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Playing AVI files on iPad
- Thread starter Bodhi395
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Playing any video file on the ipad 2 without conversion isn't an issue at all. Use AVplayerHD and drag and drop the native file through itunes or wirelessly.
Previously, it would stutter with 720p and above video files which were not in the 'apple approved' format. Perfectly smooth playback even with 1080p using apple format files like mp4 and m4v though.
Now with the latest update of this app, which is able to use the dual cores in the ipad 2, it can play 720p mkvs (and all other non-apple formats) stutter free on my ipad 2. Problem solved
Have yet to try it on 1080p mkvs though. But my 1080p rips are upwards of 10GB a file and i just dont have the space to fit them in and test them
Seriously, avplayerHD rocks.
Edit: Ok, in the interests of contributing a little more. i dug up an old 3GB 900p .mkv and loaded it in. highly irregular format, i know, but at least it wasnt too large a file size. There is some slight but noticable slowdown. Enough to annoy during fast paced scenes but largely smooth on the slower sequences. I think it's safe to say that if you plan on putting in a video file on the ipad 2 without conversion, consider 720p your upper limit (you wont manage 720p playback on an ipad 1 though), unless you video file is in an apple supported file format
Previously, it would stutter with 720p and above video files which were not in the 'apple approved' format. Perfectly smooth playback even with 1080p using apple format files like mp4 and m4v though.
Now with the latest update of this app, which is able to use the dual cores in the ipad 2, it can play 720p mkvs (and all other non-apple formats) stutter free on my ipad 2. Problem solved
Have yet to try it on 1080p mkvs though. But my 1080p rips are upwards of 10GB a file and i just dont have the space to fit them in and test them
Seriously, avplayerHD rocks.
Edit: Ok, in the interests of contributing a little more. i dug up an old 3GB 900p .mkv and loaded it in. highly irregular format, i know, but at least it wasnt too large a file size. There is some slight but noticable slowdown. Enough to annoy during fast paced scenes but largely smooth on the slower sequences. I think it's safe to say that if you plan on putting in a video file on the ipad 2 without conversion, consider 720p your upper limit (you wont manage 720p playback on an ipad 1 though), unless you video file is in an apple supported file format
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But avplayerHD and the like are converting, are they not? It's my understanding that they convert on the fly, which does cause a hit in both performance and battery life.
This and other limitations of the iPad's file structure and file type flexibility cause me a lot of aggravation with my iPad. It's all very simple if you just source all your content through the iTunes store. It starts to get more complicated if you get content elsewhere. Just a coincidence I'm sure.
No. No conversion, nothing. It just flat out plays the file. Trust me, no catch. There is a free version you can try and see for yourself
As for the hit on battery life, there isnt any either. I watched a full 2 hour 480p .mkv rip of pride and prejudice (minimum brightness in dark room) with earphones. Battery was 90% when i started, and was 80% when the movie ended. Needless to say i was pretty floored with the battery life on the ipad 2. I don't think it gets any better than this
As for the hit on battery life, there isnt any either. I watched a full 2 hour 480p .mkv rip of pride and prejudice (minimum brightness in dark room) with earphones. Battery was 90% when i started, and was 80% when the movie ended. Needless to say i was pretty floored with the battery life on the ipad 2. I don't think it gets any better than this
I was under the impression that thrid-party video apps couldn't use hardware to play videos, only software.
But I'll give it a try, see if it works with a 720p MKV file.
I bought it thinking it supports MKV.
I don't see the point of AVI files, I would rather convert it to MP4/M4V (iTunes) which at least gives me control of Start/Stop times.
airplay is useless if you want to see movies outside your house and even in my house i prefer to watch movies in my TV or macbook. is there any free way to play movies in the ipad?
As far as i know, using apple's supported video formats allows use of the CPU + GPU for playback. This allows smooth 1080p video playback.
OTOH, if you use non-apple supported video formats like mkvs, then only the CPU is used. This limits playback to a max of less than 720p for the ipad 1, and up to 720p for the ipad 2, thanks to its more powerful dual core processor.
These limitations are completely independent of the app used for playback
You can try it and see, it works perfectly as i described earlier for me
Just pay 2.99 or whatever it is, for avplayerhd. Surely thats not too expensive to solve all your movie playback problems?
AirVideo requires both the host machine and your iPad to be online. I use FFMPEGx for my video conversion needs. It's free
Can anyone else confirm that AVPlayer plays 720P MKVs smoothly? If so, this will be my next app purchase.
I would also recommend handbrakes presets, Just start with the Apple TV preset and expand the horizontal resolution to 1024 if working with HD media. It's free.
So, I got VLC before it was pulled, and I really have no complaints about it. I've looked at a couple of the other options, but nothing has really impressed me.
The one feature that might lure me to a new app, and even make me willing to pay for it, would be the ability to support the Apple component video out for watching the videos on a screen other than the iPad's own. Does anyone know if there is an app out there that does that?
(And I already use AirVideo for streaming content and Handbrake for converting to .m4v format. This is for those times that I don't want to bother converting a file and when I know I'm going to be away from home, so streaming isn't an option...)
The one feature that might lure me to a new app, and even make me willing to pay for it, would be the ability to support the Apple component video out for watching the videos on a screen other than the iPad's own. Does anyone know if there is an app out there that does that?
(And I already use AirVideo for streaming content and Handbrake for converting to .m4v format. This is for those times that I don't want to bother converting a file and when I know I'm going to be away from home, so streaming isn't an option...)
I used to use hand break, I haven't ripped anything in a year or two. But the process is pretty straight forward on Handbreak
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Buzz player, and AV player both support displaying video content on an external screen. I've used both. Neither fill the screen completely, but I'm surprised that you've not found any apps to surpass VLC player...... there are quite a few
Well, haven't heard of AV player (and a quick search for it in the app store didn't come up with anything), and Buzz player has some very mixed reviews. I don't often buy apps that have a lot of one star reviews. If it's a free app, I might try it, and maybe even if it's a $.99, but Buzz is asking $3.99. Most of the video apps that I've seen in the App Store have a "lite" version that's free.
And, I never said that I didn't find any apps that surpass VLC, just none that offer a sufficiently superior feature set to convince me to switch. I like the fact that VLC uses a standard rendition of the video controls. Most other apps seem to wreak havoc with the controls, ending up with something that is amazingly aesthetically unpleasant, to me at least. AirVideo is the only app that I've seen that has come up with a decent alternative video control interface.
VLC, itself, has it's little quirks that sometimes bug me, but they're very much "the devil I know", if you see what I mean... As I indicated, the one "killer feature" that might get me to switch to an alternate video player would be TV out. (Though, even there, if the rest of the features didn't measure up I might not switch, as TV out is something that I only occasionally care about...)
Okay. I'll give AVplayerHD a try. It seems to have pretty stellar reviews, and it's only $3.
Curiously, if you search for "AV player" you don't get anything. It only comes up in a search for "AVplayer".
In any event, thanks!
Curiously, if you search for "AV player" you don't get anything. It only comes up in a search for "AVplayer".
In any event, thanks!
That's a bit odd that it didn't come up when you searched. I'm not doubting you, just saying it's odd. It's a good app, multi core aware, and gives excellent play back
I tend to use Buzz player more, but only because I prefer the UI. AV is the better out of the two for playback though.
I also use AVplayerHD and it works great on my iPad 2. Have yet to run across an avi file it would not play.