AVPlayer – The ultimate media player for iOS – In depth review

There are many media players out there for iOS – they all want to do one thing that Apple does not – allow you to playback more than the dreaded mp4/m4v format Apple has such a tight grasp on.

These media players all want to offer the ability to watch TV shows and movie files WITHOUT having to convert the file to mp4/m4v – so you can simply download the entire file and watch it without having to convert it before you can watch them.

Many of us have alot of video files on our computers, be it movies or TV shows, some of us want to be able to watch those on-the-go, for example when taking the bus or train to work/school.

I have been personally using AVPlayer since the day I got my first iPhone, the 3GS and now I use it on my iPhone 4 as well.

What this app does will be different from user to user; there are alot of ways to use this app, I will try to cover as many as I can in this post.

First of all, the app has been Retina optimized since the launch of iPhone 4, and there is also an iPad version, although I cannot give any thoughts on the iPad version, since I do not own an iPad; I will instead assume how it works on the iPad.

The app’s main functions are support for most formats, including – but not limited to :

AVI – MKV – FLV – WMW – 3GP – and many more.

It also has an excellently implemented aspect ratio changer – for those who do not know about aspect ratios – an aspect ratio is the way a video might look, the main ones are 4:3, 16:10 and most popular today is 16:19 – these say how the height/width will look for the video.

No matter what aspect ratio the videos use (most use 16:19 these days) the app can easily change it to fit your screen, here is an example.

For this example I have used an episode of The Simpsons.

So this is the standard video that most of you probably have – this video is 16:19, and as you can notice pretty fast, it has black borders on the top of the video and the bottom of the video – so there is some screen estate not being utilized.

And now by simply double tapping the screen, we can make the aspect ratio change – here’s the next aspect ratio.

As you might have noticed, this has made the video actually worse, it has cut parts from the sides, but has removed the black borders, we’re almost done with the video.

By double tapping again, the aspect ratio changes again and we get the final video aspect ratio, it is perfectly fit for the iPhone screen.

Now the video looks perfect on the iPhone – it will fully utilize the screen space, and it might look weird at first, because the video isn’t made to be in this aspect ratio, but after a while you get used to it.

This is the greatest function to me, since I really, really hate those black borders – but this isn’t why I think that AVPlayer is the best media player – there are alot more functions to cover.

Another good function is the gesture support, the most basic ones are :

Fast forward – Swipe to the right/left to forward/backward.

Increase the video speed – Swipe up and down, by swiping you can skip parts of a video you might not enjoy, and get to the good stuff, lol.

There are alot more to learn, but those two and the most basic ones.

Other very good features are the ability to fast-sync videos to your iDevice by using iTunes – you connect your iDevice with AVPlayer installed, then go to Apps in iTunes and you will see the AVPlayer folder; drop & drag your video files into this folder, and sync.

There is also Wi-Fi sync for single file transfers, I transferred a 175MB video file in less than a minute, but maybe that is because the router is 1 meter away from me – this mode is very good when you want to transfer files from PC/Mac to iDevice without iTunes – but it’s limited to single file transfers – the wifi transfer screen is very easy, you simplytap Wi-Fi Transfer in the main menu when the app opens, and the app gives you a link to visit with your desktop browser – connect to it, then you should be able to see the files on AVPlayer and you can also upload new ones – the UI here is very basic but does an excellent job.

You can create folders, such as Documentaries, Action movies, Comedy movies and so on – and you can password protect these folders.

You can also play music with this app, personally I am not a big music aficionado so I use the basic iPod app.

The image above shows some functions of the app, the best function for HD videos is definetly the ability to use TV Out with the standard Apple AV connector, or the new Apple HD video out connector – this function is currently limited to the iPod touch 4G and iPhone 4.

The app also supports a whole range of subtitle formats, including the popular SRT and SUB files – to automatically have a video use a subtitle, you must sync or upload both of them into the same folder in AVPlayer.

One flaw I have found, no fault to the app creators, is the fact that the app has a very hard time playing back standard 720p HD video and 1080p full HD video – 720p video will work, but it will mostly be sluggish as the app is trying to view this massive amount of pixels, for a much smaller screen – 1080p is something I haven’t tried yet.

The app *should* be able to process anything when used with the Apple A5 chip that can be found in the iPad 2 and soon iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S as some call it.

So far the app is great for standard videos one most likely watches, but for those who enjoy 720 or 1080p videos, you might want to wait a little for the iPhone 5 or buy yourself an iPad 2 now and enjoy this app fully.

I should mention that I have NOT tested this app on any iPad, however I can assume due to the fact that the A5 chip is dual core with 9 times better graphical power, it *should* handle 1080p without problems.

This app has so much value in it, that it is well worth the $2.99 pricetag for the users who have to travel far with bus or train, or just taking a small vacation – this app will not fail you if you load it with videos.

I would normally give this app a lower score due to the fact that it can’t handle 720p or 1080p video playback, but that limitation is due to the CPU in my iPhone.

The develeopers should be proud of this app, it’s a real gem to have, and at that price, you really can’t go wrong!

I give this app a perfect 10/10 – and I recommend it to all of you who enjoy watching TV shows/movies on your iDevice!