Watching videos on iPhone or iPad outside of Apple’s preferred mp4 format got a lot harder when the VLC app was removed from the iOS app store, but holding onto open source principles occasionally requires sacrifices, like the frustration of your users.
Unfortunately those of us who are not as concerned with Apple’s policies conflicting with the declarations of the GNU license still have avi and mkv files that we would like to watch while on the go. We can’t spend all day in front of our computers. We must brave the sun and air outside sometimes.
For those times, here are some apps that are able to keep us entertained during those times, and cost no money. Though if you want to spend money, most of the apps also have premium versions with fewer ads and more features, that also come with the satisfaction of supporting these kind developers.
5) flex:player
flex:player looked pretty cool, but apparently this current version is having patent issues with some audio codecs that make watching videos with sound difficult. Unless you're deaf, you might want to wait a bit before giving this app a shot.
4) RockPlayer2
RockPlayer2 has got an interesting interface, pretty much unnecessarily so. When looking for a new media player, the look of the controls is not one of the reasons why. Of the apps discussed here, the features are comparatively limited. And most obnoxiously there is a larger than usual ad displayed uptop that begs you for $4.99 to get rid of it.
3) OPlayer Lite
OPlayer Lite’s ad is smaller than RockPlayer2’s, which gets it some points. The interface is not as obviously different as RockPlayer’s either. But, aside from a software decoding feature, there’s not much else to make it stand out.
2) Titan Player
Titan Player doesn’t have ads in the video playing window, which gets it above the competition so far. Beyond that, it seems like the only thing it does besides play videos, which might be enough for some, is a button to lock the screen and prevent it from flipping while the phone rotates.
1) iMedia Player
iMedia Player continues the “no ad while playing video” feature that won us over on Titan Player, while throwing in a video play speed feature, allowing videos to play at .5x, 1.5x and 2x normal speed, which might come in handy. Especially for some on-the-go Zapruder Film analysis.
All-in-all, it’s kind of slim pickens out there if you need a video player but don’t feel like dropping the few dollars for the pro version of one of these. Why can’t Apple and VLC just get along?
