IPad app

[Bill]

What is the best app to use on an iPad2?? Thank you

[Paul]

Several to choose from - AirPlayer, 8player, media:connect, ArcMC, Player Xtreme HD. There are device profiles in Mezzmo for most of these apps. Go to the Media Devices dialog in Mezzmo to set the device profile for best performance.

[rbcrewser]

Just a heads-up however, several of those mentioned by Paul in their most recent version aren't capable of providing sounds with some file formats due to licensing issues. Make sure before you purchase something you read comments for ALL versions as several of these app creators have managed to push negative comments for lack of support to the back. E.g. 8Player after version 2.8 is pretty much useless for the majority of avi files if you want sound. And conveniently they only show "changes" back to version 2.8.1 so you can't see their "update comments" that it removes codecs. You can only discover that if you search in iTunes for "most critical" and "all versions". Another popular one OPlayer HD became essentially obsolete after 2.0.04

[Paul]

Thanks for sharing this, rbcrewser.

[Gus]

What is the best app to use on an iPad2?? Thank you

For what it's worth, i use XBMC, which plays everything i throw at it without transcoding or conversion, with full frame rate, and Mezzmo handles it with ease.

While it does need a jailbroken iPad, it gives you native MKV support with hardware acceleration. Apple wont allow app store developers to use the hardware acceleration unless the media is MP4. So while all the app store apps will say they support MKV and others, it will only be under software acceleration; only MP4 files will be supported with hardware acceleration. This is important for HD content and frame rates.
In my experience this means only MP4 files play smoothly, most other formats in 720p and above have some kind of frame rate/drop issues.
Almost all my content is MKV and i dont want the burden of having to convert/transcode files so a native media player is the only way i would want to go.

I know jailbraking isnt for all, but for me the benefits outway the limits set on app developers.

Cheers
Gus

[Paul]

Thank for sharing your iPad streaming experience, Gus. Useful knowledge for iPad/iPhone owners.