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REVIEW: New Versions of Multimedia Players VLC, nPlayer and AVPlayer(HD)

zuzox

zuzox

macrumors member
Jun 26, 2010
44
9
United Pingdom
Has anyone from the VLC dev team advised when they will be releasing a new version for the ipad? I had it on my old ipad air, but didnt cloud back up when I got my ipad air 2 :(
 
mangomind

mangomind

macrumors 6502a
Mar 15, 2012
542
5
zuzox said:
Has anyone from the VLC dev team advised when they will be releasing a new version for the ipad? I had it on my old ipad air, but didnt cloud back up when I got my ipad air 2 :(
Click to expand...

Here is a tweet from two days ago: https://mobile.twitter.com/thepyxelz/status/551414082784743424

ETA early 2015
 
valuetagapp

valuetagapp

macrumors newbie
Jan 9, 2015
1
0
Santa Clara
Good Player

Yes, I have already tried this.
Menneisyys2 said:
(cont'd from above)

3. AVPlayer(HD)

AVPlayer and AVPlayerHD (both $2.99; current, tested version: 2.20 on both platforms), also great players, among other things, have received a completely new and much-much more logical and intuitive interface.

3.1 Subtitles
You no longer need to switch between subtitle tracks in the file list – something that wasn't intuitive at all. Actually, the old “tool” dialog is completely gone – at last.

Now, you can select / change the subtitle track right during playback:
[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/AVPlayer-subs.jpeg]Image[/URL]


(the screenshot also shows an embedded subtitle, here, in Finnish, being rendered below the movie)
They can also be relocated, their size, style changed etc:
[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/AVPlayer-sub-styling.jpeg]Image[/URL]

Note that

- while the engine supports displaying two independent subtitles at the same time, it still only seems to be able to do this with SMI external subtitles but not embedded ones, which means it's of pretty little practical use.

- DVB TS subtitles are still incorrectly rendered – that is, without making use of the color information and using fuzzy, very hard to read outlines. This is how the standardized “Lupaus” test video multicolor subtitle is rendered by nPlayer:

[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/DVB%20TS%20multicolor%20sub%20test%20-%20nPlayer.jpeg]Image[/URL]

and by VLC:
[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/DVB%20TS%20multicolor%20sub%20test%20-%20VLC.jpeg]Image[/URL]

Compare the above two shots to AVPlayer's (much worse) rendition:

[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/DVB%20TS%20multicolor%20sub%20test%20-%20AVPlayer.jpeg]Image[/URL]

- unfortunately, while AVPlayer can decode DVD (that is, bitmap) subtitles (for example, the embedded ones in THIS standardized test file), it suffers from exactly the same problem: they're rendered with a fuzzy outline, making them very hard to read:
[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/DVB-sub-test-AVPlayer.jpeg]Image[/URL]

Both nPlayer and VLC renders these subtitles properly. An nPlayer example screenshot:

[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/DVB-sub-test-nPlayer.jpeg]Image[/URL]

- styled SSA subtitles are still not parsed, unlike in nPlayer – or, if you don't try to play back videos (like the standardized Suzumiya test video) using characters resulting in “blocky” display, VLC

In all these regards, nPlayer (and, in most cases, also VLC) is still superior.

3.2 Brightness / contrast / saturation control

Also, as with nPlayer, it supports setting the brightness / contrast / saturation. An example of the same Monsters test video starting frame, with maximized saturation:

[url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/102013/10-vlc/AVPlayer-saturationcontrol.jpeg]Image[/URL]


Note that these controls can be used while playing back video with hardware decoding.

Audio boosting is also supported by the new versions.

All in all, AVPlayer(HD) remains one of the top picks as a quality player, particularly if you don't need UPnP / SMB streaming or fancy subtitle support.

UPDATE (11/Oct/2013 10:45 GMT): answering a question here at MR, I've quickly tested the AirPlay support of the above-reviewed apps.

As was easy to predict, VLC, as it completely lacks hardware decoding, can't drive the AirPlay receiver in native (non-mirrored) mode (assuming you're trying to play back native iOS videos - that is, mov / mp4 / m4v files). All you can do is mirroring with all its problems (significantly lower quality, abundance of dropped frames etc.)

nPlayer has no problems with the native mode – assuming you're sticking with the default QuickTime decoding mode. If yous switch to Hardware decoding (let alone Software), only the audio will be mirrored. That is, if you connect your iDevice to your AppleTV but don't enable mirroring and you only get audio out of your native iOS videos (again, mov / mp4 / m4v files), make absolutely sure you have selected QuickTime decoding.

I had no problems with AVPlayer(HD)'s native AirPlay output (in the default hardware-decoded mode, of course).

Of course, neither nPlayer nor AVPlayer(HD) are able to mirror hardware-decoded MKV files over a native (non-mirrored) AirPlay connection. For them, you absolutely must use a wired HDMI or VGA connection – preferably on an "old" 30-pin device as the Lightning – HDMI / VGA adapters, as has been explained in several of my articles and forum posts, delivers inferior image quality when driven in non-native mode.

All the three apps work in mirrored mode in all possible decoding configurations (not applying to the software-only VLC, of course) but, as has been pointed out, you never should use mirroring mode when playing back video over AirPlay, unless absolutely necessary – for example, when you're trying to play back an MKV or an AVI – that is, a non-iOS-native - file.
Click to expand...
 
M

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
Bostieger said:
This month come back VLC iOS or??
Click to expand...

Dunno - it's not out yet.

However, alternative (albeit commercial) players like Infuse or nPlayer offer a lot more (hardware playback, seamless AirPlay, DTS etc.) - why bother with VLC?
 
B

Bostieger

macrumors newbie
Feb 4, 2015
11
0
Menneisyys2 said:
Dunno - it's not out yet.

However, alternative (albeit commercial) players like Infuse or nPlayer offer a lot more (hardware playback, seamless AirPlay, DTS etc.) - why bother with VLC?
Click to expand...

Have you test the new beta from VLC iOS?? In forum from VLC say a developer this month come back ;)
Yes nPlayer really good I have buy!!
 
smoking monkey

smoking monkey

macrumors 68020
Mar 5, 2008
2,339
1,469
I HUNGER
I've stopped using CinexPlayer and now solely use nPlayer. A few problems that were present using Cinex on my iPad Air...

1. It would often flash off and go back to the home screen OR just flash off to black and not come back for 30 seconds or so. Sometimes it would just be frozen on the list screen. I thought it may have been faulty RAM with my Air, but after swapping everything over to nPlayer, it hasn't happened once.

2. It would often take an extremely long time to load up (often I had 40 - 60 files in it). nPlayer starts up very quick, even with plenty of files in it.

3. The brightness and volume controls in nPlayer really make it much more convenient.

I've updated to the new CinexPlayer and do want to check it out, but I'm really happy with nPlayer now.

Thanks to Menneisyys2 for all his hard work on this topic in this forum. I really appreciate it!
 
M

MB1702

macrumors newbie
Jul 26, 2015
1
0
I'm new here. First, thank you all for directing me to nPlayer. I've been using AVPlayer HD for ages. Still like it a lot, but since I tried to establish a Home Server, it proved a little flawed on that area. It didn't see the network and servers reliably. I could not then access my files, sometimes I wouldn't find them, sometimes it would play the same video, no matter which episode in the folder I chose. It also failed downloading video files and subtitles...

Now, with nPlayer all is good. I can access my files, the interface is clear and works great. Only thing I still did not manage is: how to download the subtitle file along with the video file? When I browse to the video folder, I see the video file but do NOT see the subtitle file. Nevertheless, when I play streaming, the subtitle plays along finely. But to download this does not work. It downloads only the video file. Anyone knows how to do this? My media server is Serviio.

PS: Otherwise, so far, only thing AVPlayer is a little better is the "floating" dialog box to sync subtitles if they are off. It is more practical to adjust while the video is playing in the background whereas in nPlayer it stops the video, and you have to move back and forth.
 
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