Just posted a new article on enabling AC-3 again to https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16407141 . It may be the solution to the lack of AC-3?