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Best Video Player?

Also, there is a official webextension in IINA so you can right click a video in the web browser and send it to IINA.app
 
Crunch said:
Sweeeeet! It works! The only issue I've been able to find with IINA so far is that subtitles weren't showing up on one of my videos. No biggie for a player that's in beta.
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What kind of video format? MKV works fine for me.
 
Starfyre said:
I use VLC. Is there a better video player people use? Or is VLC still the best?
I used to really like MPlayerX, but it appears the software is out of date/no longer being updated and it just doesn't work well. I liked being able to pinch/zoom with two fingers to expand and reduce the size of the video playing area.
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Just to send another vote for IINA, it's proving indispensable for viewing 4k HEVC video on older macbooks. VLC's decoder doesn't seem to keep up.
 
Crunch said:
Sweeeeet! It works! The only issue I've been able to find with IINA so far is that subtitles weren't showing up on one of my videos. No biggie for a player that's in beta.
Click to expand...
yes a few problem with subtitles M4V /MP4 only here also ( MKV OK )
so i delete IINA and use Movist or Quicktime with iTunes
 
OK, so one problem I still have with IINA is that I don't know how to set the audio to play in 432 Hz instead of 440 Hz, and that's a big deal.

In VLC, I can simply edit the "vlcrc" file and adjust the appropriate setting. Is this possible in IINA as well? I guess the answer lies in knowing what and where the IINA-equivalent "vlcrc" file resides.

Can anyone clue me in please?

Thanks! :)
 
Sound quality
IINA 3
QUICKTIME 3
MOVIST 5
VLC 4

Picture quality
IINA 3
QUICKTIME 5
MOVIST 4
VLC 4
 
actually many crashes with IINA after a curious update
so i delete it , waiting ( or not... ) for better
 
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thejackD said:
actually many crashes with IINA after a curious update
so i delete it , waiting ( or not... ) for better
Click to expand...

Yea, I am experiencing the same issue with the latest beta (v1.0 beta 1). Crashes upon crashes.

I do like it otherwise, though! :D


TAJones99 said:
For years VLC has been the best, and have not let me down.
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I hear ya. I've been using VLC for...well, forever really...maybe 15 years? How do you like the new VLC 3?
 
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EugW said:
For HEVC, vlc is an F.
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Heh heh, how did I know you were gonna say that? :)

I think I know what you mean too. When playing H.265 files, seeking forward or backward is very stuttery and imprecise. I don't have enough H.265 videos to care yet, but I am a little surprised that the new VLC 3 has not addressed this issue.
 
macdos said:
VLC plays 4K HEVC just fine with no stuttering or decoding errors at all. This on a Mac Pro from 2008.
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Crunch said:
Heh heh, how did I know you were gonna say that? :)

I think I know what you mean too. When playing H.265 files, seeking forward or backward is very stuttery and imprecise. I don't have enough H.265 videos to care yet, but I am a little surprised that the new VLC 3 has not addressed this issue.
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Actually to be honest I was being too harsh, at least if you're talking about iOS. vlc 3 is a massive improvement on iOS, but is still playing catch-up.

For software playback on iOS, other players are still better but hardware playback now works on machines that support it.

For example on my iPad Air 2 I have some 8-bit 1080p HEVC video that plays with some stuttering on my iPad Air 2 with vlc but with other players are perfectly smooth.

For my iPhone 7 Plus I can play even 4K HDR HEVC cleanly in vlc 3 using hardware decode but mainly if the file is downloaded locally. The interface needs work though. If I’m in an area with poor WiFi speeds it will have buffering issues, which is not a surprise, but it will try to continue to play that file complete with the horrible playback even if I leave the app.

As for scrubbing 4K HEVC it’s bad in multiple programs, not just vlc, but that’s not a surprise since it’s inherently hard to scrub.

I’ll do more testing on macOS.

EDIT:

So, I just retried vlc on my High Sierra iMac i5-7600. (vlc version 3.0) Unfortunately, it's remains a stuttery mess for high bitrate 4K HDR HEVC.

This is ironic, because before HEVC, vlc was great on OS X and terrible for iOS. Now with HEVC and vlc 3.0, vlc is OK on iOS, but poor on macOS.

---

tl;dr:

vlc 3 is a reasonable free alternative on iOS overall, but for HEVC, apps like Infuse are better.

vlc 3 is decent free macOS program if you don't need HEVC, but if you need 4K HDR HEVC, apps like IINA are more appropriate.
 
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macdos said:
VLC plays 4K HEVC just fine with no stuttering or decoding errors at all. This on a Mac Pro from 2008.
Click to expand...
It really depends on the bitrate, bit depth, and file specs, as well as your hardware specs. What are you playing, and what are your Mac Pro specs?

If it's a low bit rate, low complexity, 8-bit 4K HEVC file, I can see it playing fine, but just try playing this file:

http://4kmedia.org/sony-camping-in-nature-4k-demo/

It's 76 Mbps 60 fps 10-bit HDR 4K HEVC. In vlc 3.0 on a 2017 iMac Core i5-7600, it doesn't play well at all. It plays smoothly in QuickTime. The 10-bit colour is probably not being converted properly, but that's a different issue.

EDIT:

IINA plays it perfectly smoothly too, but with candy cane colours and noticeable dithering/banding on my iMac. No banding in QuickTime, but the colour saturation is reduced.
 
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