GoodPlayer review/report

[hustmobile]

Yes, somebody asks for such manual work by users.

Originally Posted by ragnakore

Just like PSP?
And who will create these customized pictures? the user? or the app automatically?
In the case of PSP, the user had to create the pictures manually and it is very laborious.

I prefer the app to automatically do it just like VLC for iPAD.

[hustmobile]

About downloader, we just started the work on it. There were lots of other feature to be finished first.Thanks for the waiting.

About the RMVB or other file formats "Open in", in fact GoodPlayer has already support RMVB "Open in", I guess GoodReader supports it as well. We have some customers feedback similar issue, after tons of testing, it seems that sometimes the issue is not on both App, maybe the issue is in iOS system somewhere. Please upgrade to the latest iOS for "Open in" testing. The GoodPlayer itself has done its work on "Open in" already.

Originally Posted by alcinoandre

Dear hustmobile,

Congratulations for this great ipad's app. GoodPlayer is in fact a good player.
However lacks a good downloader inside the app... maybe in a future version, like you said.

Please answer the following question:

- GoodReader is able to download rmvb files but it can't play them; GoodPlayer is able to play rmvb files but not to download them. We can't transfer files from GoodReader to GoodPlayer but there is a feature on GoodReader to "open in" a different app.
Can't you register GoodPlayer as a rmvb player in a future version so it could appear on GoodReader when we select a rmvb file and push the button "open in"?

Thanks in advance.

[hustmobile]

XBMC is great, but such pulling in info work needs lots of work, we will try to improve this part anyway.

About the multitasking support, we tried it in the development, now there is some issue about the video part go to background. When this video part issue is fixed, we will add the multitasking support to new version.

Originally Posted by Ko

Programs like XMBC http://xbmc.org/ do a faboulous job of pulling in info about content - posters, thumbnails, ratings, description.

The source code they use to do this is gpl'd: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc so I figure it would be easy enough to resuse. It would be wonderful if XMBC could do something like this!

Another feature request: Goodplayer should really think about supporting the multitasking features in os4 and not worry so much about ios 3 compatibility! or support both somehow..

[hustmobile]

What's New In GoodPlayer Version 2.2
1. DTS audio supported
2. Folder password protection supported
How to set folder password: Go to file manger of GoodPlayer to set
password for folders. For the top directory password set, go to
"GoodPlayer"-->"Settings" -->at the bottom, "Lock root folder" to turn
on the password for root documents folder, or "Unlock root folder" to
turn off the password for root documents folder.
How to reset the password: connect the iOS device to iTunes, use
iTunes File Sharing, go to GoodPlayer in iTunes File Sharing, select
"_Configure_" folder and press "Delete" in the keyboard. When the
"_Configure_" folder is deleted, all the set passwords will be removed
from GoodPlayer.
3. AAC audio support improved
4 .dts and .mka file formats supported
5. German language support, thanks Lucas
6. Czech language support, thanks Peter again
7. Lock to landscape mode for video playback supported
8. Folder rename supported
9. Facebook and Twitter contact information added

[Ashwood11]

Originally Posted by hustmobile

What's New In GoodPlayer Version 2.2

How to reset the password: connect the iOS device to iTunes, use
iTunes File Sharing, go to GoodPlayer in iTunes File Sharing, select
"_Configure_" folder and press "Delete" in the keyboard. When the
"_Configure_" folder is deleted, all the set passwords will be removed
from GoodPlayer.

I like the update and was surprised that the password could be set at two levels but the resetting of the password using iTunes is too complicated. Every other app I have allows resetting passwords from inside the app. When iOS5 is released many people will be using the iPad as a stand alone device and will not be able to change the password.

Overall I am very pleased with Goodplayer but I think the method of changing the password needs to be modified.

[VideoBeagle]

Originally Posted by ragnakore

Just like PSP?
I prefer the app to automatically do it just like VLC for iPAD.

One of VLC's biggest problem in my testing was that the thumbnail generation would choke and crash the app if it encountered a file the app didn't like, and without knowing which app was the problem, it was a matter of hooking to iTunes and deleting the files one by one.

Eyecandy is nice...these are Apple devices after all, but functionality is better.

[hustmobile]

Resetting the password is the last resort for forgetting password case, if it can be done inside the app, then everyone can reset it then view your movies. So I am confused here, the password seems meaningless this way.

By resetting password, what I mean is remove all the password completely when you forget the passwords. You can still change the password inside the app.

Originally Posted by Ashwood11

I like the update and was surprised that the password could be set at two levels but the resetting of the password using iTunes is too complicated. Every other app I have allows resetting passwords from inside the app. When iOS5 is released many people will be using the iPad as a stand alone device and will not be able to change the password.

Overall I am very pleased with Goodplayer but I think the method of changing the password needs to be modified.

[Ashwood11]

Originally Posted by hustmobile

Resetting the password is the last resort for forgetting password case, if it can be done inside the app, then everyone can reset it then view your movies. So I am confused here, the password seems meaningless this way.

By resetting password, what I mean is remove all the password completely when you forget the passwords. You can still change the password inside the app.

My observation was based on changing a password that you could remember. If this can be done in the app then there is no problem.

[hustmobile]

Surely this can be done in the app.

Originally Posted by Ashwood11

My observation was based on changing a password that you could remember. If this can be done in the app then there is no problem.

[Ashwood11]

I notice that many, not all, WMV video files have poor playback. Some stall and then restart, while others simply don't play. I purchased Goodplayer to replace VLC and I'm glad I did. I was having the playback problem with VLC and hoped that the WMV videos that would not play in VLC would play in Goodplayer. Both apps have trouble playing the same video files, so the problem may be corrupted video files.

Just to be clear, Goodplayer is a great app and has many nice features. I will be removing VLC from my iPad and using only Goodplayer. Goodplayer has great customer support.

I just posted a five star review on the App Store.

[ragnakore]

Originally Posted by VideoBeagle

One of VLC's biggest problem in my testing was that the thumbnail generation would choke and crash the app if it encountered a file the app didn't like, and without knowing which app was the problem, it was a matter of hooking to iTunes and deleting the files one by one.

Eyecandy is nice...these are Apple devices after all, but functionality is better.

Does that imply implementing such a feature will transfer the VLC bug to GoodPlayer? No. A VLC bug stays as a VLC bug - UNLESS GoodPlayer simply copied the codes from VLC, now that will surely recreate the bug....VLC is no longer developing for idevices - if VLC were still in development, Im sure VLC would have fixed that.

How about this: Why not implement a feature that will first look for a "gif/jpeg/png" extension of the same name as the video file and if found will use that as thumbnail; if no such file exists, then GoodPlayer would create the thumbnail.


BTW.. I just loaded GoodPlayer with about 50 videos and the app got sluggish everytime I restart the app. I dont encounter this with VLC holding more than 100 videos - the only time VLC gets sluggish is when it is generating the thumbnails while scrolling the title lists.

VLC is installed on iPAD1 64GB
GoodPlayer is installed on iPAD2 64G

[Ratatapa]

still missing the streaming from lan

[hustmobile]

We are thinking of adding this first : implement a feature that will first look for a "gif/jpeg/png" extension of the same name as the video file and if found will use that as thumbnail. Maybe no gif support, jpeg/png is enough. How about jpeg only? Or png only?

About the sluggish issue, we will check it

Originally Posted by ragnakore

Does that imply implementing such a feature will transfer the VLC bug to GoodPlayer? No. A VLC bug stays as a VLC bug - UNLESS GoodPlayer simply copied the codes from VLC, now that will surely recreate the bug....VLC is no longer developing for idevices - if VLC were still in development, Im sure VLC would have fixed that.

How about this: Why not implement a feature that will first look for a "gif/jpeg/png" extension of the same name as the video file and if found will use that as thumbnail; if no such file exists, then GoodPlayer would create the thumbnail.


BTW.. I just loaded GoodPlayer with about 50 videos and the app got sluggish everytime I restart the app. I dont encounter this with VLC holding more than 100 videos - the only time VLC gets sluggish is when it is generating the thumbnails while scrolling the title lists.

VLC is installed on iPAD1 64GB
GoodPlayer is installed on iPAD2 64G

[hustmobile]

Please check the online help http://www.hustmobile.com/goodplayer/index.html
LAN streaming is there already.
However I must admit it is hard to use since it needs the full media URL. I always emailed the url info to myself, then copy&paste it to GoodPlayer

Now we are working on built-in browser&downloader feature, hope we can make the streaming easier at the same time

#13 How can I play files that are located on a Mac on my local network, without running a steaming server, and without having to copy the file locally first?

It can be done by the HTTP or FTP streaming.

The Mac comes with built-in HTTP and FTP file sharing, so you need no
other streaming server installation. Mac -->System Preferences
-->Sharing---> Web Sharing is for HTTP.

Mac -->System Preferences
-->Sharing---> File Sharing --->Options is for FTP.

After sharing the files from Mac by HTTP/FTP:
1. Input the URL in the GoodPlayer, it can playback. URL example:
http://192.168.1.10/test.avi
ftp://usernameassword@192.168.1.10/test.avi
2. Write a web page with goodplayer:// url scheme,such as
goodplayer://http://192.168.1.10/test.avi
goodplayer://ftp://usernameassword@192.168.1.10/test.avi

Then open the web page from iOS devices, click the goodplayer:// link ,the files will be played back. Please note the FTP comes with password/username.

Originally Posted by Ratatapa

still missing the streaming from lan

[hustmobile]

About the sluggish issue report, we have loaded 150+ files in GoodPlayer, not sluggish issue found. Could you give more details on this issue?
So far, the file number seems not the cause. And could you reboot your iOS device and try again?

Originally Posted by ragnakore

Does that imply implementing such a feature will transfer the VLC bug to GoodPlayer? No. A VLC bug stays as a VLC bug - UNLESS GoodPlayer simply copied the codes from VLC, now that will surely recreate the bug....VLC is no longer developing for idevices - if VLC were still in development, Im sure VLC would have fixed that.

How about this: Why not implement a feature that will first look for a "gif/jpeg/png" extension of the same name as the video file and if found will use that as thumbnail; if no such file exists, then GoodPlayer would create the thumbnail.


BTW.. I just loaded GoodPlayer with about 50 videos and the app got sluggish everytime I restart the app. I dont encounter this with VLC holding more than 100 videos - the only time VLC gets sluggish is when it is generating the thumbnails while scrolling the title lists.

VLC is installed on iPAD1 64GB
GoodPlayer is installed on iPAD2 64G

[ragnakore]

Originally Posted by hustmobile

About the sluggish issue report, we have loaded 150+ files in GoodPlayer, not sluggish issue found. Could you give more details on this issue?
So far, the file number seems not the cause. And could you reboot your iOS device and try again?

After downloading via itunes 50+videos, I noticed the videos were not being displayed on the GoodPlayer title lists. So I quit the app, restart it and tried to browse through the list by swiping up/down the list. It was sluggish.

I went on to download some more videos (5 large movies 10~12GB in total). And while waiting, I wrote that report.

After the download finished, I restarted the app and browse through the list. This time it was no more sluggish. However, one thing I noticed: browsing through a new folder is sluggish even with 1 or 50+ title lists installed. The subsequent browsing is no longer sluggish.

I am relatively new to GoodPlayer, bought a few days ago (after learning it can use native GPU = better quality)... Im used to using VLC..

[hustmobile]

Maybe it is the download caused the issue, download sometimes takes up lots of resources.
We will check more on the folder testing.
VLC is great, it is a pity that iOS VLC is discontinued. GPU surely is much faster than the software processing, and for iPad 2, dual-core decoding gives lots of performance enhancement.

Originally Posted by ragnakore

After downloading via itunes 50+videos, I noticed the videos were not being displayed on the GoodPlayer title lists. So I quit the app, restart it and tried to browse through the list by swiping up/down the list. It was sluggish.

I went on to download some more videos (5 large movies 10~12GB in total). And at this time, I wrote that report.

After the download finished, I restarted the app and browse through the list. This time it was no more sluggish. However, one thing I noticed: browsing through a new folder is sluggish even with 1 or 50+ title lists installed. The subsequent browsing is no longer sluggish.

I am relatively new to GoodPlayer, bought a few days ago (after learning it can use native GPU = better quality)... Im used to using VLC..

[ragnakore]

Originally Posted by hustmobile

We are thinking of adding this first : implement a feature that will first look for a "gif/jpeg/png" extension of the same name as the video file and if found will use that as thumbnail. Maybe no gif support, jpeg/png is enough. How about jpeg only? Or png only?

About the sluggish issue, we will check it

I;ve been doing this on PSP way back in 2009 using FFMPEG lots of hard work.

But a small step forward is an improvement nonetheless. But I do hope you'd incorporate the "lazy user" approach of having the app do it for us like the way VLC does it instead of lazy developer approach of having the user do it all (no offense intended)

[hustmobile]

Totally agree with you. We will try thumbnail generation in the future surely.

So far we are too busy with other features, so eye candy feature will wait.

What we are working:
1. Downloader/built-in browser
2. smb/cifs client

Originally Posted by ragnakore

I;ve been doing this on PSP way back in 2009 using FFMPEG lots of hard work.

But a small step forward is an improvement nonetheless. But I do hope you'd incorporate the "lazy user" approach of having the app do it for us like the way VLC does it instead of lazy developer approach of having the user do it all (no offense intended)

[hitekalex]

Originally Posted by hustmobile

What we are working:
2. smb/cifs client

I would much rather see WebDAV support versus SMB/CIFS (which is crappy and insecure windoz stuff)

Even Apple is promoting WebDAV as "the way" to share files between a desktop and iPad, and it's being fully integrated in Lion Server:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/server

"File Sharing for iPad

Lion Server delivers wireless file sharing for iPad. When you enable WebDAV in Lion Server, you can access, copy, and share documents on the server from applications such as Keynote, Numbers, and Pages."

[hustmobile]

SMB/CIFS will have higher priority, since lots of legacy devices such NAS has already supported SMB/CIFS.
The SMB/CIFS support is not mainly for the new created file sharing, it is for lots of legacy file sharing devices, especially NAS.

Originally Posted by hitekalex

I would much rather see WebDAV support versus SMB/CIFS (which is crappy and insecure windoz stuff)

Even Apple is promoting WebDAV as "the way" to share files between a desktop and iPad, and it's being fully integrated in Lion Server:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/server

"File Sharing for iPad

Lion Server delivers wireless file sharing for iPad. When you enable WebDAV in Lion Server, you can access, copy, and share documents on the server from applications such as Keynote, Numbers, and Pages."

[ragnakore]

I have tested several video and file apps transfering files and videos via wifi. ALL bar none, never transferred files faster than 200KBps... Transfering a 1.5G HD FILE would take hours... After a while i came to a conclusion that wifi file transfer of large video files is useless feature for me.

So question, how fast can GoodPlayer transfer files via WIFI?

Btw. My wifi network is 300mbps 802.11N and i can transfer at the least 10mBps to my NAS from any laptop.

[hustmobile]

I think the WiFi transfer speed is up to the WiFi network it is in.

We do not test the HTTP WiFi transfer speed, the largest file we tested with HTTP WiFi transfer is about 1GB, the larger file we will use iTunes File Sharing.

But we have some speed testing on the coming 2.3 FTP WiFi transfer, it is about 1Mbps (500kbps + 500 kbps actually for 2 files transfer at the same time), the WiFi network is 802.11g

Sometimes , reboot your WiFi AP; or do not use WiFi on other devices at the same time will give some speed booster. However, the WiFi speed is still tricky and change from network to network.

Originally Posted by ragnakore

I have tested several video and file apps transfering files and videos via wifi. ALL bar none, never transferred files faster than 200KBps... Transfering a 1.5G HD FILE would take hours... After a while i came to a conclusion that wifi file transfer of large video files is useless feature for me.

So question, how fast can GoodPlayer transfer files via WIFI?

Btw. My wifi network is 300mbps 802.11N and i can transfer at the least 10mBps to my NAS from any laptop.

[hustmobile]

The older post GoodPlayer speed is just by memory. We just give a simple WiFi speed test. Here are some results:

1. Client: Windows 7, 100Mbps LAN, 802.11g WiFi, iPhone 4 iOS 4.3.3;
2. GoodPlayer 2.3, for the HTTP part, it should be same with the older version ,and 2.3 has the FTP server support
3. FTP speed: about 12.5 Mbps for one file,client Filezilla 3.5.0
4. HTTP speed: about 15Mbps first half, drop down to 6Mbps suddenly at the second half, since we have lots of users on this WIFI AP, maybe some users added in. client "Internet Explorer 9"
5. Note, in the testing, the PC is not on the WiFi, PC is on the LAN.
If PC/Notebook uses WiFi with iOS devices, the speed should drop down.

Originally Posted by ragnakore

I have tested several video and file apps transfering files and videos via wifi. ALL bar none, never transferred files faster than 200KBps... Transfering a 1.5G HD FILE would take hours... After a while i came to a conclusion that wifi file transfer of large video files is useless feature for me.

So question, how fast can GoodPlayer transfer files via WIFI?

Btw. My wifi network is 300mbps 802.11N and i can transfer at the least 10mBps to my NAS from any laptop.

[ragnakore]

Originally Posted by ragnakore

I have tested several video and file apps transfering files and videos via wifi. ALL bar none, never transferred files faster than 200KBps... Transfering a 1.5G HD FILE would take hours... After a while i came to a conclusion that wifi file transfer of large video files is useless feature for me.

So question, how fast can GoodPlayer transfer files via WIFI?

Btw. My wifi network is 300mbps 802.11N and i can transfer at the least 10mBps to my NAS from any laptop.

Ok.. I just tested the transfer speed:

I tried to transfer (from ipad to pc) a 1.4gb avi file and according to firefox, the speed went as high as 580kBps and as low as 100kBps, estimating from as little as 40minutes to as long as 2.5hours.

On my wifi network, i can transfer Files between laptops at least 10mBps.

So far, same speed as what im seeing with apps such as xbmc, file browser, FTPOnTheGo etc...

Though not fast enough for my purpose, i believe it would still come handy for occasions to download a video file while using 3G or WIFI on the road or away from an iTune PC.