GoodPlayer review/report

[lexar]

Most scene MKV's (or, basically, anything with H.264 in them) are between 7-12 Mbps. Home cameras generally produce 12+ MBps H.264 footage. That is, 2500 is just too low for really quality, artefact-free footage.

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I agree if you are watching this on a 60" TV that is not acceptable bitrates. However when watching on a 10" tablet you will not notice this.
In general the movies look very nice. I personally prefer to watch 720p on iPad since the files are smaller and there is minimal difference on a screen that small going to 1080p.

 

[hankydysplasia]

Is there any kind of HW acceleration in this case? I don't think so...

BTW, why don't you just remux your MKV's to M4V's? Then, they will be passed to the hardware player for playback. I've watched quite a few movies on the iPad 3 this way over both UPnP and SMB... worked flawlessly.

I figured it was using hardware acceleration because the video was running so smoothly and because the file contains h.264 video. Ha.

I just don't have the technical knowledge to understand why the container would determine whether or not the video within the file which is encoded in h.264 could take advantage of acceleration.

Well, I guess my new request would be to fix the audio sync when using software decoding. I'm very disinterested in remuxing anything.

 

[Menneisyys2]

I figured it was using hardware acceleration because the video was running so smoothly and because the file contains h.264 video.

As I've stated earlier in this thread, the 720p H.264 software decoder of GP is very good; this is why it is able to play the video flawlessly.

I just don't have the technical knowledge to understand why the container would determine whether or not the video within the file which is encoded in h.264 could take advantage of acceleration.

Apple's (another absolutely insane) restriction. Probably to force users to purchase / loan HD videos from iTunes store instead of just watching scene MKV's?

I'm very disinterested in remuxing anything.

Remuxing a full HD movie can be fully automatized and only takes between 5-15 minutes (for a 7-20 GB MKV) on a reasonably specced, non-SSD 2009 2.8 GHz C2D MBP.

 

[hustmobile]

For this case, it is only software decoding.
For now on GoodPlayer, all the SMB streaming is only software decoding.
And all the MKV in GoodPlayer is only software decoding.
So MKV via SMB streaming is software decoding only now.

For the issue, it is somehow expected, since GoodPlayer cannot support all the 720P MKV smoothly. So it is a software decoding performance issue here. That is the main reason we are working on a new player app.

Love the discussion comparing different video players and the developers of GoodPlayer to candidly discuss other options. Very nice.

I'm running 5.1 on the new iPad. When I stream a 720p MKV via SMB and use hardware acceleration, the audio is out of sync. Based on earlier conversation, it sounds like this is an unexpected result. Am I the only one, or is this a known bug?

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We will add these 2 features in the future:
- Camera roll access
- Access to local Music / Videos library

For Speed change, we can only implement speed change without audio in development now, so we do not release it.

For Bookmarks: does this mean keeping some position information for future check?

Playlist support: we will add a dynamic playlist feature in the future. So user can create his own playlist. And please note in the future, every m3u is a playlist, you can save the created m3u playlist and create more. This is on our to-do list.

Most scene MKV's (or, basically, anything with H.264 in them) are between 7-12 Mbps. Home cameras generally produce 12+ MBps H.264 footage. That is, 2500 is just too low for really quality, artefact-free footage.

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Now that's an easy question to answer. The only advantages of Azul over Goodplayer are as follows:

- Camera roll access
- Speed change (excellent implementation: the sound pitch remains. 0.5, 1.5, 2 times faster playback. )
- Access to local Music / Videos library
- (Bookmarks: it's there but didn't really work in my tests)
- Playlist support (very rudimentary though, compared to the, in this respect, better players: no separate playlists, only one, global one)

In all other tests / respects, GP is clearly better, particularly at codec quality / efficiency, in which Azul, generally, sucks.

(All this info can be found in the preview version of the chart of my forthcoming iOS Multimedia bible.)

BTW, GP folks, any words on implementing the features listed in the above list?

 

[Jrsforums]

DVD ISO streaming?

I am attempting to stream a DVD ISO file via SMB connection.

Streaming seems to hang with a black screen.

If I download the ISO file, it plays properly.

Any guidance?

Thanks, John

 

[hustmobile]

In our DVD .iso SMB streaming, it is okay here.
Is other formats file SMB streaming okay there? Thanks.

We use GoodPlayer 5.1 for this testing. And please note that for SMB/HTTP streaming, GoodPlayer needs to buffer 6-10 seconds data first to start playback.

I am attempting to stream a DVD ISO file via SMB connection.

Streaming seems to hang with a black screen.

If I download the ISO file, it plays properly.

Any guidance?

Thanks, John

 

[Menneisyys2]

For this case, it is only software decoding.
For now on GoodPlayer, all the SMB streaming is only software decoding.
And all the MKV in GoodPlayer is only software decoding.
So MKV via SMB streaming is software decoding only now.

Any plans to add it some time? It's, tehcnically, not impossible - eXPlayer HD by Zhigang Chen, for example, supports it.

We will add these 2 features in the future:
- Camera roll access

Great! Please don't (necessarily - you could put a switch in Settings to set this) recompress the video. The three dedicated MM player apps (not counting in Photo Manager Pro, which is more of a photo handler), Play Any Video Format - PlayerX HD, Azul Media Player - Video player for your iPad by Gplex and CineXPlayer – The best way to enjoy your Xvid movies by NXP Software B.V., capable of importing videos from the Camera ROll, all recompress the video

For Bookmarks: does this mean keeping some position information for future check?

Yup, adding bookmarks into a video file (of course, not directly), with notes / name, just like bookmarking a PDF page / word in, say, GoodReader. Azul is supposed to support it (but their implementation doesn't seem to work.)

Playlist support: we will add a dynamic playlist feature in the future. So user can create his own playlist. And please note in the future, every m3u is a playlist, you can save the created m3u playlist and create more. This is on our to-do list.

Gr8!

 

[Jrsforums]

I am also using 5.1.

Just tried again and waited over 10 min. Still no start. Remained blank. Tapping would show 'i', taping it showed a couple selections which did nothing. Eventual I need to force closure, as I could not close within app.

Any advice to test and provide data to you?

John

In our DVD .iso SMB streaming, it is okay here.
Is other formats file SMB streaming okay there? Thanks.

We use GoodPlayer 5.1 for this testing. And please note that for SMB/HTTP streaming, GoodPlayer needs to buffer 6-10 seconds data first to start playback.

 

[almosteve]

Embedded FTP server has a regression in GoodPlayer 5.x

I have experienced a problem with the FTP server (Wi-Fi Transfer option) since GoodPlayer 5.x: FTP clients that parse the LIST command response (e.g. GUI clients) cannot parse the directory listing because there is something wrong with it's format.

A dumb CLI FTP client can print the listing but complains like that:

ftp> ls
---> PASV
227 Entering Passive Mode (10,1,1,1,20,35)
---> LIST
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for '/bin/ls'.
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 1 mobile mobile 68 May 03 08:21 Download
WARNING! 2 bare linefeeds received in ASCII mode
File may not have transferred correctly.
226 Transfer complete.

The problem didn't occur using the same FTP clients with GoodPlayer 4.x and before, this started with 5.0 and still exists in 5.1.
Please fix this one, it's very annoying...

 

[hustmobile]

If you like the GoodPlayer, an iTunes review is appreciated greatly:
GoodPlayer -->Settings-->Upper right corner button, "Write a review".
Thanks in advance.

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They use different SMB implementation for the mp4 hardware acceleration support. This other kinds of SMB implementation is what we are looking for. It will help on the AFP and NFS support development too. We are still checking it. If by any chance any developer checked this, please contact us (service@hustmobile.com), we want to provide a freelance job for this feature. We are now kind of busy with the new player project. We need find some help outside of our team.

Any plans to add it some time? It's, tehcnically, not impossible - eXPlayer HD by Zhigang Chen, for example, supports it.



Great! Please don't (necessarily - you could put a switch in Settings to set this) recompress the video. The three dedicated MM player apps (not counting in Photo Manager Pro, which is more of a photo handler), Play Any Video Format - PlayerX HD, Azul Media Player - Video player for your iPad by Gplex and CineXPlayer – The best way to enjoy your Xvid movies by NXP Software B.V., capable of importing videos from the Camera ROll, all recompress the video



Yup, adding bookmarks into a video file (of course, not directly), with notes / name, just like bookmarking a PDF page / word in, say, GoodReader. Azul is supposed to support it (but their implementation doesn't seem to work.)



Gr8!

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Please first check if the SMB streaming works or not. You can try stream a mp3 file from SMB share. When the other format is okay for SMB streaming, then check the iso SMB streaming.

I am also using 5.1.

Just tried again and waited over 10 min. Still no start. Remained blank. Tapping would show 'i', taping it showed a couple selections which did nothing. Eventual I need to force closure, as I could not close within app.

Any advice to test and provide data to you?

John

----------

We updated the FTP server versions ago.

Do you mean these information is annoyed? "WARNING! 2 bare linefeeds received in ASCII mode
File may not have transferred correctly.
226 Transfer complete."

The FileZilla FTP client looks okay and cannot get these information.
The Mac command line FTP client surely can get it.

We will check if we can remove this warning information.

I have experienced a problem with the FTP server (Wi-Fi Transfer option) since GoodPlayer 5.x: FTP clients that parse the LIST command response (e.g. GUI clients) cannot parse the directory listing because there is something wrong with it's format.

A dumb CLI FTP client can print the listing but complains like that:

ftp> ls
---> PASV
227 Entering Passive Mode (10,1,1,1,20,35)
---> LIST
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for '/bin/ls'.
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 1 mobile mobile 68 May 03 08:21 Download
WARNING! 2 bare linefeeds received in ASCII mode
File may not have transferred correctly.
226 Transfer complete.

The problem didn't occur using the same FTP clients with GoodPlayer 4.x and before, this started with 5.0 and still exists in 5.1.
Please fix this one, it's very annoying...

 

[almosteve]

Do you mean these information is annoyed? "WARNING! 2 bare linefeeds received in ASCII mode
File may not have transferred correctly.
226 Transfer complete."

The FileZilla FTP client looks okay and cannot get these information.
The Mac command line FTP client surely can get it.

We will check if we can remove this warning information.

No... I'm not annoyed by that warning... The problem is that many GUI FTP clients cannot parse the LIST reply. For example, under Linux, neither Midnight Commander embedded FTP client, nor gFTP, nor BareFTP can parse the LIST reply. They always display an empty remote directory even when it's full of files. With GoodPlayer 3.x and 4.x there was no such problem, this appeared only recently when I upgraded to 5.x.

 

[hustmobile]

How about FileZilla FTP client on Linux?
Since the older FTP server has other issues, we could not simply go back to older FTP server.

No... I'm not annoyed by that warning... The problem is that many GUI FTP clients cannot parse the LIST reply. For example, under Linux, neither Midnight Commander embedded FTP client, nor gFTP, nor BareFTP can parse the LIST reply. They always display an empty remote directory even when it's full of files. With GoodPlayer 3.x and 4.x there was no such problem, this appeared only recently when I upgraded to 5.x.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Now that's an easy question to answer. The only advantages of Azul over Goodplayer are as follows:

- Camera roll access
- Speed change (excellent implementation: the sound pitch remains. 0.5, 1.5, 2 times faster playback. )
- Access to local Music / Videos library
- (Bookmarks: it's there but didn't really work in my tests)
- Playlist support (very rudimentary though, compared to the, in this respect, better players: no separate playlists, only one, global one)

In all other tests / respects, GP is clearly better, particularly at codec quality / efficiency, in which Azul, generally, sucks.

(All this info can be found in the preview version of the chart of my forthcoming iOS Multimedia bible.)

BTW, GP folks, any words on implementing the features listed in the above list?

Appreciate the excellent info. I'll look to more of your reports in the future. Very helpful. Buying GP right now.

 

[hustmobile]

For this line in your linked review " (e.g., that of GoodReader)", do you mean "GoodPlayer" there?

Just posted a review of the alternative (and, BTW, pretty bad) player “PlayerXtreme” to http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/review-multimedia-player-playerxtreme with some info on Goodplayer + the, here, often-mentioned AVPlayerHD + BUZZ Player too and some new test videos I've created today + the explanation of the new rows added during today's update of the chart of my forthcoming iOS Multimedia bible.

I don't cross-post the article here as it's darn long and has some five screenshots. (Don't want to spam the forum.) Highly recommended reading particularly for devs that would like to enhance their hardware MP4 playback with goodies / want some brand new test videos (created by me) for compliance / feature testing!

Feel free to comment on it!

 

[almosteve]

How about FileZilla FTP client on Linux?
Since the older FTP server has other issues, we could not simply go back to older FTP server.

I tried FileZilla on Linux, and it does work as a workaround, thanks.

I don't think you'd have to revert to the earlier FTP server implementation to fix the problem. Probably there are only a few inappropriate newlines or other unexpected characters in the LIST response which confuse those parsers that are not flexible enough to gracefully handle this. Shouldn't be that hard to track down I guess, maybe the LIST responses (or the generating code) of GoodPlayer 4.x and 5.x could be compared to see what exactly is the difference.

 

[hustmobile]

Thanks for the debug suggustion, it is what we are trying to do. We will give it a check in the future.

I tried FileZilla on Linux, and it does work as a workaround, thanks.

I don't think you'd have to revert to the earlier FTP server implementation to fix the problem. Probably there are only a few inappropriate newlines or other unexpected characters in the LIST response which confuse those parsers that are not flexible enough to gracefully handle this. Shouldn't be that hard to track down I guess, maybe the LIST responses (or the generating code) of GoodPlayer 4.x and 5.x could be compared to see what exactly is the difference.

 

[Dataman]

App for football tracking

Hi, Im looking for application that tracking soccer players. Im young soccer player and I want find the best app for tracking soccer team. I found some apps but I didnt satisfied... not enough information about the players. If you know some great app please contact me. Thx...

 

[hustmobile]

In GoodPlayer, it is media player. So it is not related to the soccer player.
We do not know such soccer player app.

Hi, Im looking for application that tracking soccer players. Im young soccer player and I want find the best app for tracking soccer team. I found some apps but I didnt satisfied... not enough information about the players. If you know some great app please contact me. Thx...

 

[hustmobile]

Since the new GoodPlayer version has a SMB workgroup input field, it introduces some confusion and issues.

For SMB connection, sometimes the SMB workgroup information is important.

For SMB workgroup input
1. You can clear the workgroup information . If you do not know exactly which workgroup your SMB server is in, please use a blank workgroup information first.
2. The workgroup information is case sensitive
3. Please try "MSHOME", it helps sometimes

 

[Dataman]

In GoodPlayer, it is media player. So it is not related to the soccer player.
We do not know such soccer player app.

I know that, but... I thought that someone on this forum know something about sport/soccer apps . I found some apps that looks nice but isnt free . If you know some forum that talking about that please send me a link...

 

[Dataman]

You didnt help me but... search had worthwhiled. In Appstore Im fined some now/free app
http://itunes.apple.com/hr/app/once-football/id509506848?mt=8&ls=1
and it seems great to me Thx anyway.. If you know some better app please send me the name...

 

[hustmobile]

MP4/MOV/M4V playback without audio in new GoodPlayer version, how to fix it?

Please turn off GoodPlayer "Hardware Decoding" settings if the mp4/mov/m4v playback is without audio.
"Hardware Decoding" is only for mp4/mov/m4v files with H.264 video and AAC audio, and "Hardware Decoding" cannot support audio channel selection.
By turning off "Hardware Decoding", GoodPlayer will used older native software decoding instead.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Just finished my HUGE WMV (incl. VC-1 Simple / Main / Advanced and WMA / WMA Pro at three different resolutions) tests.

GoodPlayer was clearly the first at quarter Full HD size, clearly beating even AVPlayerHD. It has no problems at playing back lower resolutions either. That is, it's the MOST recommended player for WMV videos up to 960*x (quarter Full HD).

(Unfortunately, at Full HD, it didn't really impress.)

Will very soon publish a full article devoted to this question + a lot of comparison videos!

 

[hustmobile]

Thanks for the update. GoodPlayer is not so great at WMV playback performance. Lately we got some performance improvements on WMV playback too. But the improvement is not so much. Maybe we could include it in the future release.

Just finished my HUGE WMV (incl. VC-1 Simple / Main / Advanced and WMA / WMA Pro at three different resolutions) tests.

GoodPlayer was clearly the first at quarter Full HD size, clearly beating even AVPlayerHD. It has no problems at playing back lower resolutions either. That is, it's the MOST recommended player for WMV videos up to 960*x (quarter Full HD).

(Unfortunately, at Full HD, it didn't really impress.)

Will very soon publish a full article devoted to this question + a lot of comparison videos!

 

[Menneisyys2]

Thanks for the update. GoodPlayer is not so great at WMV playback performance. Lately we got some performance improvements on WMV playback too. But the improvement is not so much. Maybe we could include it in the future release.

IMHO, it isn't bad at all at non-Full HD resolutions. See my comparison video directly comparing it to XBMC 11.0: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5J_6rmzsUU