Best Video Player for IPhone
Long ago, Apple made it difficult for third-party developers to create a good media player for the iPhone. Luckily, they’ve loosened their limitations over the years and you can now get a really reliable video player with PlayerXtreme.
PlayerXtreme Media Player
Platform: iPhone and iPad Price: Free ($ 4.99 for Pro Features) Download Page
Functions
- Supports many video and audio formats: 3gp, asf, avi, divx, dv, dat, flv, gxf, m2p, m2ts, m2v, m4v, mkv, moov, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4, mpg, mpv , mt2s, mts, mxf, ogm, ogv, ps, qt, rm, rmvb, ts, vob, webm, wm, wmv
- A simple, familiar folder-based interface very similar to the Finder, which also includes several ways to browse and sort your library.
- Different ways to search your files
- Supports streaming over SMB, UPNP and Wi-Fi
- Downloading files to the application over the local network
- Open files directly from email attachments
- Excellent control over the appearance of subtitles
- Supports HD playback
- Change playback speed
- Hide folders that app guest users cannot see, but you can
- Chromecast and AirPlay support (Pro only)
- Increase the soft sound volume (Pro version only)
- Password protection to lock files (Pro version only)
Where is it best
PlayerXtreme can handle just about any file format you add to it, which means it can easily become your main video player effortlessly. It does almost everything you need for a video player: you can create playlists, add your own subtitle files, play audio in the background, play files from various sources, and customize playback in a multitude of ways. If you buy the $ 5 Pro version of the app, you can stream your videos to Apple TV or Chromecast.
PlayerXtreme is not only a reliable media player, but it also makes it easy to transfer files from your computer to your iOS device using tons of different methods. PlayerXtreme will automatically search your local network for shared folders, from where it can then download or stream any video files it finds. You can also add files from your browser, via USB, from your local NAS, and from WebDAV. This all works pretty easily, so even if you don’t consider yourself very tech-savvy, you can still stream your videos.
Where it fails
The in-app purchase model of PlayerXtreme can be a little confusing, and to be honest, most of its best features are locked up behind a paywall, so you should expect to shell out $ 5 for that. From time to time, the app will offer you a free upgrade to the Pro version if you leave a review. It’s well worth the price, though, as an in-app purchase unlocks Airplay and Chromecast support, as well as volume up, password lock, and subtitle support.
Competition
While you will find dozens of video player apps in the iTunes App Store, only a couple are worth mentioning. The most obvious one is VLC (free). If you are not interested in paying for a video player, check out VLC first. It plays a ton of video formats, syncs with the most popular cloud storage apps, and has great subtitle support. However, VLC is not perfect, some people find it a little buggy and the overall design of the app is not intuitive. VLC is also pretty outdated at the moment, as it has been renewed for almost a year since the app was updated. However, VLC is free, and if you can get past the quirks, it will do its job well.
Infuse (free / $ 6.49 / year) is probably PlayerXtreme’s biggest direct competitor. They have a similar feature set, although Infuse adds support for cloud storage services and can sync with Trackt to keep track of what shows you watch. If you have a new iPad, Infuse also supports modern features like picture-in-picture and split-screen. Infuse arguably looks better than PlayerXtreme as it relies more on large thumbnails rather than PlayerXtreme’s folder structure, but which design you prefer is more a matter of preference. Since it operates as a $ 6.49 / year subscription, the Infuse cost increases, although you can also pay a $ 13 free one-time subscription to buy it .
Plex (Free) is also worth mentioning here, although it’s not really a real media player in the same sense as the apps we’ve already talked about. Instead, Plex contacts your home media server and you can play files from there in the iOS app. Plex can play local files as well, although it’s limited to what’s in your camera roll. If you have a Plex server at home, this is an obvious choice, but if you’re only interested in playing video files on your iOS device, it won’t do you much good.
The Lifehacker App Catalog is a new and growing catalog of recommendations for the best apps and tools in a number of predefined categories. This post was updated on May 9 with a new recommendation.