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VLC Gains iPhone, iPod Touch Compatibility

Doesn't seem to be working very well on my iPad. Anything that I tried over standard definition (even 854x480) just skips and jumps and H.264 at 720p just doesn't play at all. It does play standard definition H.264 but after about three minutes it just locks up and you have to exit the app. Thereafter the app won't launch, it just hangs on startup (a restart of the iPad or the running of a different video playback app seems to correct the launch problem). From the reports I've read it seems to work best with low resolution avi files and maybe some forms of wmv, anything else not so good.

I applaud the effort that went into creating the VLC app for iOS, but at least in my hands it's not really ready for use (it is, however, a valid proof of concept).
 
This App is fantastic! Mind you, my requirements of it are not nearly as taxing as other users that have posted here, but I was able to open a .wmv attachment from my email App! I am no longer limited to only being able to view quicktime movie attachments :)
 
VLC is everything the iPod app is not. It plays avi, and pretty much anything. That's great right? But there's one catch: in the nature of these codecs, there all software encoded rather than hardware. So most people say: great. I don't know what that means, how will that effect me? What it means is extremely poor performance on anything of decent quality (expeshily on older devises, even the 3GS) and don't even think about HD. it means horrible battery life - know how you can get in like 3 movies in with the iPod app before even hitting 20%? I doubt you'll get through a TV show with this. And many many other problems. Apple puts there limitations in place for there devices for a reason.

The way to go is handbreak: it's free, flexible, and open source. It's one extra step, but it's worth it. Google it, you'll be impressed. All the formats you could want, and then ready in a MP4 your iPhone can play at perfect 30fps even at 720p all day long on one charge. Trust me - it's a much better choice.
 
kjs862 said:
I see now, thank you.

However, it would still be nice to be able to play videos over the internet. Was thinking of just copying the URL into VLC and bam, there you go.
Click to expand...

I suggest to you the app Air Video, it streams any video from your computer to your iDevice on Wi-Fi or 3G (Older version included) and with either do native play with hardware decoding (UNLIKE vlc) on supported files (mp4, usually) with no conversion as if you synced it to the iPod app. And if its not MP4 format, itll do conversion locally on-the-fly on your computer so when it sends it to the device, you still get hardware decoded goodness. and if your on 3G itll automatically adjust the quality as it plays depending on the connection for a seamless playback experience. and no to mention it fully supports up to 720p and iPad :p

and you can try it for free (the difference is in the file browser you can only see the top three files from each folder on your computer, but its perfect for testing) and well worth the full version for 2.99
 
fpnc said:
Doesn't seem to be working very well on my iPad. Anything that I tried over standard definition (even 854x480) just skips and jumps and H.264 at 720p just doesn't play at all. It does play standard definition H.264 but after about three minutes it just locks up and you have to exit the app. Thereafter the app won't launch, it just hangs on startup (a restart of the iPad or the running of a different video playback app seems to correct the launch problem). From the reports I've read it seems to work best with low resolution avi files and maybe some forms of wmv, anything else not so good.

I applaud the effort that went into creating the VLC app for iOS, but at least in my hands it's not really ready for use (it is, however, a valid proof of concept).
Click to expand...

Agreed with this. A 480p avi had no problem on my iPod touch 4G, surprisingly enough, but there was no way it could handle a 720p mkv. I should try out the Cydia VLC and see if it's any better optimized. Sure would be nice to not have to use handbrake to convert every 720p video I want to play to mp4 though.

EDIT: It seems to have problems with mkv's in general. Even a 480p lags a bit.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

catracho said:
No Love for iPhone 3G :(
Click to expand...

Say it isn't so!

I've been resisting the urge to update my 3G for awhile now, this however is going to pull at me until I do. On the other handit doesn't hurt to wait as they are obviously improving the app as it goes.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

OddHead said:
Why all the videos in the sshot have a maximum of 480 or 320 lines, like non-retina displays?

Does this release actually take advantages from the 960x640 resolution, or it just decodes in 480x320 for 3GS and 3rd gen. Touch and upscales on iPhone 4 and 4th gen Touch?
I mean, on Retina displays it should go on a "full screen mode" anyway, since divx videos have a maximum width of 720 pixels (on 960 horizontals), but on "old" displays it is going to scale down, i suppose.

I'm going to buy a 4th generation iPod Touch and i'd like to know, because i'm planning to use this on it... maybe it's just a stupid question, but iPads have just one resolution now (1024x768), other iOS devices actually two.

:)
Click to expand...

It is free software give the guys a chance.
 
Apple doesn't allow third party apps to use API's for hardware video acceleration. Therefore, 720p won't play on iPhone VLC. Developer can't do anything about it really except to either wait for faster CPU's or ask Apple to provide API's for video acceleration. Love those Apple's iOS API restrictions... :(
 
alternative files to iphone4

How are you guys getting the other files to your iphone device?--- Nevermnd, figured it out
 
I'm extremely happy with that announcement ! Going to download it right away and enjoy my non-accepted-by-iTunes videos !
 
Nuvi said:
Apple doesn't allow third party apps to use API's for hardware video acceleration. Therefore, 720p won't play on iPhone VLC. Developer can't do anything about it really except to either wait for faster CPU's or ask Apple to provide API's for video acceleration. Love those Apple's iOS API restrictions... :(
Click to expand...


That doesn't make any sence! What would Apple loose if they gave developers that option?
 
Please, please, please develop VLC for the iPhone 3G

I have VLC Media Player for my iPad. I love it. I wish that it would play HD video a little better - and would pay $10 if it were able to play local streams (similar to StreamToMe and Air Video). VLC is the best.

But I'm disappointed with it not supporting iPhone 3G. Seems that the iPhone 3Gs is the "lowest" phone version to work with this. I'm not sure why iPhone 3G support isn't there.

PLEASE get this support in iPhone 3G.

As for those people wondering "why" VLC over the internal movie player ? Simple - you don't have to convert movies. VLC plays practically ANY standard and ANY audio/Video Codec. I run VLC on my macs, on my PC's and have a HUGE video collection and I certainly don't want to spend years trying to convert everything just so my iPhone/iPad can play it. Now, on my iPad, I just "drag and drop" my movies/TV Shows - and play ! VLC is the best.
 
altquark said:
I have VLC Media Player for my iPad. I love it. I wish that it would play HD video a little better - and would pay $10 if it were able to play local streams (similar to StreamToMe and Air Video). VLC is the best.

But I'm disappointed with it not supporting iPhone 3G. Seems that the iPhone 3Gs is the "lowest" phone version to work with this. I'm not sure why iPhone 3G support isn't there.

PLEASE get this support in iPhone 3G.
Click to expand...

And this is why, when the 3GS was released and everyone was pronouncing it to be a "minor upgrade", they were terribly wrong.

The 3G is a slow machine by modern standards. I'm not surprised it's been abandoned for video decoding.
 
thanks for this information VLC is ggod product in these days
 
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Actually just d/led this app it's pretty stellar. The fwd/rew functions need to be tweaked a bit, but this will make watching videos much easier. Also to the person who said u need an external source for sound, just flip that vibrate switch back over.
 
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