Media player devs: a viable way to re-enable AC-3? (Users: make 8player play AC-3!)

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by EskimoRanger

The only AppStore player claiming to use AC3 is CineXPlayer but as you have said they don't have native iPhone 5 res yet and I'm not 100% that it supports MKV.

1. Isn't there any way of enabling UPnP or SMB instead of / in addition to FTP? Then, you could be able to use e.g. CineXPlayer (with UPnP).

2. CineXPlayer doesn't support FTP (see above), only UPnP. The currently available iPhone version (2.8.2) does play MKV's but in software only and isn't really recommended for playback. You could drop a line to the dev (he's here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1478727 ) so that he speeds up releasing the much superior (but in no way flawless) 3.x series for the iPhone as well.

3. I don't have any good news for you. The AppStore players that do support FTP (VM Player, AcePlayer, Oplayer, eXPlayer, BUZZ Player, GoodPlayer, eXPlayer) have all removed AC3 support. (In addition, only one of them, eXPlayer, supports hardware-assisted playback of iOS-native files.)

4. The jailbreak-only XBMC supports FTP streaming (along with AC3 / HW acceleration, even with MKV files) just fine - but you'd need JB...

5. Note that the, assuming you've downloaded it to your target device before it being censored out of AppStore, in the AppStore still available AVplayer does support AC3 but has no streaming support at all. This means you can only download files, not stream them.

All in all, the situation is pretty dire, "thanks" to Dolby and Apple - they've successfully destroyed the platform as a viable, great, flexible, all-in-one multimedia playback platform with their absolutely silly AppStore rules (Apple's not allowing HW acceleration with non-native containers) and (Dolby's) greed. It'd be the best if you converted your video files - adding an additional AAC track is very easy with tools like MKVTools. (Need the URL of my dedicated tutorial?) Also, you really should consider switching to an iOS-native container and using UPnP or SMB so that you can have hardware acceleration.

[EskimoRanger]

Hey, thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I've had a browse for the apps you have suggested but find VM Player the ONLY acceptable one since it seems to be able to adjust the streaming quality in order to stream from my house to my mobile while I'm away from my network. The others make you wait much longer to try and get a maximum quality stream.

If I read another one of your posts correctly, developers could have an option to leave open some space to add in the AC3 codecs manually. If I could contact the developer, what would I have to ask them specifically?

Annoyingly I have the last version of AcePlayer that DOES support AC3 but that never got updated to iPhone 5 screen size in time.

I would jailbreak if I could but a 5 running 6.0.1 isn't available yet.

Thanks!

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by EskimoRanger

If I read another one of your posts correctly, developers could have an option to leave open some space to add in the AC3 codecs manually. If I could contact the developer, what would I have to ask them specifically?
.

Thanks!

just point them to the first post of this thread.

[Peter78]

8Player is a good app, I tried it. My choice is ArkMC It works fine with my DLNA/UPnP devices in home and supports AC-3 as well.
8Player is only player (DMP), ArkMC available as renderer (DMR) even in Windows Media Player "play to". And it can control my TV, WMP and WD TV (DMC).

[ar3ar2]

I don't understand. Wikipedia says the first dolby digital movie was released in 1992. Patents expire in 20 years. AC-3 should be free to implement now.

OP, do you know why we still have to pay licensing fees?

[maromo80]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

Today, I played with the just-released update of 8player (AppStore link; the free version is definitely worth giving a try, particularly if you're into UPnP), an excellent UPnP media player (and a not-so-decent local one).

Upon tapping a direct camera AVCHD test file (as has been explained in several of my articles, they all contain AC-3 audio tracks), I've seen the following message:

Image
(as with all images in this article, click the thumbnail for the original shot!)

I've tapped the FAQ button and what did I read (pay special attention to the annotated part)?

Image

Yes, you can, by adding one single file to the Documents directory manually via iTunes, re-enable AC-3!

All you need to do, as a user, is indeed going HERE, downloading the single ZIP file linked there (currently, at version 1.0, from HERE) and copying it, via iTunes, to the same directory as you'd do with standard videos:

Image
(the ZIP is selected in the filelist)

This made 8player play back the AC-3 (and other Dolby) audio tracks again.

Needless to say, it works just fine without jailbreaking (above, you can see I've done this on a non-jailbreakable iPhone 5) and without using third-party apps like iExplorer – after all, all you need to do is putting a single file in the standard Documents (and not, say, Library) folder of the standard iTunes.

I've tested the same add-on ZIP file with the apps (EC Player, It's Playing, BUZZ Player, HD Player Pro) listed in the previous screenshot. All of them had to remove AC-3 support (see THIS article for the background). Unfortunately, none of them support the ZIP file, while the majority of them is based on FFmpeg.

Hope this changes in the future, (also) these players adding support for using external, non-embedded, user-added libraries to play back this essential audio format, whose lack of support caused by Dolby's extremely high licensing fee demands, has made iOS as a whole a lot less desirable for generic multimedia playback – now, I'm seriously considering getting a Nexus 10 or a Surface Pro (or even RT if its price drops) for my video playback needs because of not only Apple's restricting hardware playback, making absolutely flawless MKV playback impossible if you don't jailbreak, but also developers being forced to remove AC-3. I again recommend checking out the user reviews collected in my previous, dedicated article to see how acute this problem is and how much damage it has done to the entire platform.

My recommendation to developers is as follows: do the same as the 8player developers and, by telling users to copy the external codecs manually to your app, give us back AC-3 support. Hopefully Dolby can't do anything with external libraries you don't actively distribute with (inside) your apps and/or, at last, reconsiders their licensing fee demands and comes up with ones that are actually payable. Say, $0.3...$1/copy sold, depending on the AppStore price of the app itself (for example, a dev selling a $5 player can surely pay $1 per copy for a license but a $2 player can't), without any additional, e.g. annual fees - that is, no absolutely unreal punishments like $25k/year for developers of players that don't even sell that many copies a year.

UPDATE (03/Dec/2012): as is pointed out HERE, in both versions of 8player, the AC-3 track of iOS-native files (mov / mp4 / m4v) is only played back if you explicitly disable hardware acceleration by disabling (just switch off the switch at Settings > Players > Video Player > Native Player). This, of course, doesn't need to be done with non-native containers - MKV's, AVI's etc. - as they're always played back in software, without utilizing hardware acceleration, independent of the state of the switch.

Hello!!!

I am an iphone user and I´d like use 8player adding AC3 to itunes. I did in the same folder (movie and codec) but no works!! The message appears:"At the moment decoder for this video is unavailable. For more details..."

I have iphone 5 with ios 6.0.2.
What I do wrong??
I´m sorry but I don´t speak english very well.

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by maromo80

Hello!!!

I am an iphone user and I´d like use 8player adding AC3 to itunes. I did in the same folder (movie and codec) but no works!! The message appears:"At the moment decoder for this video is unavailable. For more details..."

I have iphone 5 with ios 6.0.2.
What I do wrong??
I´m sorry but I don´t speak english very well.

The devs have removed AC3 support in the latest upgrade released a few days ago.

[maromo80]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

The devs have removed AC3 support in the latest upgrade released a few days ago.

Ook. It's a pity!! Thanks

[Pein]

Oh no way to play media files contain AC3 again

[Donka]

The devs of AcePlayer have been quite clever. The superseded it with a later version that dropped the unlicensed codec support and retired the previous version. They then added the codec support back to the retired version which is no longer listed in the App Store so not subject to approval. You can still go to the purchased tab and download the previous version if you had bought it previously before it was pulled and the great thing is it doesn't show up as an update in the App Store so you don't get that annoying little red numerical marked on the App Store icon.

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by Pein

Oh no way to play media files contain AC3 again

Use AVPlayer(HD), they have licensed AC3 (and DTS). It has been recently re-introduced into AppStore.

Anotehr AC3 (but NOT DTS!) capable player is CineXPlayer but I don't really recommend it.

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Originally Posted by Donka

The devs of AcePlayer have been quite clever. The superseded it with a later version that dropped the unlicensed codec support and retired the previous version. They then added the codec support back to the retired version which is no longer listed in the App Store so not subject to approval. You can still go to the purchased tab and download the previous version if you had bought it previously before it was pulled and the great thing is it doesn't show up as an update in the App Store so you don't get that annoying little red numerical marked on the App Store icon.

BTW, the same can be done to BUZZ Player.

[Donka]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

BTW, the same can be done to BUZZ Player.

They retired a version but left Dolby / DTS support in the purchase history version?

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by Donka

They retired a version but left Dolby / DTS support in the purchase history version?

Yup, the old, pre-4 version is ac3 / dts-capable.

[Donka]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

Yup, the old, pre-4 version is ac3 / dts-capable.

Thanks.

[vatter69]

Seems nPlayer is the answer to our prayers.

SMB/UPNP/DLNAWIFI Transfer - with AC3 support. 2.99 Euros in the AppStore.

[thunng8]

Originally Posted by vatter69

Seems nPlayer is the answer to our prayers.

SMB/UPNP/DLNAWIFI Transfer - with AC3 support. 2.99 Euros in the AppStore.

Yep, nplayer is my current favourite. Plays 1080p ac3 mkv files hardware accelerated either locally or over FTP or smb perfectly.

[Donka]

Originally Posted by thunng8

Yep, nplayer is my current favourite. Plays 1080p ac3 mkv files hardware accelerated either locally or over FTP or smb perfectly.

Does this app allow downloading as opposed to streaming via FTP or SMB? I look for this functionality so I can download from my NAS before leaving the house on a trip.

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Just read the description on AppStore and looks like it does:

- Built-in FTP client to stream and download media files
- Built-in UPnP/DLNA client to stream and download media files
- Built-in SMB client to stream and download media files

[DjStiky]

nPlayer not available in the Canadian store

[Menneisyys2]

Originally Posted by DjStiky

nPlayer not available in the Canadian store

I've talked to the developers of nPlayer. They said the new, 1.11 version will soon be available. That is, it WILL reappear.

Without DTS support, I need to add That is, do the same as with AVPlayerHDif you want to keep the DTS support: BACKUP!

(More info: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=17139078 )

[thunng8]

Originally Posted by Menneisyys2

I've talked to the developers of nPlayer. They said the new, 1.11 version will soon be available. That is, it WILL reappear.

Without DTS support, I need to add That is, do the same as with AVPlayerHDif you want to keep the DTS support: BACKUP!

(More info: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=17139078 )

Oh no .. Looks like I will be keeping 1.9 for a while then.