PowerPlayer - Powerful iOS Media Player for 1080P MKV Playback

This article is translated to Serbo-Croatian language by Vera Djuraskovic on Webhostinggeeks.com.

FAQ #1: What is the relationship between the PowerPlayer and the GoodPlayer?

PowerPlayer is meant to be GoodPlayer's brother,not successor. We will maintain and update both GoodPlayer app and PowerPlayer app at the same time.

The first reason is that the new H.264 hardware decoding. We find a new way to decode H.264/AVC video. However, since this decoding method is very complicated, we cannot find a way to use this H.264 hardware decoding in GoodPlayer.

The second reason is that there are some issues and feature requests cannot be fulfilled in GoodPlayer app because of the architecture issue. PowerPlayer uses a total new architecture under the hood. So for some issues that cannot be fixed in the GoodPlayer, we can easily fix or implement it in the new PowerPlayer app.

Yes. GoodPlayer is still a very important product to us. We will maintain and update both GoodPlayer app and PowerPlayer app at the same time.

FAQ #4: Will all the GoodPlayer's existed features be available in PowerPlayer in the future?

No. PowerPlayer is just a totally new app. Please just treat it as a new app. We will add lots of features to it. But it is impossible to have all the GoodPlayer features because of the different architecture.

FAQ #5: Will the new H.264 hardware decoding be used in GoodPlayer in the future?

The 3 main differences between GoodPlayer and PowerPlayer are: H.264 Hardware Decoder (the software codes are different too), the playback framework and the streaming playback framework. Because of these 3 basic differences, they introduces many detailed differences.

Here are some detailed differences between GoodPlayer and PowerPlayer:
1 the MKV/avi/ts/flv/f4v H.264 Hardware decoding is only for PowerPlayer, if your main purpose is high definition H.264 playback, PowerPlayer should be better.
2 mov/mp4/m4v is special, GoodPlayer can use MP4 hardware decoding to play them. And PowerPlayer will add mp4 hardware decoding mode in the future. In the long run, mov/mp4/m4v support is the same for both apps.
3 GoodPlayer is good at the streaming features, if your main purpose is all kinds of streaming features, GoodPlayer is better.
4 In the next 1.2 version, PowerPlayer can support HTTP/RTSP/MMSH streaming, it also will support UPnP client in 1.2 version.
5 For other streaming such as SMB/FTP/SFTP , PowerPlayer cannot support them. PowerPlayer also cannot support WebDAV streaming, although it is HTTP streaming, but the auth part of WebDAV gives PowerPlayer trouble.
6 PowerPlayer will support Hi10P 10-bit H.264 in 1.2 version. GoodPlayer cannot support Hi10P correctly now.
7 For HTTP streaming, PowerPlayer supports H.264 hardware decoding too.
8 For High Quality Mode, PowerPlayer supports high quality RMVB/RealVideo too. GoodPlayer cannot support high quality RMVB/RealVideo
9 In 1.2 version, PowerPlayer supports multi core decoding for RMVB/RealVideo. GoodPlayer can only use single core decoding for RMVB/RealVideo

In short, PowerPlayer is good at H.264 related video playback,especially mkv/avi/flv/f4v/ts/tp. GoodPlayer is good at streaming. If you are happy at GoodPlayer now, just stay with it. If you want better mkv/avi/flv/f4v/ts/tp H.264 video playback, you can try PowerPlayer.

FAQ #7: Will a specific feature in GoodPlayer be ported to PowerPlayer in the future?

We will try. For the portable modules and features, we will port them from GoodPlayer to PowerPlayer. However, because of the architecture differences, some features cannot be ported to PowerPlayer.

Click the Wi-Fi button in the PowerPlayer application, then use web
browser or FTP client of pc to upload the video to the PowerPlayer application;

Youtube “ How to use File Sharing On iTunes”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ-LcjC7Zww

Or check this youtube link “Import Documents from iTunes File Sharing”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsGrhExesx0

How to copy files using File Sharing

Connect iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone to your computer using the included Dock Connector to USB cable.
Launch iTunes 9.1 or later on your computer.
Select your iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone from the Devices section of iTunes.
Click the Apps tab and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Note: If you do not see the File Sharing section shown in the image below, your iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone does not have any apps that support File Sharing.
Under the File Sharing section, you’ll find a list of apps currently installed on your iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone that support File Sharing. Select an app to view a list of the files associated with that app on your iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone.

#9 I bought PowerPlayer, but finds it is not the app what I need, what to do?

If the PowerPlayer could not meet your requirements, you could request the refund. Please contact Apple as soon as possible, since the refund is a limited time only option provided by Apple. Sorry for the inconvenience.

#10 Sometimes the downloaded/uploaded files cannot be found in the PowerPlayer iTunes File Sharing?

For iTunes/iCloud Sync, we have already given an option to the end users in the PowerPlayer settings. PowerPlayer->Settings->File Manager->iTunes Sync, the default is "off" , when this setting is "on", the media files uploaded to PowerPlayer will sync with iTunes. When this setting is "off", the media files in the PowerPlayer will not sync with iTunes. For the iOS 5, when the setting is "on", the media files in PowerPlayer will sync with iCloud, when the setting is "off", the media files in PowerPlayer will not sync with iCloud.

Please Note: for the first time the iTunes Sync is turned off, the most safe testing way is to exit the desktop iTunes , and restart the desktop iTunes , then sync the iOS device with iTunes. It was found sometimes the iTunes Sync setting does not work immediately, maybe it has something to do with the cache.

#10 How to use srt subtitle support in PowerPlayer?

During HTTP streaming, the app will automatically check the app's
root folder(the default folder for "iTunes File Sharing" and Wi-Fi
sharing file uploading) and the app's Download folder(the default
folder for PowerPlayer downloader) for subtitle files.
So please first upload/download the subtitle files to the above 2
folders. If the movie name is filename.avi , the subtitle file name is
something like "filename.en.srt" or "filename.fr.srt". If there are
more than one subtitle tracks, swipe fingers up/down on playing, to
change the subtitle or turn off subtitle on the fly.You can change
other subtitle setting in PowerPlayer--->Settings--->Subtitle Setting,
you can set subtitle encoding, font size, etc...

1. Just upload the srt subtitle files with the same name but
different file extensions to the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch (for local
files playback, please upload the subtitle files to the same directory
with media files; for network streaming, please upload subtitle file
to root folder or Download folder)
2. If the movie name is filename.avi , the subtitle file name is
something like "filename.en.srt" or "filename.fr.srt", then play back the avi file ,
the subtitle will show up
3 . After the subtitle is okay, you can change other subtitle setting
in PowerPlayer --->Settings--->Subtitle Setting, you can set encoding,
font size, etc...

Manually subtitle selection supported, click the playback control
information button, then click "Select Subtitle". This feature is
useful when the automatic subtitle match does not work. For example
some UPnP servers will change the filename strings in the URL, so
the automatic subtitle match would not work.

#11 For the media playback, there is no audio and the media cannot be played back?

PowerPlayer 1.7 removed 3 audio supports(AC-3(A52), E-AC-3 and TrueHD(MLP) ). Please use free desktop application MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/) to get the detailed media audio information .Thanks. We have got a roughly pricing for the audio patent support, so far, the given pricing is too high for our GoodPlayer/PowerPlayer apps. So, unless we can get a lower pricing for the audio patent, we can not add these 3 audio codecs supports back.

For Hi10P H.264 video, please first turn off "H.264 Hardware Decoding" setting and play the media.

The following 2 links will help on how to backup current app version
to a local .ipa files by iTunes. Once you backup an app to local .ipa
file, you can roll back to that version at any time.

Question : After upgrading, the new GoodPlayer/PowerPlayer does not
work, how to downgrade to the older GoodPlayer/PowerPlayer?

Answer: Please check the following 2 links, the older version need to
be backed up by iTunes first. Or else there is no official way to roll
back to older version.

How to reinstall previous versions of Apps on iPhone
http://bharter.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/how-to-reinstall-previous-versions-of-apps-on-iphone/

Recover Older Versions of iPhone Apps After Updating
http://gigaom.com/apple/recover-older-versions-of-iphone-apps-after-updating/

#12 How to set the NFS server so the GoodPlayer NFS client can access it?
Please note that NFS server side must allow regular (non-root) users to connect to your NFS shared folders!!!
So far, we only tested NFS client with OS X NFS server.
NFS server setting for OS X: edit the "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.nfsd.plist" file. Open it and add the option "-N" to the startup parameters as follows:
<array>
<string>/sbin/nfsd</string>
<string>-N</string>
</array>

The 1080P MKV can be played back smoothly on iOS device now. With the help of H.264 hardware acceleration decoding, PowerPlayer can play back 1080P/720P H.264 video-based MKV/AVI/3GP/MP4 on some iOS devices.

Features:
✔ 1080P and 720P 30fps H.264/AVC video-based MKV/AVI/3GP/MP4 supported on iPad 2, new iPad and iPhone 4S
✔ 720P 30fps H.264/AVC video-based MKV/AVI/3GP/MP4 supported on iPad 1,iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4
✔ H.264 hardware acceleration decoding also supports other fie formats, such as F4V/FLV/M4V/MOV/...
✔ "Open In" feature supported: open video and audio files from Mail email attachments , Safari web browser ,and other 3rd party apps
✔ 3ga,3gp,aac,amr,asf,avi,dat,dv,f4v,flac,flv,gsm,gxf,hlv,m1v,m2p,m2t,m2ts,m2v,m4v,m4r,m4a,mka,mkv,mod,moov,mov,mp1,mp2,mp3,mp4,mpa,mpe,mpeg,mpeg1,mpeg2,mpeg4,mpg,mpv,mt2s,mts,mxf,oga,ogg,ogm,ogg,ps,qt,rm,rmvb,tp,ts,vob,webm,wm,wma,wav,wmv file formats supported
✔ 3 screen modes: "Crop on Fullscreen", "Fit on Fullscreen" and "1:1"
✔ srt,ass,ssa,mkv embedded subtitle supported
✔ No compromise in H.264 video quality by hardware decoding, generally hardware decoding has a better H.264 video quality than the software decoding
✔ Swipe fingers up/down on playing, to change the subtitle or turn off subtitle on the fly (for media files with subtitles)
✔ For file deletion, in thumbnail view, long press the thumbnail to get the Delete option; and in the file listing view, swipe left/right on the file name to get the Delete option
✔ Subtitle font, font size and font color customization
✔ Audio track selection supported, swipe fingers left/right on playing, to change the audio track on the fly (for media files with multiple audio tracks)
✔ FTP/HTTP server for Wi-Fi file sharing
✔ Folder supported
✔ Retina display supported
✔ Hi10P(High 10 Profile, 10-bit H.264/AVC) supported, please note H.264 Hardware Decoding does not support Hi10P. So the "H.264 Hardware Decoding" setting needs to be turn off for Hi10P playback. Only software H.264 decoder supports Hi10P.
✔ TV out/VGA out supported , HDMI TV-out and Video Mirroring supported, it is for iPad & iPhone 4 & iPod Touch 4 only
✔ Multi Core Decoding for software decoder added, such as MPEG4, RealVideo(RM/RMVB) and software H.264 decoder
✔ HTTP/RTSP/MMSH/RTMP streaming supported
✔ Built-in Downloader & Browser
✔ File manger added. In main view or file listing view, in the right of search input field, click the "Edit", it will go into file manager mode. File manger supports folder creation/password protection/delete, files copy/move/delete, and "Open in" by other apps from PowerPlayer
✔ UPnP/SMB/CIFS/WebDAV client supports H.264 Hardware Decoding
✔ Background Audio supported
✔ FTP/SFTP client, please note no FTP/SFTP streaming support, only FTP/SFTP downloader support
✔ MSS2 and MSS1 video codec supported, MSS2 and MSS1 video codec are usually used in .WMV file container
✔ TSCC2/TSC2 video codec supported,TSCC2/TSC2 video codec is usually used in .AVI file container

Notice: no AC-3/DTS/E-AC-3/TrueHD audio support!

Contacts information:
1. Support site: http://hustmobile.com/powerplayer/
2. Email: [email protected]

What's New in Version 3.8

1. Chromecast supported, iOS version 6 and later needed for Chromecast
support. And Chromecast only supports limited media types supported by
Google Cast. Supported Media for Google Cast:
https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media

What's New in Version 3.7

What's New in Version 3.6

AFP(Apple Filing Protocol, AppleTalk Filing Protocol) supported, both downloading and streaming

What's New in Version 3.5

What's New in Version 3.4

Google Drive, SkyDrive and Box supported, downloading feature only, “network icon”—> “Google Drive”, “SkyDrive”or “Box”

What's New in Version 3.3

What's New in Version 3.2

What's New in Version 3.1

What's New in Version 2.9

What's New in Version 2.8

What's New in Version 2.7

1 FTP and SMB clients add a new optional "Alias" field
2 Added a new setting: GoodPlayer --> Settings -->Others --> "Playable Files Only" for SMB/WebDAV/FTP/SFTP/NFS client

What's New in Version 2.5

NFS(Network File System) client added for both streaming and downloading.
Please note that NFS server side must allow regular (non-root) users
to connect to your NFS shared folders!!!
So far, we only tested NFS client with OS X NFS server.
NFS server setting for OS X: edit the
"/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.nfsd.plist" file. Open it and
add the option "-N" to the startup parameters.
For the details, please check FAQ #12 of
http://www.hustmobile.com/powerplayer/index.html

What's New in Version 2.4

What's New in Version 2.3

1 SMB/CIFS streaming playback supported
2 UPnP/SMB/WebDAV client now generates the m3u playlist according to the sorting criteria

What's New in Version 2.1

Notice: no DTS/AC-3/E-AC-3/TrueHD audio support! Back up older version before upgrading
1 PowerPlayer now can work as a UPnP server, click the "Wi-Fi" button of the PowerPlayer, the UPnP server will be up and running
2 For UPnP client, add a "Single Click to Play" setting

What's New in Version 2.0

Notice: no DTS/AC-3/E-AC-3/TrueHD audio support! Back up older version before upgrading
1 Camera Roll video playback supported (PowerPlayer-->Bottom Right button-->Camera Roll)
2 HTTPS downloading supported

What's New in Version 1.9

Notice: no AC-3/E-AC-3/TrueHD audio support! Backup older version before upgrading

1 Camera Roll video playback supported (PowerPlayer-->Network-->Camera Roll)
2 HTTPS downloading supported

What's New in Version 1.8

1. Gesture customization support added
2. Add an option to set Fast Forward/Rewind step value in Settings, please check PowerPlayer-->Settings-->Gestures and Additional Gestures to set gestures for Fast Forward/Rewind

Notice: no AC-3/E-AC-3/TrueHD audio support!

What's New in Version 1.7

!!! Back up older PowerPlayer version before upgrading, please check the following update log first!!!
1 Please note: due to patent reasons, the AC-3(A52), E-AC-3 and TrueHD(MLP) audio supports are removed from this PowerPlayer 1.7 version. Please back up older PowerPlayer version before upgrading!!!
2 iPhone 5 and iOS 6 supported

What's New in Version 1.6

1. MSS2 and MSS1 video codec supports added, MSS2 and MSS1 video codec are usually used in .WMV file container
2. TSCC2/TSC2 video codec support added,TSCC2/TSC2 video codec is usually used in .AVI file container
3. The .rar file format decompressing supported. Upload/download rar/zip file to PowerPlayer, then go to PowerPlayer file manger( In main view or file listing view, in the right of search input field, click the "Edit"), click the rar/zip file, select "Decompress" from the pop-up menu

What's New in Version 1.5

1 Subtitle outline effects supported. PowerPlayer -->Settings --> Subtitle Setting --> Outline Color to set it. The default is off
2 Subtitle supports more fonts, such as bold fonts

What's New in Version 1.4

1 MKV embedded subtitle support improved, MKV embedded subtitle tracks can be selected by swiping up/down. HTTP streaming MKV embedded subtitle is supported
2 HTTP/UPnP streaming supports .srt subtitle. Please first upload/download the subtitle files to PowerPlayer app. If the movie name is filename.avi , the subtitle file name is something like "filename.en.srt" or "filename.fr.srt".Click the playback control information button, then click "Select Subtitle". This subtitle selection feature also applies to local playback.
3 the .3ga file format supported

What's New in Version 1.3

1 MKV embedded subtitle support improved
2 Background Audio supported
3 SMB/CIFS client added, no SMB streaming support
4 WebDAV client added, no WebDAV streaming support
5 FTP client added, no FTP streaming support
6 SFTP client added, no SFTP streaming support
7 "Direct Streaming URL" feature added, supports HTTP, RTSP, MMSH,
RTMP streaming
8 "Home Page" setting to set up the default page of built-in browser
9 Adds a "Maximum Resolution" option for "TV-Out Resolution" setting,
this item will use the maximum available device resolution. For
"TV-Out Resolution", the "Default" setting will use the minimum
available device resolution
10 Lots of localization added, thanks again to all the help on localization

What's New in Version 1.2

1. Retina Display support for video output added, this improved the video quality for iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and new iPad
2. Performance improved
3. High Quality Mode added for software decoding, please note that H.264 Hardware Decoding does not use this setting, H.264 Hardware Decoding will only use high quality mode. The default is off. Please only turn on it when the iOS device has enough processing power, such as iPad 2/new iPad playing a standard definition media file
4. "H.264 Hardware Decoding" setting added, the default is on. When it is off, the app will use software H.264 decoding instead.
5. Hi10P(High 10 Profile, 10-bit H.264/AVC) supported, please note H.264 Hardware Decoding does not support Hi10P. So the "H.264 Hardware Decoding" setting needs to be turn off for Hi10P playback. Only software H.264 decoder supports Hi10P.
6. The .gsm file format supported
7. File manger added. In main view or file listing view, in the right of search input field, click the "Edit", it will go into file manager mode. File manger supports folder creation/password protection/delete, files copy/move/delete, and "Open in" by other apps from PowerPlayer
8. HTTP streaming supported. HTTP streaming supports H.264 Hardware Decoding
9. Built-in Downloader & Browser added
10. UPnP Client added, since UPnP Client uses HTTP streaming, so it supports H.264 Hardware Decoding too
11. Music playback improved
12. TV out/VGA out supported , HDMI TV-out and Video Mirroring supported, it is for iPad & iPhone 4 & iPod Touch 4 only.
13. TV-Out resolution setting added, from 640*480 to 1920*1080
14. Multi Core Decoding for software decoder added, such as MPEG4, RealVideo(RM/RMVB) and software H.264 decoder. This setting will only be available for iPad 2/new iPad/iPhone 4S and future multi core iOS devices. The default is on. When it is on, some video decoding will use multi core concurrently to improve the performance greatly. When it is off, all the decoding only uses single core to get more stability. Please note that it is recommended to set it to on. Only for those media files that have issue with multi core decoding, set it to off.

What's New in Version 1.1
1 Audio track selection support added, swipe fingers left/right on playing, to change the audio track on the fly (for media files with multiple audio tracks)
2 "Open In" feature supported: open video and audio files from Mail email attachments , Safari web browser ,and other 3rd party apps
3 FTP server for Wi-Fi file sharing added
4 Folder support added

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.