iPad Camera adaptor> USB drive> iFile = what file types?

[TangoDown]

Anyone using the Apple camera adaptor/s to access files on a pen drive HDD?
If so, are MP4's playable with either the native player or Good Reader from the drive without copying over? All the references/videos show jpeg's displaying fine, but no video.
Any way to coax CineXPlayer to play XviD's from an external drive (kinda like the way iFile gives you the option to open a video file in Video Player or Good Reader)?

Cheers.

 

[TangoDown]

No one doing this yet then?

 

[mixvio]

MP4s are playable on the disc itself.

I had hoped that you could use iFile to launch videos in CineXPlayer but it doesn't work.

What I'm going to attempt in a second (as soon as the file copies over, since I was actually just doing this when I noticed this thread) is to use iFile's 'create link' function to see if I can make a junction for the files on the USB stick to the application directory of CineXPlayer and see if that works in tricking it to think the video files have been sent over through iTunes.

 

[bluedog3401]

I just tried the SD-reader from the camera kit. It opened .doc file and gave me GoodReader, OfficeHD2, Pages and whatever other app was able to preview or open that type.

I also tested an .MOV file directly from our point-shoot canon and it played the 720p video flawlessly.

I'll test AVI and other formats tonight when I get home to load other media files. I'm guessing if you have access to an app that can open the files, you're golden.

The camera connection kit effectively became 'the floppy drive' of my iPad. I likely won't have to re-encode/transcode my video files to get them easily accessible.

 

[goinskiing]

So I've been poking around here to see how this works. Are you using iFile from Cydia to access external drives through the camera connection kit or is there some other process?

To the OP, you should be able, as someone else said, to copy the avi files to cinexplayers folder or somehow make that directory point to your avis. I'm curious to see how this pans out for you guys as I'm still sitting on the jail breaking fence on 3.2.1.

 

[bluedog3401]

So I've been poking around here to see how this works. Are you using iFile from Cydia to access external drives through the camera connection kit or is there some other process?

To the OP, you should be able, as someone else said, to copy the avi files to cinexplayers folder or somehow make that directory point to your avis. I'm curious to see how this pans out for you guys as I'm still sitting on the jail breaking fence on 3.2.1.

That's the theory. You probably wouldn't need to copy it over if the app is recognized as able to open the file type. I'm not sure where in the system that is specified, but probably as a property/attribute as it is compiled for the iOS. It looks like for OPlayer, it will copy the file (useful but not quite as convenient as playing the file in place)

I'll follow up with my testing, its definitely worth it even if there are some limitations. Dropbox support in many apps also helps, but with this it appears to be easy and eliminate 'email in-out' for documents. We'll see about making a change and saving it back to this location (or at least copying it back which should be possible with iFile)

 

[TangoDown]

Thanks for the replies guys. It'll be interesting to see the developments.
I had ordered a camera kit from Apple as I'm on holiday and nowhere near any Apple stores, but the delivery time is 21 days..

 

[bluedog3401]

iFile (jailbroken device), OPlayer, the Camera Kit and an SD card makes for a very happy user.
1. Insert SD containing AVI files into CameraSDKit
2. Open iFile
3. Browse to file
4. Tap, suggested apps to open popup and selected OPlayer
AVI file specs(242MB, 624x352 XVid MPEG Layer 3, Stereo, 48 kHz, data rate 1,419 kbits/sec)
5. No visual cue during the copying process approx 10 seconds for the file chosen above (the item is copied into the application data folders).
6. OPlayer automatically opened when copying was complete and started playing the file.
7. On stopping and looking the file is copied into the Application directory. I tried renaming the file but it did not stick. iFile may not move/copy files with appropriate permissions when transferring to an app. OPlayer appears to be able to delete the file though.

Analysis:
You can use SD cards stored with your videos in multiple formats and copy them in on-the-fly via the camera connection kit. When you need to clear space on the iPad you can delete the media from the apps and load new files from SD cards.

This makes me very happy. I'll be travelling overseas this fall and having a large video collection on a few SD cards will keep me occupied during 'transit times' and in the evenings. This should also work for copying in documents supported by other apps on the iPad.

The CineXPlayer app was not an option. I believe a developer has to specify the ability to open formats to allow the transferring of apps from email, dropbox or other locations.

 

[TangoDown]

Great job mate. Thanks for the effort and the report.
This is definitely what I wanted to hear.

 

[mixvio]

I also got videos to work using iFile and CineXPlayer.

If you transfer files through iTunes file sharing, they appear in the application's Documents folder. So what I did was use iFile's Create Link function (it appears when you're choosing whether to cut or copy/create link a file) to create links inside that directory pointing back to the SD card I had plugged in.

It worked best if iFile was running in the background while I loaded the video up in CineXPlayer, but it worked fine. CineXPlayer "thought" the video files were inside its Documents folder when they stayed on the SD card instead.

 

[TangoDown]

Nice one. That's good to hear.
I just tried Oplayer HD and it's very choppy and drops frames quite often.

 

[mixvio]

What is OPlayer, btw? I don't see anything on Cydia.

 

[TangoDown]

Media Player on App Store.

Opens iTunes >>>> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oplayer-hd/id373236724?mt=8

 

[bluedog3401]

Nice one. That's good to hear.
I just tried Oplayer HD and it's very choppy and drops frames quite often.

I'm guessing it really depends on the codec and bitrate to achieve smooth playback. Playing back 720p is going to tax the processor unless they use the hardware decoding of the GPU (which is what I've heard is how they achieve the video performance and battery life).

 

[bluedog3401]

I also got videos to work using iFile and CineXPlayer.

If you transfer files through iTunes file sharing, they appear in the application's Documents folder. So what I did was use iFile's Create Link function (it appears when you're choosing whether to cut or copy/create link a file) to create links inside that directory pointing back to the SD card I had plugged in.

It worked best if iFile was running in the background while I loaded the video up in CineXPlayer, but it worked fine. CineXPlayer "thought" the video files were inside its Documents folder when they stayed on the SD card instead.

Ah, that's cool. Creating the link will also eliminate the need to have the files copied since they already are 'in' the directory of the app via the link. Will that link function on different media cards loaded? I think the path name doesn't change but I've only tried one card so I'm not sure.

It appears necessary to keep iFile open via backgrounder for the link/mounted media to stay available? I was thinking of creating a symbolic link directly to /var/mnt/mount1 which is where my external card path appears in iFile.

 

[TangoDown]

I'm guessing it really depends on the codec and bitrate to achieve smooth playback. Playing back 720p is going to tax the processor unless they use the hardware decoding of the GPU (which is what I've heard is how they achieve the video performance and battery life).

Yeah, agreed that'd be an issue, but The files I'm testing (Oplayer) with are very standard MP4's that are actually imported with iTunes and perfect. I'm just navigating to their folder with iFile and opening with Oplayer HD.
The dev's description on the AppStore however, says anything above a certain resolution will run like crap so I suppose that's it's shortfall.

Edit: video res MUST be less than 800*600

 

[bluedog3401]

Yeah, agreed that'd be an issue, but The files I'm testing (Oplayer) with are very standard MP4's that are actually imported with iTunes and perfect. I'm just navigating to their folder with iFile and opening with Oplayer HD.
The dev's description on the AppStore however, says anything above a certain resolution will run like crap so I suppose that's it's shortfall.

Edit: video res MUST be less than 800*600

I didn't realize those limitations. Anyone with other apps that support more formats/resolutions, please chime in. There are the two Cydia apps, VLC (open streamer) and MPlayer but I don't think either are updated yet for iPad. I tried the OpenStreamer and it definitely was the iPhone-sized app.

Any MP4s that sync in and play via iTunes should play without copying directly from the media card if you choose the Video Player app when selecting your media file. It is the internal Quicktime player that the iOS uses from what I can tell.

 

[TangoDown]

Any MP4s that sync in and play via iTunes should play without copying directly from the media card if you choose the Media Player app when selecting your media file.

Oh, I'd imagine they would, yes. Which is great news in any case.
I suppose it'd be AVI's and/or CineXPlayer I'm/were more concerned with essentially?
By that I mean, Oplayer is up to the job of playing an AVI from an external or internal location but is limited by what it can play *well*, and as my MP4's aren't HD, but pretty much standard files converted to MP4 from my standard XviD's and Oplayer struggles with them, it's out of the race - for me at least.
All this is a bit frustrating for me as I can't muck in and help myself as I'm currently away on holiday and have no camera attachments yet!

 

[bluedog3401]

One performance issue that may be in play is the media read speed of my SD card. If I copy the file over to the Documents folder for the player (using iFile), it plays via OPlayer more smoothly on something that stuttered and skipped frames when played via the direct symbolic link to the media card files. But it isn't keeping the audio synced well from the Avatar Trailer I am using as my test file (an MP4 downloaded from YouTube).

Which is a bummer, but may be improved by ensuring the best SD card you can get. I've been looking at the data rates supported and SDHC class of your card may make a difference. I suspect its simply OPlayer that isn't up to snuff for decoding and playback since the Video Player app keeps up when playing from my existing card.

There is another app called YXPlayer. I'll see if this produces better results (although all of these apps will vary depending on the decoding of each codec thrown at them).

 

[iThinman]

Great thread.

I trying to use this to store documents on the SD card and create links within the GoodReader and DocsToGo folder structure that would allow me to access the SD card directly from each of the above apps.

I've tried creating a basic symbolic link in each of the folders pointing back to /var/mnt/mount1/ however, the link does not show up in either app (iFile running with Backgrounder).

Any ideas?

tia

 

[TangoDown]

I suspect its simply OPlayer that isn't up to snuff for decoding and playback since the Video Player app keeps up when playing from my existing card.

Yeah, that's pretty damning evidence.
I'm playing these MP4's from the iPad's internal memory so no data speed issues here - and the player still struggles.
Still, they've acknowledged the shortfalls it seems and it looks to be a work in progress, so guess it's a wait and see job.
I'll take a look at YXPlayer.

 

[TangoDown]

Great thread.

I trying to use this to store documents on the SD card and create links within the GoodReader and DocsToGo folder structure that would allow me to access the SD card directly from each of the above apps.

I've tried creating a basic symbolic link in each of the folders pointing back to /var/mnt/mount1/ however, the link does not show up in either app (iFile running with Backgrounder).

Any ideas?

tia

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the symbolic link only work 'within' iFile?

 

[iThinman]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the symbolic link only work 'within' iFile?

Not sure, but I thought it would be more similar to a windows shortcut. Hoping it is a permissions issue in that DocsToGo simply cannot see the link or something like that.

 

[mixvio]

Ah, that's cool. Creating the link will also eliminate the need to have the files copied since they already are 'in' the directory of the app via the link. Will that link function on different media cards loaded? I think the path name doesn't change but I've only tried one card so I'm not sure.

It appears necessary to keep iFile open via backgrounder for the link/mounted media to stay available? I was thinking of creating a symbolic link directly to /var/mnt/mount1 which is where my external card path appears in iFile.

It looks like the mount point changes across plugging, it isn't always /mount1. Moreso it seems like the iPad disconnects the thumbdrive when it isn't being used and seems pretty aggressive in doing so. In the time it took for me to close iFile and open CineXPlayer, the drive was no longer mounted. So I just left iFile running in the background and it worked fine.

 

[mixvio]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the symbolic link only work 'within' iFile?

Nope, it's just a symlink. They're pretty common in *nix.