After taking CineXPlayer for a disappointing test drive this morning I decided to see if I could find another app that would let me watch Xvid and DivX movies on my iPod touch. I was pleasantly surprised to discover OPlayer, an app which not only handles those formats, but also MKV, WMV, and other video formats.
Even better, unlike CineXPlayer, OPlayer offers a free, ad-supported version of its app so you can try it out without spending any money before deciding whether to plunk down $2.99 for the full version. (The iPad version of OPlayer costs $4.99).
The video quality was pretty good with a few Xvid and WMV files I tried… but you’ll have best results with standard definition video. I tried a few HD DivX files and playback was a little choppy. That makes sense, since the iPhone and iPod touch feature hardware acceleration for H.264 video playback, but not for the other formats OPlayer can handle.
If video playback is choppy, you can enable a Skip Frame feature which may improve performance. You can also adjust the screen aspect ratio in the settings, although there’s no simple way to adjust the aspect ratio while a video is playing, which means you might have to spend a little time going back and forth until you get things right.
Still, for now OPlayer is hands down the best third party video player for the iPhone and iPod touch available today, at least when it comes to support for a wide range of video codecs.
The app also supports MKV, RMVB, MOV, and 3GP video files and lets you transfer files to your device either using iTunes or using the OPlayer tools including a feature that lets you download videos from the web or an FTP server. You can also transfer files to your mobile device over a WiFi connection.
You can check out a few more screenshots after the break.
+1 for your fine choice in musicals ;)
Using VM Player you can not only download, but also play movies directly from network share via SMB, FTP and UPnP