Alternatives to AVPlayerHD

[wake1]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

Dunno. I don't think before Christmas.

Ok. Thanks mate. I think I'm gonna start using its playing. Can it play 720p mkv files ok? And is it best to use the H/W decoder or S/W to play these files?

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by wake1

Ok. Thanks mate. I think I'm gonna start using its playing. Can it play 720p mkv files ok? And is it best to use the H/W decoder or S/W to play these files?

1, it can

2, ALWAYS try using HW decoding whenever you can. It's much better. Only switch back to SW decoding if HW acceleration doesn't work. (And don't forget to "thank" Apple for messing up video playback this bad by not letting programmers directly use hardware acceleration for non-native formats. Given that Windows Phone 8 / RT will soon receive the full-blown(!!) VLC player, I don't think there will be any point in sticking with iOS any more for non-native non-jailbroken video playback.)

[007p]

Originally Posted by yegon

Anyone ran iPad AVplayerHD on 6.0.2? Gonna hold off updating until I get firm confirmation it works fine. I'm sure it will, but no way am I taking the risk!

I dont have an ipad mini, but just updated my iphone 5 and av player (phone version) still works fine

[yegon]

Thanks, I'll probably risk an update in the future at some point.

[taskey]

Av player hd is back. Just downloaded it £1.99 happy happy happy

Tracy

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by taskey

Av player hd is back. Just downloaded it £1.99 happy happy happy

Tracy

Yes! I've been also contacted by the devs. It's back - and has AC-3 support! Will very soon post a formal, full review.

[cvs]

It shows the same version from August, so nothing new to upgrade to.

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by cvs

It shows the same version from August, so nothing new to upgrade to.

But at least it exists.

[yegon]

Originally Posted by cvs

It shows the same version from August, so nothing new to upgrade to.

Same on the iPad, which is fine as iPad version works great for me, but it supports the iPhone 5 res at last, get in!! Used GoodPlayer (post AC3 getting stripped) on the iPhone for a while for the 5 res support, but I personally prefer AVplayerHD for various reasons.

Edit: Watched a 40 minute 1.1gb mp4 file at the gym earlier, max brightness, audio over bluetooth. Only used about 9% battery. GoodPlayer used at *least* double that in the same scenario, using hw decoding. Great to have AVPlayer back.

[007p]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

Yes! I've been also contacted by the devs. It's back - and has AC-3 support! Will very soon post a formal, full review.

Is the AC-3 support legit? Or will it be stripped as soon as Dolby finds out lol

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by 007p

Is the AC-3 support legit? Or will it be stripped as soon as Dolby finds out lol

It is - at least this is what the devs state.

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Originally Posted by yegon

Edit: Watched a 40 minute 1.1gb mp4 file at the gym earlier, max brightness, audio over bluetooth. Only used about 9% battery. GoodPlayer used at *least* double that in the same scenario, using hw decoding.

Strange - it shouldn't, as both use HW decoding, which should mean they have exactly the same CU (and, consequently, battery) usage. I'll test the issue.

[jackaz127]

i noticed that avplayer hd is back on the store.
i know people used to consider it the best, but i can't find a review of this newly appeared version.
would you suggest me to buy it?

[Branphma]

Just tested the Player and am really satisfied with it. Plays any 720p flawlessly. However, i could not figure out how to switch audio tracks. It always plays the first track (e.g. english) and i can't find any button or something to change to the german audio track...
Anyone got a solution for this?
Best regards!

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by jackaz127

i noticed that avplayer hd is back on the store.
i know people used to consider it the best, but i can't find a review of this newly appeared version.
would you suggest me to buy it?

1, the new version is the same as that of August.

2, I've compared that version to the alternatives in each of my generic roundups (e.g., the WMV bible). You might want to check out my articles here at MacRumors. There are tons of them so you'll find a lot of info.

In general, the player is highly recommended.

3, surely get it, it's really worth it.

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Originally Posted by Branphma

Just tested the Player and am really satisfied with it. Plays any 720p flawlessly. However, i could not figure out how to switch audio tracks. It always plays the first track (e.g. english) and i can't find any button or something to change to the german audio track...
Anyone got a solution for this?
Best regards!

The audio / subtitle track switching is indeed very much messed up in both AVPlayerHD and its dumbed-down little brother, ProPlayer.

1, tap the Tool icon in the top right corner
2, tap the now-displayed Arrow icon on the far right of your video
3, tap the Tool icon in the audio row (the third one)
4, select your audio stream

[jackaz127]

thank you Branphma and Menneisyys2 for your kind replies. i purchased it and tried a 720p mkv and the reproduction was indeed flawless.

one problem i encountered was the inability to playback external .srt subtitles.
what i did was rename the file as the video but the player did not recognized the subtitles.
is that right?

[kagami]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

But at least it exists.

Happy to hear that too! A good news before xmas!

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by jackaz127

thank you Branphma and Menneisyys2 for your kind replies. i purchased it and tried a 720p mkv and the reproduction was indeed flawless.

one problem i encountered was the inability to playback external .srt subtitles.
what i did was rename the file as the video but the player did not recognized the subtitles.
is that right?

It automatically loads SRT files of the same name. An example:

monsters-samefilename.m4v
monsters-samefilename.srt

I've also uploaded these files to https://dl.dropbox.com/u/81986513/12...mefilename.m4v and https://dl.dropbox.com/u/81986513/12...mefilename.srt , respectively, so that you can give them a try.

[jackaz127]

you're right! indeed it works!
thank you so much again

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by jackaz127

i noticed that avplayer hd is back on the store.
i know people used to consider it the best, but i can't find a review of this newly appeared version.

I've just posted one, very long and detailed one to http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16551960

I don't paste any part of it here as it's VERY long and couldn't find any part of it that has the same information content as the entire article (except for the first paragraph maybe. But, then, I'd have to copy almost the entire article).

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Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

The audio / subtitle track switching is indeed very much messed up in both AVPlayerHD and its dumbed-down little brother, ProPlayer.

1, tap the Tool icon in the top right corner
2, tap the now-displayed Arrow icon on the far right of your video
3, tap the Tool icon in the audio row (the third one)
4, select your audio stream

In the just-mentioned article, I've posted this as a complete tutorial. Let me paste it here:

1.2 Selecting audio and (embedded) subtitle tracks

Unfortunately, selecting AVPlayer's active audio and embedded subtitle track is far from being intuitive. I'm too always being asked about how this needs to be done (an example, new question is HERE).

During playback, it's impossible to change the active track – as opposed to almost all other multiple audio / subtitle track-capable players. (For example, with GoodPlayer, a double-swipe up/down and left/right for subtitle and audio track change, respectively.) It needs to be done in the file list view. In the following mini-tutorial, I show how it needs to be done. For the tutorial, I use the standardized Harry Potter test video MKV available for download HERE. It has two audio tracks (English and Hindi).

First, in the file list view, tap the tool icon in the upper right corner. It's annotated in the following screenshot:



Now, tap the now-displayed arrow icon on the far right of your video. It's also annotated in the following screenshot:




On the now-displayed dialog, tap the Tool icon in the audio row (annotated):



In the list, select your audio stream :

Unfortunately, only the stream index is displayed, not the language code or the human name of the tracks (unlike with most other players), which means it's not very easy to select the track you'd like to read / listen to. This is a major problem with AVPlayer, which, hopefully, will be fixed in the future.

With both subtitles and audio tracks, the first will be the default. With subtitles, you will need to separately enable displaying the manually (or automatically, see previous sentence) during playback with the icon annotated in the following screenshot:



Also note that this has also been shown with ProPlayer in the section “UPDATE (09/11/2012, even later):” of my previous Subler OCR guide. ProPlayer is a slightly dumbed-down version of AVPlayer(HD); this is why its track selection needs to be configured in exactly the same way as in AVPlayer(HD).

[yegon]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

It is - at least this is what the devs state.

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Strange - it shouldn't, as both use HW decoding, which should mean they have exactly the same CU (and, consequently, battery) usage. I'll test the issue.

Yeah, it doesn't really make sense. After work I often go to the gym with about 30% battery left. After an hour or so it'd typically be down to be less than 10% with GoodPlayer, whereas AVplayer would leave me with about 18%-20%. I use stereo Bluetooth headphones, I wonder if AVplayer handles audio more efficiently?

[Peter78]

I use ArkMC for video playback from DLNA servers. It supports plenty of video formats.

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by Peter78

I use ArkMC for video playback from DLNA servers. It supports plenty of video formats.

... but isn't Retina-compliant, which is a BIG problem. The most important part of my dedicated review (more info at http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1505088 ):

Pros

AC3 support, even during hardware playback
Hardware playback (including even Apple CC's)
Good MSMPEG-4 decoder
Can act as a UPnP control point (one that just acts as a proxy between a UPnP (file) source and a UPnP media render hardware); for that, it has proved to be excellent. Given that for example PlugPlayer costs $5 (and isn't even Universal) and doesn't support as many containers and video formats for local playback, this app is definitely a better choice, should you also want local playback.

Cons

No 16:9 screen support
No SSA subtitle support
Absolutely no support for local playback
Doesn't make use of the full resolution during software decoding on small-screen devices like the iPhone 5. An example resolution chart screenshot of playing back an MKV:



When playing back an iOS-native file, there are no such problems. A screenshot showing the playback of the same resolution chart, but from an m4v file:



Unfortunately, this also applies to the Retina screen of the iPad 3/4. That is, you do NOT want to use it for playback on any high-resolution iDevice (any iPhone / iPod touch model starting with the iPhone 4 / iPod touch 4, respectively – along with the iPad 3 and 4).

Note that, as usual, you shouldn't pay attention to the AppStore reviews. In the US AppStore, the previous version has received two one-star reviews. Both are factually plain wrong: the player does play back files off UPnP sources and it does discover them.

[Dunmail]

I'm a bit confused by AVPlayerHD, is it a true DLNA renderer (like GoodPlayer) or does it only play local content?

When I fire it up, it fails to find my NAS and I can't find any option to get it to look for it. (I'm using the current/August version BTW)

[Peter78]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

... but isn't Retina-compliant, which is a BIG problem. The most important part of my dedicated review (more info at http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1505088 ):

Yes, it use to be an issue, and the ArkMC was updated few days ago, now it looks fine on my iPhone5.

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by Peter78

Yes, it use to be an issue, and the ArkMC was updated few days ago, now it looks fine on my iPhone5.

Thanks! Will re-test it and update the review.

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Originally Posted by Dunmail

I'm a bit confused by AVPlayerHD, is it a true DLNA renderer (like GoodPlayer) or does it only play local content?

When I fire it up, it fails to find my NAS and I can't find any option to get it to look for it. (I'm using the current/August version BTW)

Nope, it only supports FTP, nothing else.

BTW, this subject is also discussed at http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...86&postcount=8