CineXPlayer was one of the first apps to bring support for DivX and Xvid video playback to the Apple iPad. Now the app is also available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Unfortunately, just like the iPad version, the latest version of CineXPlayer is a bit inconsistent when attempting to play anything other than Xvid files.
While I was able to load one Xvid files which played smoothly, CineXPlayer video looked a bit jerky at times while buffering. There also aren’t a heck of a lot of options for adjusting the aspect ratio or zoom level for videos that don’t look good on an iPhone or iPod touch display.
On the other hand, another Xvid file simply wouldn’t play at all — even though it was a DVD rip I created using the same DVD backup software as I had used to create the other file.
While I was able to copy a few DivX files to my iPod touch and open them in CineXPlayer, I ran into one major problem: There was no sound. At all. If you’re watching subtitled programming this might not be a problem, but if you want to actually listen to your videos, it looks like you’ll need to stick with Xvid. It’s possible that audio from some DivX files may play properly, but none of the files I tried were fully supported.
WMV and other video formats simply aren’t supported at all.
Of course, you could always convert your DivX files to Xvid… but at that rate you might as well just convert them to H.264 files and use the default iOS video player to watch them.
Copying videos to the CineXPlayer library is also a bit of a chore. You have to plug in your phone, open iTunes, select your device from the Devices tab, choose Apps, go to the File Sharing area, and then manually add any files you want to copy to your mobile device.
You can’t delete files from iTunes, but instead have to open the CineXPlayer app, and swipe from left to right over a file name to bring up a delete button.
If you’re willing to take your chances, CineXPlayer is available from the App Store for $2. At least it’s half the price of the iPad version.
But you might be better off waiting for the developer of the VLC iPad app to port that software to the iPhone and iPod touch. It supports more media formats and generally works a lot better. It’s also free.
You can check out a few more screenshots after the break.
via Engadget
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