VLC Video Player Coming to iPad

[blackcrayon]

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.

It's true that most of the alternate web browsers use UIWebView, but calling them just a "skin" is a little drastic. Something like iCab has a lot features not in Mobile Safari- just because it renders web pages mostly the same doesn't mean there aren't a *ton* of things it does that Safari doesn't.
However, Apple still could've pulled the "duplicate functionality" card that they did early in the App Store process...

 

[iZac]

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 know, I've found Movist to be an excellent scrubber.

 

[xlii]

Now we just need to get handbrake ported...

Who and why could rate this a negative?

 

[KnightWRX]

Who and why could rate this a negative?

*sigh*. You do understand that negative/positive ratings can be on many facets of the story right ? As such, someone could rate this negative because he thinks Apple will reject the app. Or because he thinks the App won't be any good when it gets here or that it's vaporware and isn't really in the submission queue.

Heck, I just hit negative because of your post in this thread. I think it's negative that we have stories like these up where people feel the need to comment on others rating negative when they don't understand the system in the first place.

 

[transmaster]

Dancing in the streets

i am dancing in my room this is wonderful news.

Ditto VLC has been my primary player for many years.

 

[hinchesk]

Apple knows what's good for Apple

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*

By limiting codecs, Apple is doing more than just limiting the power drain failure, they are also:

- promoting their preferred H.264 codec, Apple loves to direct the industry toward technology they approve of (and their reasons aren't always altruistic)
- discouraging video pirating, they want to sell tv/movies so they have lots of incentive to prevent users from using xvid/divx which is generally what most pirated video uses
- protecting their investment in H.264 hardware acceleration in their mobile devices, gets expensive to optimize the user experience for multiple codecs so they'll avoid it as best they can

 

[ob81]

Slowly but surely...

The iPad is slowly coming along. Once that new OS arrives, it should be a lot better. Have to admit that I actually considered selling it about a week ago.

I have to hang in there!

 

[Thex1138]

Excellent!

 

[barberio]

Finally, someone is being honest. And I suspect no one really does as I doubt any real world tests have been run.

It really grates when you state these obnoxious things that demand everyone else to be as ignorant as you are.

Yes, low-power GPUs take up less power than general purpose CPUs. That's because GPUs just do scalar processing, and only scalar processing. And then the mobile ones are designed specifically around performing limited sets of tasks on a low power profile. And they can keep a much lower power profile than the GPU because of the differences between them. That's *why* they put GPUs in low power mobile devices instead of doing everything in CPU, because they can save power that way.

 

[Ifone]

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.

xyPlayer plays DivX/Xvid, WMV, Real Media and more on my iphone, it can manage 720p Divx. Does it draw more battery than hardware decoding of H246? of course it does.. feel free to test it yourself.

Now you could argue about efficiency of this software, but seriously, these PowerVR chips used in the iphones are custom built to deliver (amongst other things) video decoding at the lowest power and memory bandwidth possible. The CPU has *much* bigger overheads to do the same task, as well as running all the other stuff that keeps the OS going. Your CPU is going to be maxed out decoding 720p divx at any reasonable frame rate, whilst your iphone graphics processor is capable of decoding multiple 720p at once (which is how you can crossfade in realtime in imovie).

 

[drjsway]

LOL at KnightWRX. There is no point arguing with him. Of course, GPU video decoding drains less battery. This is a fact and anyone with basic computer knowledge knows this.

 

[Ubuntu]

This has nothing to do with why they'd not approve this app. Apple is as open as they've always been : http://opensource.apple.com/. Notice some of the iOS source is there.

If anything, they'll say it duplicates existing functionality.

I believe he meant in terms of working with other companies and in this case rejecting the app not on development grounds but rather because it competes or simply opens up functionality that they don't want users to have.

Frankly, it has nothing to do with opensource.

 

[g.c.]

Now add to it Airplay on the new AppleTV and I'm ecstatic!

 

[ghostlyorb]

Now I need to get an iPad!

 

[Drag'nGT]

O happy day!

 

[alphaod]

Want!

 

[KnightWRX]

It really grates when you state these obnoxious things that demand everyone else to be as ignorant as you are.

What, asking people to back up their claims is asking people to be ignorant ? I don't follow you here.

Yes, low-power GPUs take up less power than general purpose CPUs. That's because GPUs just do scalar processing, and only scalar processing. And then the mobile ones are designed specifically around performing limited sets of tasks on a low power profile. And they can keep a much lower power profile than the GPU because of the differences between them. That's *why* they put GPUs in low power mobile devices instead of doing everything in CPU, because they can save power that way.

Or maybe they put low power GPUs in mobile devices to assist low power CPUs so that decoding a video doesn't tax it to the point where other functions of the system such as process management and user input are affected or video decoding becomes too slow for actual playback.

Kind of like back in the days with 3D accelerators and Pentiums. Obviously, off-loading tasks to a dedicated processor permits the main one to do other things more efficiently. But don't forget that when the GPU does get into action, and the CPU continues to do its thing, you now have 2 chips drawing power. Do you really have an advantage as far as power draw is concerned ?

GPUs draw power. CPUs draw power. Do you or do you not have any evidence of the difference in this power draw for similar tasks ?

LOL at KnightWRX. There is no point arguing with him. Of course, GPU video decoding drains less battery. This is a fact and anyone with basic computer knowledge knows this.

Really, why do 3D games using the GPU drain my laptop battery ? Again, "This is a fact" yet no one seems to be able to back it up and everyone seems to be under the assumption that GPUs work on Unicorn power instead of electricity.

I'm not asking for anything complicated here people. You state a fact, you back it up. If it is such a widespread fact, it shouldn't be too hard to post actual evidence.

 

[RMo]

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you open a file to play in the first place? I confess I've never used an iPad, so if it provides some sort of file browser and a way to transfer said files to iPad, then I guess it makes sense. However, on my iPod touch, I just can't see this happening since you really can't do that. (Maybe that's why it's only coming to iPad...)

 

[E.Lizardo]

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.

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.

Dude,what's with the anger?You'd think this rather insignificant subject was the most important thing in your life.Nobody attacked you,just stated some thoughts.Go look at pictures of kittens and puppies for a while and get some perspective,it's not worth bursting a blood vessel over.Have a great day!

 

[Tom359]

And why is this so exciting?

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?

Totally agree....I use VLC on my mac occasionally, but with Handbrake used to convert videos to formats that WILL play on my iPad and iPhone, why does this matter? Just curious why everyone is so excited.

 

[E.Lizardo]

*sigh*. You do understand that negative/positive ratings can be on many facets of the story right ? As such, someone could rate this negative because he thinks Apple will reject the app. Or because he thinks the App won't be any good when it gets here or that it's vaporware and isn't really in the submission queue.

Heck, I just hit negative because of your post in this thread. I think it's negative that we have stories like these up where people feel the need to comment on others rating negative when they don't understand the system in the first place.

You're kidding right?Those are the most bonehead stupid reasons I could possibly think of.Oh wait,the world is full of stupid people so maybe you are right...

 

[felt.]

I can already play non m4v video files and output them with my dock to composite cable, so this isn't really all that exciting, especially considering it's software decoding, not hardware.

 

[G77]

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you open a file to play in the first place? I confess I've never used an iPad, so if it provides some sort of file browser and a way to transfer said files to iPad, then I guess it makes sense. However, on my iPod touch, I just can't see this happening since you really can't do that. (Maybe that's why it's only coming to iPad...)

Of course you can do it even on you iPod (iPhone). For xvid you can use apps like OPlayer or yxplayer for playing xvid, mkv, wmv... etc. files. You can stream it from web, download from web/ftp, sync via wifi or via iTunes.

 

[Markus1982]

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.

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.

Really?

Okay little boys, take my hand. Now open iTunes. Connect your iOS-Device. It'll show up in your source-list on the left. Click it.
Now, click on the Apps-tab in the right part of the window. You know, where you have those funny checkboxes to mark which Apps to sync to your iPad/iPhone. Scroll down!!! Heeeeere we go. A cute list of all Apps on your device that allow direct USB-transfer THROUGH iTunes into those Apps.

Well, as you may be enlighted now, you don't need no stinking webbrowser or WLAN to put files into your Goodreader, Airsharing, Pages, Keynote, ... and certainly you will get your precious pirated MKVs into VLC THROUGH iTUNES exactly this same way. Now you learnt something useful today about your lovely iOS device again. Cookie now?!

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you open a file to play in the first place? I confess I've never used an iPad, so if it provides some sort of file browser and a way to transfer said files to iPad, then I guess it makes sense. However, on my iPod touch, I just can't see this happening since you really can't do that. (Maybe that's why it's only coming to iPad...)

Want to open a movie. Open the app. Click that movie. Want to open photo. Open photos-app. Want to open music-file. Open iPod-App. They say the iPad is the first computer grandmothers will love to use. So it's actually pretty simple.

 

[m2nal]

How would you get video files on the iPad? In the same same way goodreader/iBooks works – through iTunes?

yup, currently for cinexplayer for example you just add files via iTunes for the cinexplayer and it magically shows up in a queue when you open that software on your iPad.....I would imagine its the same for the iPad