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VLC Video Player Coming to iPad

Excellent news! This is probably the most useful app around that is not included with the device. I just hope that Apple don't refuse it for some silly reason and that it also comes to the iPhone.
 
KnightWRX said:
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.
Click to expand...

Well, there are already applications on the App Store to play divx and xvid on the iPad, try one of them and see. You don't have to wait for VLC.
 
Satori said:
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.
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Finally, someone is being honest. And I suspect no one really does as I doubt any real world tests have been run.

Yes, a GPU can be more efficient, but the question remains to know if it is more power efficient. GPU accelerated games still draw a lot of power.

And again, my comment was more about why always bring up battery drain. Pretty devices that don't do anything don't drain the battery. Games drain a lot of battery, my radio streaming app does so at a rate of 2% per 5 minutes, but you know what ? I wouldn't even dream of accepting Apple removes them from the App Store and my device because of it. When I want to use them, they need to be there so that I can, battery be damned.

Ritsuka said:
Well, there are already applications on the App Store to play divx and xvid on the iPad, try one of them and see. You don't have to wait for VLC.
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These are iPad only apps. I don't own an iPad because I don't see the use of it. There is no niche between my iPhone and my laptop. If they are ported to iPhone, I'll give them a spin.
 
I wouldnt get too excited Apple aint gonna allow this.

Remember they want your pennies locked into their iTunes so while its exciting it aint getting authorised.

Apple dictates what they want you to want and have. Your an Apple consumer you dont have a say. God Steve says so. You only think you want an open source VLC player to play the media you want but look into my speccy eyes......move along...nothing to see here. Its a non issue. Your imagining it, hold it a different way, its a whole world of hurt.....
 
CplBadboy said:
I wouldnt get too excited Apple aint gonna allow this.

Remember they want your pennies locked into their iTunes so while its exciting it aint getting authorised.
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People have posted evidence of such apps already being in the App Store ecosystem. Why are people so quick to claim Apple will deny this ? 🙄
 
Question: how will you get MKV files onto your device?

If you try to drag anything but MP4 video onto your device in iTunes, it rejects.
 
fishmoose said:
Didn't they approve an app that played divx files for the iPad recently? I guess that mens this should be approved.
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Yes, but files are only transferrable through iTunes. Hopefully that won't be the case with VLC. I want to be able to open downloads from Goodreader with VLC.

Goodreader, along with a few other apps, allows you to download anything onto your iPad, but only some files are playable based on what apps it can access to open them. Some people seem to be unaware that you can download/stream to the iPad -probably those who love to bash it without ever trying it out.
 
baryon said:
VLC is awesome because it can play files that no other player can... Here's how it goes on your Mac:

You download a file
It doesn't play with any traditional player because it's corrupt or an unusual extension
You open it with VLC
It plays fine

On the iPad however, you cannot download files, you don't have a file system, and you don't even deal with corrupt files and every movie file you upload to the device is in Apple's special format, meaning that it's playable by the built-in video player. So where does VLC come in? Who will need it?
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Too bad you don't research software you actually use. You have no clue. If it gets approved it may have it's own option to drag files to it in iTunes, you know like good reader, docs to go, riddle etc. etc do. If that's the case then you can drag any video file within the scope of what vlc will be allowed to handle.
 
Great news!

If they will be able to support "airplay" to my yet to arrive apple TV, that will be just A*W*E*S*O*M*E!
 
KnightWRX said:
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 ? 🙄
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What do you think the word "efficient" stands for? 🙄
More efficient -> less resource usage -> less battery drain.
Maybe, just maybe, the heating of a MB when playing unaccelerated Flash content, could be a clue as to the significance of this...
Point aside, stop trying to compare your MB with an iOS/similar device. Though they share common tasks, they are still different appliances with different usages scenarios.
I think your problem is that you are under the illusion that a laptop, a desktop, and a mobile device all need to be able to perform the same tasks without caveats.
Now whatever you do with your stuff is your business. But if I (and so many other people) were to buy an iPad, to watch random video's and find that the damn thing only lasts 2 hours or so instead of the proclaimed 10 hours, I and those other people would be pissed. By limiting codecs, Apple is limiting this failure scenario.
*sigh*
 
sinsin07 said:
Too bad you don't research software you actually use. You have no clue. If it gets approved it may have it's own option to drag files to it in iTunes, you know like good reader, docs to go, riddle etc. etc do. If that's the case then you can drag any video file within the scope of what vlc will be allowed to handle.
Click to expand...

And like I said above, some apps allow you to download anything from the internet or transfer from a desktop browser, and then open them with the proper app on the iPad. Everybody should check out Goodreader. very powerful. Pretty much frees the iPad from iTunes.

I'm not aware of any special Apple formats, unless he's talking about quicktime, which is pretty ubiquitous by now.
 
Soliber said:
What do you think the word "efficient" stands for? 🙄
More efficient -> less resource usage -> less battery drain.
Click to expand...

Efficient can mean that it can decode video without taxing the system itself (which is what it does, since the GPU is mostly uninvolved in the rest of the system's operation, vs the CPU which needs to process all other input/sound/display/process management).

Soliber said:
Maybe, just maybe, the heating of a MB when playing unaccelerated Flash content, could be a clue as to the significance of this...
Click to expand...

Maybe, just maybe, the heating of a MB when playing a GPU accelerated game will make you realise why this has no bearing on your argument.

BTW, when playing back HD video using VLC or Mplayer Extended, even though FFmpeg does not use the GPU, the fans on my MB don't spin up and CPU usage is low. Different software decoders with difference capabilities does not mean the GPU is more power efficient.

Stop pretending you know, you don't. You don't have proof to back up your claim. Just admit your facts are not so factual and you can end this in dignity.

Soliber said:
I think your problem is that you are under the illusion that a laptop, a desktop, and a mobile device all need to be able to perform the same tasks without caveats.
Click to expand...

If it doesn't work, I'm not going to buy it. That's a usability problem right there.

Soliber said:
Now whatever you do with your stuff is your business. But if I (and so many other people) were to buy an iPad, to watch random video's and find that the damn thing only lasts 2 hours or so instead of the proclaimed 10 hours, I and those other people would be pissed. By limiting codecs, Apple is limiting this failure scenario.
*sigh*
Click to expand...

And you'd be dumb if 1 video drew power to blame the iPad instead of the video itself. The fact is, you can have the code there to do something and until someone uses these code paths, nothing will come of it. So instead of limiting "failure" scenarios, Apple is purposefully introducing failure in their device to prevent degradation.

Battery drain is not a failure, it means the device is working. Only Apple fans would see battery drain as a failure. I see it as the device being useful. If the battery isn't draining, the device is not being used.

Do you blame the iPhone when an iPhone game draws 2% per 5 minutes ? Do you blame iOS when a radio streaming app does the same ? Or do you realise that it is those particular apps that are more power hungry and thus you make judicious use of them ?

Why do people feel the need to have Apple protect them from themselves. If I know I need my battery charged, I won't go around playing a 3D game all day on my iPhone.

And seriously, there's no proof that this app will drain more battery than the iPhone's video player. VLC on Mac and Quicktime X, one being GPU accelerated and the other not, don't have much different power draws. You have no tests that can even show what it is you're claiming as fact. Hence, you have no facts.
 
KnightWRX said:
And seriously, what's with all the "battery is draining" posts everytime someone tries to actually do something on iOS. If you don't want your battery drained, turn off the damn thing and don't use it. I'd rather have a device that needs recharging more often but that can actually do the stuff I need it to do, than some pretty ornament that can't do squat but displays the home screen for 30 hours.
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Amen. It's like they don't live near power outlets or something!

I rarely find my iPad or iPhone running on empty. And the rare times I do, I plug it in and let it charge. Not that difficult.
 
Given Apple's track record on AppStore admission... Not Gonna Happen IMHO.

I'll be the first to cheer up if it gets approved, though 🙂

In any case, be ready for the eventual "Slipped through Apple's review but was ousted the following day" scenario, like that app that let you download movies from YouTube (I got it 🙂 )
 
ranReloaded said:
Given Apple's track record on AppStore admission... Not Gonna Happen IMHO.

I'll be the first to cheer up if it gets approved, though 🙂
Click to expand...

People have pointed out Cinexplayer and xyplayer. Did you factor these apps in your comment ? People, stop posting stuff like this until it happens. There is "prior art" on the App Store with Apple accepting video players that play more codecs/containers than the built-in player.
 
Great news! I love VLC and use it daily.

However, on the iPhone I use Air Video at the moment. Since you probably need a place to stream / download files from anyway (probably a computer / NAS on your network), Air Video works wonders by converting it on a host computer to a hardware-palyable format and streaming it to my device in real-time. With that I can watch pretty much any format movies on my phone, and get subtitles support and whatnot, without much battery drain. I can't wait to use VLC, but I don't think it will make a huge difference in how I watch movies since I watch everything on my phone already.
 
What would be really great? that VLC supported flash videos in the iPad.... I can still dream about it, can't I?
 
dmjossel said:
Who aren't already using Air Video or Plex or any of the other transcoding/streaming solutions?
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Ive been using TVersity Pro for awhile now. We have other platforms at home so its decent across.
On the iPad/iPhone side no full play control though 🙁
Other than that, strong converter 🙂
 
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