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VLC Video Player Coming to iPad
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As a developer I am amazed how often people post stupid statements like this
Apple doesn't reject stuff just for the kicks...
People also tend to post stupid sh** like this every time a webbrowser is submitted to the appstore, not realizing how many competing and feature-rich webbrowser are already available.
There's nothing different here. There are movieplayer out there on the appstore, that play competing formats.
I'd say theres a 98% chance VLC will be approved! And if it's not, I'm pretty sure it's not that "duplicate functionality" some morons keep suggesting.
One reason they might reject it is that Apple has a clearly-stated policy that any app that does video streaming must use HTTP Live Streaming. This was later amended to mean any app that streams video for more than 10 minutes over the cellular network. So it might be that streaming of other formats would have to be wi-fi only.
Not claiming, simply stating the facts.
Take Flash for example, it is well known that Flash can be very processor-intensive on Macs since [at least until recently and then only for a few cards] it does not use hardware acceleration to decode video. And most crucially, people usually notice this by listening to their fans going beserk. And fan activity is pretty closely linked to power consumption.
You're ignoring the fact that before Opera Mini made it to the AppStore, all the "feature-rich webbrowsers" that were already available were actually a skin on top of a UIWebView.
In essence, there was only 1 web browser for iOS, that was Mobile Safari. It just had different UIs tacked on and uploaded to the app store. At that point, it was unknown whether Apple would allow a different HTML rendering engine. And in a way, it still is, since Opera Mini doesn't have an HTML rendering engine.
Oh really ? Facts ? Let's see some back up for those facts, not this :
Video, no matter if it is hardware accelerated or not, as always drained the battery on my Mac. The difference in CPU usage does not change that "fact" as you put it. And fan activity is closely linked to heat, not power consumption. I can get the fans to spin up by playing a fully GPU accelerated game. You have not shown that the GPU is less power hungry than the CPU.
I suppose playing unsupported files on the iPad will be the main-feature of VLC on the iPad (no, this is NOT a reason to be rejected!).
There's an official, built in way to get any files into any app via iTunes. Many apps use it already.
I don't think it will affect the battery life too much. The biggest power drain in the iPad is the large screen. For example you can play 3d games on it for 10 hours too. What it will affect is whether videos play smoothly, or at all, since the iPad CPU is relatively weak.
Apple states that you can watch videos on the iPad for about 10 hours; video's which are played via hardware acceleration.
If you are going to watch DivX, XviD, MKV, whatever else, on an iOS device, the CPU of said device is going to have to handle *all* of the encoding, which is going to drain the battery like hell.
So instead of 10 hours of video watching pleasure, maybe you'll get 2 or 3.
Granted, you can fix this by using an extra battery or whatnot, but that seems suboptimal to me
No, I am claiming that somewhere in the iPad, there is dedicated circuitry specifically for decoding certain kinds of video, just like any modern computer, dvd/blu-ray player, etcetera. And said dedicated circuitry is more efficient for that particular task, than a general purpose CPU.
And just think for a split second. You're talking about a mobile device, something which is inherently removed from an electrical outlet for extended periods of time. As such, you need a sufficiently powerful battery, otherwise the whole raison d'être of such a device becomes null.
For those who do not get it, by limiting (through the GUI) what kind of videos you can store on your iOS device, Apple is protecting all the people who are not smart enough to realize that playing e.g. an MKV file on a mobile device will net you a straight trip to an electrical outlet. It's called usability
Question is, does it use the VLC codec libraries (ffplay etc) or Apple's own codecs.
Also, does it use the iPad's DSPs, if not you wont get hardware acceleration, have fun trying to play your SD videos.
Also, does it use the iPad's DSPs, if not you wont get hardware acceleration, have fun trying to play your SD videos.
VLC vs Plex vs Air Video
Who aren't already using Air Video or Plex or any of the other transcoding/streaming solutions?
I think it's a legitimate question what else this brings to the table besides the letters V-L-C. I'm also wondering what the pricing will be, given that the Plex app is $5 and is quite a bit more than just a player (when combined with the free Mac app as a library server.
Who aren't already using Air Video or Plex or any of the other transcoding/streaming solutions?
I think it's a legitimate question what else this brings to the table besides the letters V-L-C. I'm also wondering what the pricing will be, given that the Plex app is $5 and is quite a bit more than just a player (when combined with the free Mac app as a library server.
Thank you for not answering my question. Again, are you claiming that the "special circuitry" (otherwise known as the GPU to us in-the-know folks) is more power efficient than the CPU ? Or are you just trying to sound smart ?
The advantages of hardware decoding are offloading the main processor from doing it so that it can continue to process other things, like your UI request, your input, sound decoding playback, etc.. It's essentially like having a second processor dedicated to video processing.
Now my question remains, you are now claiming that the GPU (or "special circuitry, or whatever you want to call it) is more power efficient than the CPU and that decoding the same video frame on it rather than the CPU takes less battery. Do you have proof of this ? Tests demonstrating in a reproducible way that this is so ? Power draw tests ?
And just think for a split second. You're talking about a mobile device, something which is inherently removed from an electrical outlet for extended periods of time. As such, you need a sufficiently powerful battery, otherwise the whole raison d'être of such a device becomes null.
For those who do not get it, by limiting (through the GUI) what kind of videos you can store on your iOS device, Apple is protecting all the people who are not smart enough to realize that playing e.g. an MKV file on a mobile device will net you a straight trip to an electrical outlet. It's called usability
And just think why I own devices, it's because they are useful to me. Right now, my MB is draining battery like a mofo. I have a VM running that is connected by VPN to my work. This usually results in twice the battery drainage. I am not connected on power at all either. In 1 hour, I've used up 40%.
And you know what, I don't need Apple to limit me from running VirtualBox. Because if they did, the MB would go out the window and I'd buy a functionning computer. Limiting for the sake of battery is just plain dumb. Having the functionality in the code doesn't drain anything until it's used. And if I need to use it, I will, battery drain or not.
That's called usability. It means I can use it when I need it.
I'm not sure on this one, but isn't MKV just a container? So if the MKV contained h264 (or other hardware-accelarated codecs), wouldn't that get hardware-acceleration as well?
Probably not. VLC uses FFmpeg which lacks a hardware decoder that works on Mac last time I checked. Since they needed to port it to iOS, it's probably a straight port and uses all CPU decoding.
Great news!!! I hope that this also feeds some code back into the Mac version of VLC, they haven't had anyone maintaining that port for a long time now (zero developers!). It was even slated to be discontinued or at least not updated anymore.
Source: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=59905
Source: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=59905
VLC Shows Quicktime How It's Done
You would think that Apple's premier video player would be capable of playing any format out there. But no, it takes something like VLC to show Apple how to do a player. Heck, Quicktime has become lame even playing those ole timey .mpg files. You know, those files I have of movies made way back when the kids were kids. You CAN play an mpg on Quicktime, but heaven help you if you try to scrub forward to the the end. That used to work but since a couple of versions ago, it's broken. And divx, avi, etc. Forget it. Quicktime needs help even doing that. I like QT, I really do. Just wish it would play everything so I won't have to find the right player or plugin to play something that isn't mov.
End of rant.
You would think that Apple's premier video player would be capable of playing any format out there. But no, it takes something like VLC to show Apple how to do a player. Heck, Quicktime has become lame even playing those ole timey .mpg files. You know, those files I have of movies made way back when the kids were kids. You CAN play an mpg on Quicktime, but heaven help you if you try to scrub forward to the the end. That used to work but since a couple of versions ago, it's broken. And divx, avi, etc. Forget it. Quicktime needs help even doing that. I like QT, I really do. Just wish it would play everything so I won't have to find the right player or plugin to play something that isn't mov.
End of rant.
Of course it's more power efficient. It's a ******* dedicated chip for h.264 decoding. A specialized chip will always be faster and consume less energy for the particular task it's made to compared to a general purpose cpu.
But I think the main question is if the iPad cpu is powerful enough to decode 720p h.264 video alone.
You state this as fact. Do you have any backing for these assumptions ? Using a GPU is more efficient because the GPU doesn't need to be doing anything else and can provided optimized paths. But is it really less of a power draw ?
People, you need to start backing up your stuff. The GPU in Mac is a mofo on the battery. So is the GPU in my iPhone.
If I remember my school physics correctly, heat is going to be a pretty good indicator of power consumption.
CPUs and GPUs vary in their power consumption depending on the particular processor. I have no idea about the relative consumption of the components used in an iPad, but the important point is that GPUs are MORE efficient at decoding video than CPUs - they are designed for the task.
VLC Video Player Coming to iPad
Regular development of new products demonstrate that the iPad will continue to grow and prosper in the industry. I look forward to when the iPad 2 gen comes out and I'm hoping that a matte screen will be available. Not everyone likes glossy screens.
Looks like my bank account is going to shrink sometime next year, but then why save for new toys unless you are going to buy them.
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MacBook Pro July 2006 2.16, iPod touch 2 gen.
Regular development of new products demonstrate that the iPad will continue to grow and prosper in the industry. I look forward to when the iPad 2 gen comes out and I'm hoping that a matte screen will be available. Not everyone likes glossy screens.
Looks like my bank account is going to shrink sometime next year, but then why save for new toys unless you are going to buy them.
_______________________________
MacBook Pro July 2006 2.16, iPod touch 2 gen.