Roadmovie has a 30 day trial or something in their web, give it a try:
http://www.bitfield.se/roadmovie/
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I played 720p and 1080p MKVs on my iPad 3
- Thread starter homeboy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Roadmovie has a 30 day trial or something in their web, give it a try:
http://www.bitfield.se/roadmovie/
"It's playing" was just updated and supports hardware decode of MP4 and MKV files on iPad3 as well as streaming files for playback over SMB. This app should negate any need to convert or repackage BD rips but, is $3.99. reasonable price IMO for the functionality.
Have you tried the app? If so, how well does it play 720p and 1080p vidoes? I don't mind paying if it does the job, however I might sit pretty and wait for AV Player HD to be updated.
Not necessarily. I have a pretty powerful pc (3.8ghz i7), and reencoding my bluray rips takes forever.
On my M18x with Xilisoft and CUDA enabled, my computer can convert any 1080P full length feature film in under 1 hour. Unless the 1080P conversion is MP4 or M4v format, playback in any other format runs like garbage. Regardless of what apps is used.
I suggest 720P or MP4 or M4v.
I suggest 720P or MP4 or M4v.
I tested out It's Playing for myself last night and this morning and it worked pretty well if the file fits it's hardware decode profile; stuttering and slow if not.
I tested a full 1080 BD rip of Sucker Punch in MP4 (8GB) and it played nice and smooth. The video codec is H.264 and should be using the hardware decoder which explains the smooth playback.
I then tested a 1080 handbrake conversion of Blade Runner in MP4 (5GB) and it played smoothly as well. Again this was converted to H.264 in handbrake so should be using the hardware decoder.
I then tried the full MKV version of Blade Runner without any repackaging or conversion (15.5GB) and this stuttered very badly. This is using VC1 for video and is not using the hardware decoder.
Overall its a good app and for video files it means that as long as the underlying video is h.264 it should playback pretty smoothly in MKV or MP4. If the video codec is not H.264 though then you are probably still better off with a repackage or conversion.
I will test this some more today on some M2TS files and other MKV's I want to try out and post updates on those. If you're not sure if you should spend the money on this app or not - make sure you check the video codec used on most of your files first.
I tested a full 1080 BD rip of Sucker Punch in MP4 (8GB) and it played nice and smooth. The video codec is H.264 and should be using the hardware decoder which explains the smooth playback.
I then tested a 1080 handbrake conversion of Blade Runner in MP4 (5GB) and it played smoothly as well. Again this was converted to H.264 in handbrake so should be using the hardware decoder.
I then tried the full MKV version of Blade Runner without any repackaging or conversion (15.5GB) and this stuttered very badly. This is using VC1 for video and is not using the hardware decoder.
Overall its a good app and for video files it means that as long as the underlying video is h.264 it should playback pretty smoothly in MKV or MP4. If the video codec is not H.264 though then you are probably still better off with a repackage or conversion.
I will test this some more today on some M2TS files and other MKV's I want to try out and post updates on those. If you're not sure if you should spend the money on this app or not - make sure you check the video codec used on most of your files first.
Another update on It's Playing: I was not able to playback M2TS files at all, the app crashes back to the Home screen when trying to play. I also tested an MKV version of Sucker Punch and sure enough, under info it shows H.264 and hardware as the decoder type.
So, It's Playing is great for HD content (up to 1080p) as long as you can use the hardware decoder. The app gives you support for MKV files with H.264 instead of only MP4 files in the default video app. This isn't that major by itself but combined with the network streaming option for playback, airplay and the support for a fair number of other file formats for SD content I'd say it's worth it if you don't already have AVPlayerHD or one of the others.
So, It's Playing is great for HD content (up to 1080p) as long as you can use the hardware decoder. The app gives you support for MKV files with H.264 instead of only MP4 files in the default video app. This isn't that major by itself but combined with the network streaming option for playback, airplay and the support for a fair number of other file formats for SD content I'd say it's worth it if you don't already have AVPlayerHD or one of the others.
Hey fellas,
to me it all boils down to one simple concept:
Apple allows hardware acceleration ONLY for iTunes and no other apps.
I love the company, but love these gimmicks a little less. So as far as I'm concerned, this is one good reason to jailbreak. There is a sofwtare called XMBC that accesses the iPad's hardware acceleration allowing even large MKV movies at 1080p to be watched flawlessly.
I did this for a friend on iPad 2 and things worked great. Today I tried doing it on my brand new iPad 3, but I couldn't really complete the procedure.
As a matter of fact, it IS possible to watch large MKV files on iPad's, it's just a matter of Apple not being so jealous about iTunes.
to me it all boils down to one simple concept:
Apple allows hardware acceleration ONLY for iTunes and no other apps.
I love the company, but love these gimmicks a little less. So as far as I'm concerned, this is one good reason to jailbreak. There is a sofwtare called XMBC that accesses the iPad's hardware acceleration allowing even large MKV movies at 1080p to be watched flawlessly.
I did this for a friend on iPad 2 and things worked great. Today I tried doing it on my brand new iPad 3, but I couldn't really complete the procedure.
As a matter of fact, it IS possible to watch large MKV files on iPad's, it's just a matter of Apple not being so jealous about iTunes.
Eh? MKV's that are remuxed to mp4/m4v are hardware decoded in AVPlayerHD. No jailbreak needed. Many other media players probably do the same, although I've only really used the above.
I've played 10gb mkv's, remuxed (not converted) to mp4, flawlessly on the iPad using AVPlayerHD. Pretty much same goes for the iPad2, although I don't recall playing files of such size on it, maybe 5gb or so.
Last edited:
I love bluray movies, they look like nothing else. Naturally I would want to be as close to the same experience with everything I watch. My iPad 2 was incapable of smoothly playing high definition videos, not to mention the pixel limitations. So I got my iPad 3 today and decided to put it through its paces with the following:
720p espisode of the Entourage @ 600MB
1080p Tin Tin's Adventures @ 7.94GB
App used: AV Player HD
Despite no bumped CPU clockspeed the 720p file plays butter smooth and looks sublime. On the iPad 2 it was totally unwatchable and was stuttering. It's an absolute dream to watch the file on the iPad 3 and the colours are awesome.
Nevertheless you aren't talking HD if you aren't talking 1080p and I took a deep breath before I pressed play to see whether the 8GB Tintin movie would play. Unfortunately it didnt flow, there were stutter..............but not hopelessly so. The app has to been updated for the iPad 3 but if it does I am confident that the Tintin movie should be able to flow. Some better software optimisation and possibly hardware acceleration could make the iPad 3 swallow any MKVs you throw at it.
Overall I am very pleased that at least a 720p file flows on an app that has not been updated for the new hardware yet. That is very encouraging and awesome! This is an important improvement having been an iPad 2 owner.
Thankfully I ordered the 32GB version to serve my HD addiction.
Is it a free App btw?
Is it a free App btw?
Yes, but you need to jailbreak your iPad (Absinthe 2.0.1 was just released), then add the source for XBMC into Cydia, and then install.
It's hit and miss from my experience. Some 720p videos play fine for me in players such as AcePlayer, but others stutter and lag. I don't really know why this happens, but the best way to play HD videos on the iPad is to remux the videos to mp4/m4v by far. XBMC is a great second option, though.
Goodplayer has been the best for me. It has played everything I've thrown at it on my ipad 2. One of the developers is active on this forum here:
->https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1127455/
He/she is constantly taking feedback and playback reports for well over a year to improve the program.
->https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1127455/
He/she is constantly taking feedback and playback reports for well over a year to improve the program.
What method do you use to remuxe? I'd love to do some tests myself.
Regarding my post, what I meant is that Apple allows HW Acceleration only on MP4 files and not other formats. Not iTunes rather than other iApps. My bad.
What method do you use to remuxe? I'd love to do some tests myself.
If you're using a mac, I use Subler, linked below. Use the beta version as it allows batch remuxing;
http://code.google.com/p/subler/downloads/list
If you're using Windows, mkv2vob does similar.
Like No1nfoprovided says above, playing mkv's natively is hit and miss, whereas mp4/m4v's have always played flawlessly for me via AVPlayerHD (never tried file sizes above 10gb though).
Reluctantly I did the jailbreak on my iPad 3 a few days ago, strictly for XBMC. It plays all my 1080p MKV files converted from Blurays flawlessly over the network as well as my DVD library. Disappointingly playing the .wtv files (recorded TV shows from Windows 7 media center DVR) is nowhere near as smooth as playing MKV for some reason, but at least it plays.
Some of you are brave to try to convert 1080p videos on your laptops. I use DVDFab on my 3770K box, using Intel Quick Sync I can convert a full Bluray rip to h.264 MKV in 20 minutes
Some of you are brave to try to convert 1080p videos on your laptops. I use DVDFab on my 3770K box, using Intel Quick Sync I can convert a full Bluray rip to h.264 MKV in 20 minutes
Reluctantly I did the jailbreak on my iPad 3 a few days ago, strictly for XBMC. It plays all my 1080p MKV files converted from Blurays flawlessly over the network as well as my DVD library. Disappointingly playing the .wtv files (recorded TV shows from Windows 7 media center DVR) is nowhere near as smooth as playing MKV for some reason, but at least it plays.
Some of you are brave to try to convert 1080p videos on your laptops. I use DVDFab on my 3770K box, using Intel Quick Sync I can convert a full Bluray rip to h.264 MKV in 20 minutes
.wtv are probably encoded in mpeg2, which the phone does not have hardware playback support for.
Right you are. Quick lookup of .wtv on wikipedia, it is in fact MPEG2. It plays my DVD library fine though. Maybe because my .wtv are all HD and DVDs are SD.
I am extremely happy with the way XBMC works. Absolutely awesome to be able to stream all my MKVs and DVDs right on the network.
A vote against AcePlayer. It doesn't have any HW acceleration for MKV playback, unlike with the titles I've recommended and is, otherwise, a pretty average player. That is, it won't play back decent-bitrate (around 10 Mbps) Full HD MKV videos at all.