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Playing AVI files on iPad

illutionz said:
Not to forget that you can even stream the video from outside your network!
I love Air Video ;)
Click to expand...

Hi
Even m waiting for my ipad 3g to arrive...meamwhile i was reading the posts on this app air video..it looks awesome..
The only thing m kinda unsure of is-
say if i hv an unlimited 3g connection on my ipad and i hve this app on my pc and m out of my house...
Will it still stream my movies onto the ipad..nd if it does is the buffering speed ok on a 3g network of around 1 mbps connection...
If this is true then i gotta admit thos app is going to be very very handy...

Thanx for reading....



Shashwat
 
3G streaming experiences?

Yeah they say the streaming over 3G is 'experimental' so that's not the functionality they're selling, yet I hear it works. I was playing around with Air Video on my iPhone (over wifi) and the beautiful stream of a HD mkv file was 2.8-3.0mbps, which as far as I know, is the upper limit of AT&T 3G service. What I don't know is what it does when there's less bandwidth to play with - dumb the video down a bit, quality-wise, or allow playback to get choppy.

Anyone using Air Video over 3G want to post your results/satisfaction?
 
shashwat said:
Hi
Even m waiting for my ipad 3g to arrive...meamwhile i was reading the posts on this app air video..it looks awesome..
The only thing m kinda unsure of is-
say if i hv an unlimited 3g connection on my ipad and i hve this app on my pc and m out of my house...
Will it still stream my movies onto the ipad..nd if it does is the buffering speed ok on a 3g network of around 1 mbps connection...
If this is true then i gotta admit thos app is going to be very very handy...

Thanx for reading....



Shashwat
Click to expand...

Yeah you can stream the app when you're out and about. Now, I have 20mbps down/6.13 mbps up internet connection at home. It also depends on how big the file you're trying to watch... If i want to watch the latest tv show, the buffer time is rather quick but if I want to watch my 8gb MKV formatted movie, I usually pause it and let it buffer for a 2-5 minutes.
 
thanx for replying....
good to know it works over 3g....

would really be great if somedy cud actually post their experience over 3g...
even m looking to playback .mkv content mostly...i have about 2 TB of dem....

would be really great to know if quality drops or it gets laggy....

anybody having the facility to try this out if possible plz post here...

thank you....
 
illutionz said:
Yeah you can stream the app when you're out and about. Now, I have 20mbps down/6.13 mbps up internet connection at home. It also depends on how big the file you're trying to watch... If i want to watch the latest tv show, the buffer time is rather quick but if I want to watch my 8gb MKV formatted movie, I usually pause it and let it buffer for a 2-5 minutes.
Click to expand...


thnx for sharing your experience...
20mbps is huge actually...way to much from wat i get at my place in india....

But i was looking for something more on the lines of 3g connectivity as it would be of more utility to me from what i feel.....
anybody with 3g observations-plz post
 
Try this app, media browser, it support upnp and dlna, so theoretically works with many media servers. I use tversity and got good result, plays almost anything.
The good thing is dlna is kind standard, it even works with hardware NAS. The bad thing is setup is nightmare, it took me 2 days to figure out, once it done, it's amazing.
 
I don't know the forum rules about linking to posts on other sites so I'll just paste all the info below. Credit goes to NewBeetle.


Not sure if like me, you have lots of your video files saved to your main computer in formats like MKV and AVi etc. As you probably realise by now, the iPad or more to the point iTunes will not allow these to be synced from your computer. I know there are ways of watching them using various programs to stream etc but the convenience of having the actual file on the iPad is what most people want.

Lots of people seem to be converting the movie files into MP4 using handbrake and various other applications, which works but takes a long time. I found out that the iPad can play nearly all video formats and the problem is the audio not being in AAC.

So all this method does is copy the original video and change the audio to AAC and finally wrap the whole lot in an MP4 container that can be synced and played straight the iPad.

Using my iMac (2.4 C2D) it took 5m26s to convert Hurt Locker full movie.

The Guide


Step 1:

Download Avidemux (linux/windows/OS X) for free from here and install:

Avidemux - Downloads

Step 2:

Run Avidemux, press file then open and browse to the movie you want to convert for playback on your iPad. Avidemux will ask if you want to unpack it, choose Yes. This will take 20-30 seconds.

Step 3:




Change the Format to MP4, Change the Audio to AAC (Faac) and finally the Video option to Copy, as shown on screengrab above.

Step 4:

Choose File then Save then finally Save Video. You will then be asked where to save the video file. Personally for convenience I save to desktop. (Remember to name the movie with .MP4 as its extension)




Step 5:

Click Save and the software will do its thing, once its encoded the movie (4-7 minutes for a full length AVi) the resulting video can just be dragged into itunes and then synced with your iPad
 
bzz said:
On my iPhone i'm using AirVideo from the AppStore to play .avi .mkv or whatever from my computer.

Can't wait for the iPad to try it :D
Click to expand...

It seems the iPhone 4 can play a lot more than the iPad. I hope this is updated with IOS4
 
Air video is what I use to watch any video, it is seriously the best app on the iPad.
 
I just found a player that will play xVID avi movies (common from internet downloads) without conversion, streaming, or complicated ways of getting the files on the iPad.

CineXplayer will play these videos and will allow you to import the .avi videos via iTunes to the iPad and it's FREE!
 
Bodhi395 said:
I've found, at least on my 2 ghz macbook, that it takes forever to convert a video from avi to mp4. Usually in the hours range. So its quite impratical for me to convert my large video library.

I agree with others about using airvideo. I've tried it and it works great at streaming videos right to my ipad.
Click to expand...

There's an option to convert while you watch the video, so by the time you are done watching it, it would already be converted and saved in the same folder as the original video file.

you could also add several videos into the queue and let it convert overnight. By the way, you don't need to leave your iPad on during the conversion, as it happens in the background on your MAC.
 
This whole thread is about ways to workaround the lack of native support, and conversion is not always needed. There are now a number of Apps in the AppStore that can playback xvid/divx AVIs without conversion; these include Cinexplayer, VLC and OPlayer. As well as these AirVideo provides an easy solution to both getting to and playing your videos on an iPad.

I've also had a decent amount of success using avidemux to repackage AVIs as mp4 video. It isn't perfect but when it does work it is much faster than re-encoding everything.
 
Justinf79 said:
Quicktime X has a built in ability to convert any video file to be compatible with iPhone OS devices, as well as Apple TV. Works pretty quickly as well, in my experience.
Click to expand...

fails to convert almost every time, in my experience.
 
Zodiak said:
OPlayer HD for the iPad plays almost every video format including AVI and you can have the files on your iPad compared to having to stream them using Air Video which also works good though.

OPlayer HD is just a local player but also supports Wifi and streaming options. Definatly get it.

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/oplayer-hd/id373236724?mt=8
Click to expand...

One quick read of the thorough reviews, and you can see that it does not work any better than VLC does right now.

As long as they're doing software decoding, its not going to get any better.
 
doesn't your mac/pc require to be running in order to have air video working? I have it loaded on my macbook but that thing gets HOT if i keep it running all day just so i can use air video. Is everybody using this app keep their PC's on all day just to access air video?
 
JoeC2k6 said:
doesn't your mac/pc require to be running in order to have air video working? I have it loaded on my macbook but that thing gets HOT if i keep it running all day just so i can use air video. Is everybody using this app keep their PC's on all day just to access air video?
Click to expand...

I have an iMac with an attached Drobo that serves media inside my home (Apple TV, Home Sharing) as well as AirVideo. It's on 24/7.
 
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