REVIEW: New Versions of Multimedia Players VLC, nPlayer and AVPlayer(HD)

Zan5hin · Jan 8, 2014

Thanks for putting me onto NPlayer. I just got a Kingston Mobilelite Wireless and it is streaming .MKV files using the SMB protocol (as opposed to uPnP which doesn't show mkv files) flawlessly.

Just wondering about the Dolby effect, I was watching an MKV with DTS sound and I pressed the bottom left and the sound was noticeably different, but would you consider it "better"? It is hard to say.....

I was listening through $300 headphones, maybe Dolby mode is only meant for surround sound?

soniasim · Jan 27, 2014

Do either nPlayer or AVPlayer support the displaying of subtitles while streaming natively supported video files such as MP4, from an iPhone to an Apple TV, via native AirPlay (not Mirroring)? Infuse used to do that, but in the latest iOS 7.1 beta 4, that feature stopped working properly

Menneisyys2 · Jan 27, 2014

soniasim said:
Do either nPlayer or AVPlayer support the displaying of subtitles while streaming natively supported video files such as MP4, from an iPhone to an Apple TV, via native AirPlay (not Mirroring)? Infuse used to do that, but in the latest iOS 7.1 beta 4, that feature stopped working properly

As the ATV directly accesses the source MP4 / m4v / mov file, it's the ATV that renders the subtitle track, not nPlayer. The latter only passes the URL of the file but doesn't do any active streaming.

That is, if you can't activate the subtitle in your file, it's not compatible with your ATV.

Are you sure the ATV plays it back in native and not directly driven mode? Can you see the native ATV playback interface during playback on the screen?

lexvo · Jan 27, 2014

I stream video over Airplay to my AppleTV. For this I am currently using Qfile, an app which streams video from my QNAP NAS to my ATV. Qfile has native Airplay and as far as I can see it uses the standard iOS video player.

Would I benefit from a player like nPlayer for streaming? I know it can stream more formats than the iOS player, but I understand that for native Airplay it only streams the standard iOS formats.

I am not so much interested in playing video on my iPad self, only native Airplay streaming.

Is there an image quality difference between nPlayer and the standard iOS player? Because I think that (and a better interface) would be almost the only reason to use nPlayer.

soniasim · Jan 28, 2014

Menneisyys2 said:
As the ATV directly accesses the source MP4 / m4v / mov file, it's the ATV that renders the subtitle track, not nPlayer. The latter only passes the URL of the file but doesn't do any active streaming.

That is, if you can't activate the subtitle in your file, it's not compatible with your ATV.

Are you sure the ATV plays it back in native and not directly driven mode? Can you see the native ATV playback interface during playback on the screen?

Το be honest, I thought that if the file is in .mp4 format, that means that it is played natively by Apple TV...

So you're saying that what Infuse actually did, was playing the file in directly driven mode (not sure what that means), while supporting subtitles at the same time, if those were saved under the same filename in the Infuse folder on iTunes...

If that's the case, I'm perfectly fine with it, as I did not notice any severe loss in quality and subtitles are very important to me... I prefer that method compared to being forced to use any software such as Hanbrake to hardcode them in the movie file...

So back to my original question, does any of these two apps (AVPlayer or nPlayer) support exactly this? Streaming the media content to an Apple TV, while also supporting the streaming of subtitles? What I also loved about Infuse, was that it let you use your phone while streaming and you did not have to stay in the app..

I'm new to the Apple TV, thank you very much for your help

Menneisyys2 · Jan 28, 2014

soniasim said:
Το be honest, I thought that if the file is in .mp4 format, that means that it is played natively by Apple TV...

Depends on the player. Some drive the ATV directly even when the ATV would be able to natively decode the video file.

esskay · Feb 2, 2014

Thanks for the reviews. I installed the latest VLC player (2.2) and it appears to work just fine with the videos I have loaded on my Synology NAS. For the low cost of free, I'm pretty pleased with that!

Menneisyys2 · Feb 2, 2014

esskay said:
Thanks for the reviews. I installed the latest VLC player (2.2) and it appears to work just fine with the videos I have loaded on my Synology NAS. For the low cost of free, I'm pretty pleased with that!

I'm yet to review the latest version of VLC - the one you're using. It's stated to have a lot of bugfixes. Hope it supports hardware playback at last.

lexvo · Feb 2, 2014

Last week I bought the pro version of Infuse 2. The main reason was that it can native Airplay non-iOS video formats, just what I was looking for

So far the app works fine. Thus far, only one MKV wouldn't play smoothly, I will check if that's just a one off.

rick_w · Feb 4, 2014

Asking for help from you all what I would like is the following

- network stored access to files over internet to stream and download remotely.
- idea is when abroad on business can download home files to ipad to view

I did have a my book live but couldn't really get it to work

Have avplayer Hd it's playing pro nplayer and Vic

Mix of files including non-native ipad file type

Was thinking of getting a western digital my cloud live

Menneisyys2 · Mar 3, 2014

Menneisyys2 said:
I'm yet to review the latest version of VLC - the one you're using. It's stated to have a lot of bugfixes. Hope it supports hardware playback at last.

As promised, I've very thoroughly tested the latest version (2.2.2).

There is only one MAJOR cons: still no hardware-assisted playback for not even iOS-native files, let alone MKV's.

On current iDevices like the iPad Mini Retina (the one I've tested it on, in addition to some older models like the iPhone 5), most 24p Full HD MKV's with no more than 11-12 Mbps are played back without hiccups. (For example, the Monsters test video: http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/h264_1080p_hp_4.1_10mbps_dts_unstyled_subs_monsters.mkv ). However, if you play back a 60p video or a 24p one with a significantly higher bitrate (e.g, the Birst video: http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/h264_1080p_hp_4.1_40mbps_birds.mkv ), the results will be absolutely awful. A player with HW-assisted playback will play these high-bitrate files just fine.

And, of course, even if one doesn't immediately realize it, even otherwise (almost-)flawless less-than-13 Mbps 1080p24 playback will cause some MAJOR battery depletion. (Ignore if someone states the opposite - I know better as I've published thousands of benchmarks clearly showing this.)

All in all, if you plan to play back MKV's or MP4 / mov / m4v files played back in hardware by the competing top players and battery life is important for you (if the playback is otherwise stuttering-less), you will NOT want to use VLC. Just like before.

The other not-that-big problem is the lack of audio boosting - an excellent feature of nPlayer / AVPlayer.

Pros:

- the same on-screen controls (volume / brightness / fast forward / rewind) as in nPlayer

- flawless subtitle support for even DVB TS broadcasts (something nPlayer is incapable of)

- real scrubbing implemented (as with nPlayer)

- MPEG2 DVB TS files are played back with somewhat less stuttering than in nPlayer, which means I recommend VLC over nPlayer for MPEG2 playback. (Particularly if it's a DVB TS file with subs.)

All in all,

for everything non-HW-playable in other players, VLC may be a better solution (particularly WRT MPEG-2). For HW playable videos, you must consider HW-assisted players to avoid excess battery usage and, on older devices / higher bit/framerate videos, stuttering and dropped frames.

pierino84 · Mar 10, 2014

Hello Menneisyys2,
First of all I would like to thank you for your useful reviews.
I have a wifi ipad2. I am currently using Aceplayer and Moliplayer, which are both free in the app store. They both work very well with my local server.
Moliplayer has an icon in the upper right, which describes what kind of decoding is being used to play the file (hw/sw).
I have some issues playing most of my full hd mp4 files streamed from my DLNA/SMB server:
When played without srt subtitles, they play fine and smooth, probably because they use the hardware acceleration.
When I switch on the subtitles, the video stutters and many frames are dropped, probably because software decoding is employed. This happens with both Aceplayer and Moliplayer.
The weird thing is that yesterday I watched half a movie with moliplayer, with subs on, and the app was using hw acc. Then, a few hours later and for some unknown reason, it only played using software decoding, and the button used to change the type of decoding did not work.

Now, I would like to know if nPlayer, or one of the other players you have tried are capable of playing full hd mp4 files WITH subtitles AND using the hardware acceleration embedded in the iPad 2.
Thank you very much!

Menneisyys2 · Mar 10, 2014

pierino84 said:
When played without srt subtitles, they play fine and smooth, probably because they use the hardware acceleration.
When I switch on the subtitles, the video stutters and many frames are dropped, probably because software decoding is employed. This happens with both Aceplayer and Moliplayer.
The weird thing is that yesterday I watched half a movie with moliplayer, with subs on, and the app was using hw acc. Then, a few hours later and for some unknown reason, it only played using software decoding, and the button used to change the type of decoding did not work.

The problem may have been caused by the SRT file being an external one. What happens if you embed the subtitles in the MP4 file? It's very-very easy with Subler and has a LOT of advantages, including being able to handle only one file instead of 2+ without losing subs.

pierino84 · Mar 10, 2014

I tried your suggestion, but it's a no go for me, because I should repackage hundreds of videos, and just one optimization by subler took about 15 minutes.
I finally bought nplayer, and I must say that now the issue is gone!
Nplayer keeps the hardware acceleration for video decoding, while showing autonomously the external subtitles.
Full HD mp4s now play smoothly on my iPad 2.
Definitely recommended for people with older devices which need good compatibility with subs.
Thank you for your advices!

esskay · Mar 10, 2014

OP, thanks for your follow up on VLC. Just contributing my experiences which echoes your much more technical (and better) explanation -- I am able to play videos, including some moderate bit rate 1080p videos, off my NAS onto my iPad Air. But I experienced stuttering with the same video on an older iPad 3.

Menneisyys2 · Mar 11, 2014

esskay said:
OP, thanks for your follow up on VLC. Just contributing my experiences which echoes your much more technical (and better) explanation -- I am able to play videos, including some moderate bit rate 1080p videos, off my NAS onto my iPad Air. But I experienced stuttering with the same video on an older iPad 3.

Yup, that's because VLC in no way uses HW acceleration. This is why I don't recommend it for HD mov / mp4 / m4v / mkv playback, not even on the latest-gen Airs. (While there's no stuttering on the latter, you'll still have a comparatively bad battery life.)

wake1 · Mar 17, 2014

In nplayer what are the best settings for best battery life?
Does having the QuickTime plugin turned on for video and audio save battery life? I play mostly mp4 and mkv files.

Menneisyys2 · Mar 18, 2014

wake1 said:
In nplayer what are the best settings for best battery life?
Does having the QuickTime plugin turned on for video and audio save battery life? I play mostly mp4 and mkv files.

Yes. However, switching to hardware (assuming you do need the features like volume boosting) doesn't incur much battery life decrease, unlike with switching to purely software (or trying to play back the same video in software-only decoders like even the latest VLC version).

If you don't need any DSP functionality, always use the QT mode.

DorisMartin · Mar 18, 2014

Thanks for sharing this awesome post about latest version of multimedia players VLC , nPlayer & AVPlayer. Still didn't tried this latest version but i will try it.

wake1 · Mar 19, 2014

Is nplayer the best for battery life, in your opinion?

Menneisyys2 · Mar 19, 2014

wake1 said:
Is nplayer the best for battery life, in your opinion?

When playing back HW-decodeable video in a compatible container (e.g., MKV), players that support HW decoding. Not only nPlayer, but also AVPlayerHD and several other. I've even published a full roundup on all these q's:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1679716/

See " 1.1 Power consumption results (without DSP's)"

tarasis · Oct 31, 2014

Great thread Menneisyys2, thank you for your reviews. I just wish I'd seen them before I paid for nPlayer. I wasn't expecting that it couldn't AirPlay MKV files I was streaming over SFTP. Still its useful to be able to watch on my iPad when I want to.

What players can Airplay MKV's or network streamed MP4's? I was looking at Infuse 3 as a possibility but it only seems to support local files (device, internal network) which is a bit of a downer.

At that point I'm nearly as well sticking with StreamToMe/ServeToMe for the AppleTV or continue using Serviio & my BluRay Player.

Bealala · Nov 20, 2014

Couldn't find VLC media player on App Store, just streamer. I don't think it's the same. Right?

But thanks for this review. Tried nPlayer, really like it.

Menneisyys2 · Nov 24, 2014

3nPlayer3 said:
Menneisyys please reply!!

Sorry - I've been very busy lately.

My personal pick and the player I always use on my Air 2 is still nPlayer. However, the usual stuff still applies to even the latest version (all tests have been done on my iPad Air 2 running on iOS8.1):

- it isn't the best for MPEG2 SD DVB playback (.TS files and the like) - stuttering, inability to properly render all subtitles etc. GoodPlayer is much better for that.

- DTS isn't supported - for DTS playback (if you absolutely can't convert your audio tracks to AC3, AAC or MP3), you should go for Infuse 3 instead.

Bouncycow · Dec 3, 2014

My apologies if this is not the correct place to ask, but Menneisyys2 seems to be the expert on nplayer

I'm having difficulty getting nplayer to connect to a Windows share on a 2008R2 server: no matter what combination of settings I enter, I always get "The operation couldn't be completed. Permission denied".

However it can connect without problems to an SMB share on a FreeNAS box, and everything works fine.
I've tried pretty much everything I can think of on the windows side - enabling the guest account, configuring the share as nullsession, and so on - but without success so far.

Unfortunately I've not been able to find much in the way of documentation for nplayer. Is anyone able to shed some light on why this is failing only on Windows?

Thanks all

REVIEW: New Versions of Multimedia Players VLC, nPlayer and AVPlayer(HD)

macrumors newbie

macrumors regular

macrumors 603

macrumors 65816

macrumors regular

macrumors 603

macrumors 6502

macrumors 603

macrumors 65816

macrumors newbie

macrumors 603

macrumors member

macrumors 603

macrumors member

macrumors 6502

macrumors 603

macrumors newbie

macrumors 603

macrumors newbie

macrumors newbie

macrumors 603

macrumors 6502a

macrumors newbie

macrumors 603

macrumors newbie

Our Staff