General REPORT: New RushPlayer+ is here - you can safely update!

[Menneisyys2]

I've very frequently recommended RushPlayer+ as the go-to media player for jailbroken devices, particularly if you play back MKV files.

After all,

- the basic video playback functionality needs no IAP - that is, it can be used for free. (Note that the app still doesn't use Cydia's own purchase mechanism but that of selective, device-specific activation. The latter is a real PITA. Back in early 2012, I've paid a license but, after an update, haven't been able to re-activate my copy. That is, until the developer switches to Cydia's purchasing mechanism, I don't think you should bother with the IAP activation.)

- it still supports DTS audio - this is VERY rare in the iOS world!

- it has hardware accelerated MKV playback out of the box

- it supports even "old" OS'es like 5.1.1 - while, for example, It's Playing Pro 5 or Infuse 2 don't support them any more.

Compared to the other major JB player, XBMC, RushPlayer+ is far superior, at least regarding MKV playback. Of course, XBMC is superior in a lot of other respects; for example, audio format support. For example, not a single other iOS player can play back 24-bit Lossless WMA and WMA Pro audio (see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1652736/ for more info.). Nevertheless, for MKV playback, it's simply not recommended - for that, RushPlayer+ is way better (smoother, uses full resolution on Retina iPads etc.).

After over a year(!) of silence, the dev has just released a new version, 1.7.5-1.

Installation notes

I've had no problems installing it on my iPhone 3GS on 5.1.1 as a fresh install. On my 6.1 iPad 2, after an app update, the screen went black for some minutes. Then, the device restarted. After that, the player worked just fine. That is, if you encounter the same problem, don't panic - it won't make your iDevice a paperweight needing a restore (and, if it's an A5+ one, the consequent loss of the JB).

 

[007p]

Any idea what was updated yet ?

 

[darricksailo]

How does it compare to VLC player from the App Store? (No longer jailbroken)

It sounds like an app from cydia

 

[rak007]

I use nPlayer and does the job very well for me.

 

[Menneisyys2]

I use nPlayer and does the job very well for me.

Yup, nPlayer is great. However, it's $5 and, which is worse, doesn't support DTS audio. For jailbreakers, RushPlayer+ is a must, particularly if they want to play back DTS.

 

[Menneisyys2]

How does it compare to VLC player from the App Store? (No longer jailbroken)

It sounds like an app from cydia

The two are entirely different animals with entirely different strengths and weaknesses.

a. For MKV and mp4/m4v/mov playback (particularly with DTS audio), RushPlayer+ is way better. There's simply no contest as RushPlayer+ uses hardware acceleration, while VLC doesn't. The latter only uses software decoding with all its problems:

- much higher battery usage: see my latest benchmarks in section "1.1 Power consumption results (without DSP's)" HERE, where I directly compared it to the alternatives. (RushPlayer+ consumes about 18% during the full playback of the test video.)

- framerate issues on everything pre-A7 (assuming you play back a 1080p24+ H.264 movie). For example, on A5, 1080p24 playback is entirely impossible - see for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVpiewsZhoQ&feature=youtu.be , linked from section "2.4: iPad3: VLC, iPad2: It's Playing 5.0" from the above-linked article.

b. For playing back / decoding a wide variety of audio / video / subtitle formats, VLC is definitely better. For example, it's the only iOS player I know of to properly decode VobSub subtitles in M4V files - see for example my post at https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18463613/ for more info. Nevertheless, don't forget to use something hardware-accelerated for hardware-accelerable formats - for example, the in bullet "a" mentioned MKV and mp4/m4v/mov files.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Today, I've very thoroughly tested the recently-released 1.7.5 of the official AppStore version of RushPlayer (https://itunes.apple.com/app/rushplayer/id452990487?mt=8 ; also has a free lite version: https://itunes.apple.com/app/rushplayer-lite/id510637358?mt=8 ).

While it also supports DTS audio (unlike most other AppStore players), I don't recommend the player for playing back videos with DTS, particularly not if you can jailbreak and use its, "thanks" to Apple's silly restrictions and stubbornness, much superior JB-only big brother, RushPlayer+. Why?

- while it does play DTS in MKV's, there will be some very nasty lipsynch issues noticeable even after ten seconds and gradually worsening. This alone makes DTS playback useless.

- it can't at all play back my brand new LOTR (H.264 + AC3) test MKV (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/lotr3-7MbpsH264-200kbps6ChAAC.mkv ; full article with its introduction at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1679716/ ) with HW acceleration.

RushPlayer+ played these all back flawlessly: no lipsynch issues etc.

I've tested the DTS with both the standardized Monsters test video ( http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/h264_1080p_hp_4.1_10mbps_dts_unstyled_subs_monsters.mkv ) and with the 110 Mbyte one at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/Sex-and-the-City-DTS.mkv .

The only positive I could find about the AppStore-based RushPlayer was that it no more messes up the video playback completely with the above two DTS MKV's. 1.6.1, in HW decoding mode, always got into loops, repeating the same 2-3-second-long frame sequences of the original movie at least five times each before going on – even if I completely restarted the playback by exiting and reentering playback after the switch to HW mode and completely disabling play resume in the global Settings.

All in all, the JB'n RushPlayer+ is vastly superior. You shouldn't bother with the AppStore-based RushPlayer – it's not only significantly worse than RushPlayer+, but also much worse than established AppStore players like AVPlayer(HD) or nPlayer. Apart from DTS audio, of course – but, again, you'll very likely to see audio synchronization issues if you try to play back video with DTS audio with the player.

 

[darricksailo]

do you know what's the difference between the unactivated and activated version of rushplayer+?

Is rushplayer+ only ideal for MKV container videos and DTS audio?

And I have another question:

I had two videos. One recorded with my D3200 which I encoded with H264 codec and copied the audio with no compression (1536 kbps stereo). One recorded with my iPhone 5 which I encoded with H264 codec again

RushPlayer+ was skipping a TON of frames on the encoded video recorded with my DSLR. It had no problem playing the second encoded video recorded with my iPhone 5 though. Both were in AVI containers. Do you know what the problem may be?

Was using VirtualDub to encode the video, if that helps

 

[Menneisyys2]

do you know what's the difference between the unactivated and activated version of rushplayer+?

Only convenience functions like sorting in the filelist view, nothing really important WRT playback.

Is rushplayer+ only ideal for MKV container videos and DTS audio?

Nope, it's also ideal for other kinds of MKV playbacks, not only DTS.

I had two videos. One recorded with my D3200 which I encoded with H264 codec and copied the audio with no compression (1536 kbps stereo). One recorded with my iPhone 5 which I encoded with H264 codec again

RushPlayer+ was skipping a TON of frames on the encoded video recorded with my DSLR. It had no problem playing the second encoded video recorded with my iPhone 5 though. Both were in AVI containers. Do you know what the problem may be?

Was using VirtualDub to encode the video, if that helps

1. Why do you use AVI as the target container format, in the first place? Why not going for iOS-native formats like MP4's (with AAC audio - audio transcoding doesn't take much time compared to doing the same to the video track)?

2. while I haven't tested the H.264 + PCM setup with this particular player, the symptoms show RP+ is buggy when playing it back. Obviously, it isn't optimized for AVI's with PCM audio.Use another player or consider remuxing them into MP4's (and converting the audio to AAC at the same time).

 

[darricksailo]

Only convenience functions like sorting in the filelist view, nothing really important WRT playback.

Oh, okay, thanks

Nope, it's also ideal for other kinds of MKV playbacks, not only DTS.



1. Why do you use AVI as the target container format, in the first place? Why not going for iOS-native formats like MP4's (with AAC audio - audio transcoding doesn't take much time compared to doing the same to the video track)?

Virtualdub saves in an AVI container. I was just in a rush and didn't have the time to remux the video and convert PCM audio to AAC into an MP4 container. (It was encoded on some other day. Just jailbroke my iPhone earlier today and USB transferred the video to show my friend before I headed out of my house)

Just thought you might've known why it had trouble playing the AVI file when the original video was recorded with the DSLR while the iPhone recorded video had no problem

2. while I haven't tested the H.264 + PCM setup with this particular player, the symptoms show RP+ is buggy when playing it back. Obviously, it isn't optimized for AVI's with PCM audio.Use another player or consider remuxing them into MP4's (and converting the audio to AAC at the same time).

Alright, thanks. I usually convert them into an MP4 container but was just in a rush this time

 

[Menneisyys2]

Just thought you might've known why it had trouble playing the AVI file when the original video was recorded with the DSLR while the iPhone recorded video had no problem

Because of the PCM audio, which is very uncommon with AVI files, except for camera videos. (These players are used to play back "traditional" (read: pirated) AVI's with, in general, AC3 or MPEG audio by most people - camera video playback is very rarely used). Generally, self-sanding cameras record into either

- AC3 (ones that produce AVCHD videos; e.g., almost all Pana, many Sony cameras) or
- PCM (ones with AVI output; e.g., many Canon cameras) or
- AAC (ones with MOV output; e.g., many Nikon P&S cameras).