Alternatives to AVPlayerHD

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by yousifabdullah

Hei Menneisyys2,

I noticed CineXPlayer has updated its app a few days ago with a new UI and music playback support with Dolby Digital Plus, as well as Live TV. I'm sure you have tried it and talked about it before, it seems the app is solid with MKV and AC3 support on the iPad version (iPhone version doesn't support MKV for some reason).

So you think it's worth 3,59€? They had me at new UI and music playback, as I'm looking for a single app to handle all multimedia needs. Too bad it isn't Universal and lacks parity with the iPhone version.

Posted the full review, with benchmark videos, at http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=17232088

Basically, I don't recommend it over nPlayer or AVPlayerHD. Only check it out if you can / want to make use of its Dolby Digital features, built-in Web browser or TV station directory. As a standalone video player, it's considerably weaker than nPlayer or AVPlayerHD.

[Mackan]

Do any of the now AC3 licensed players use a certified AC3 decoder from Dolby? Or is the decoder based on open source ones, like ffmpeg?

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by Mackan

Do any of the now AC3 licensed players use a certified AC3 decoder from Dolby? Or is the decoder based on open source ones, like ffmpeg?

I will ask the nPlayer / AVPlayer devs and report back.

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

I will ask the nPlayer / AVPlayer devs and report back.

Just got an answer from the nPlayer devs:

"Hi, We integrated Dolby's object code into nPlayer because using Dolby's object codec is required as part of Dolby license."

That is, AVPlayer must also have Dolby's own decoder.

[Mackan]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

Just got an answer from the nPlayer devs:

"Hi, We integrated Dolby's object code into nPlayer because using Dolby's object codec is required as part of Dolby license."

That is, AVPlayer must also have Dolby's own decoder.

Thank you, nice to hear.

[Drewvt]

I thought that AVPlayer was an all-round excellent program, best video player in the store...until they had to drop all those codecs. Now I have a 30gb library of video without sound.

More and more I am becoming convinced that what I really need is not an iPad but rather a tablet with a fully open source OS, on which any open source software can be installed without restrictions.

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by Drewvt

I thought that AVPlayer was an all-round excellent program, best video player in the store...until they had to drop all those codecs. Now I have a 30gb library of video without sound.

More and more I am becoming convinced that what I really need is not an iPad but rather a tablet with a fully open source OS, on which any open source software can be installed without restrictions.

Consider remuxing your movies. With tools like MKV/MP4Tools, you can quickly convert the DTS tracks to AC3 or AAC ones. Then, AVPlayer will be able to play back these files.

Given that your library's only 30 GBytes, remuxing can be done in a few hours at most, assuming you use the automatic (batch) mode of these remuxers.

Note that I've written several tutorials on MKV/MP4Tools - just look around in this very forum, or, the Apple TV forum here.

[Drewvt]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

Note that I've written several tutorials on MKV/MP4Tools - just look around in this very forum, or, the Apple TV forum here.

Thank you kindly. I will do just that for part of the files, I think, at least with the ones for which I cannot obtain a DTS-free alternative file.