What’s it do?
It’s a video player app for your iPhone and iPad. And like VLC before it, it plays every video file from here to the sun: AVI, MKV, WMV, OGG, FLV and more. What’s great is that you don’t have to bother converting your video files before you put it on your iPad (like you do with the stock video player), you just plug in your iPad or iPhone to your computer, drag and drop your movie file (that you might have procured from dark areas of the internet) into the It’s Playing app (under Apps Tab > File Sharing) and then watch! Seriously, it’ll transfer the movie straight to the app in no time and you can watch on your iPad right away. No fuss!
Why do we like it?
Yeah, if you were an un-lazy human being you could fire up HandBrake on your computer and then convert the files to a file type that Apple doesn’t hate but MY GOD THAT TAKES A LOT OF WORK. It’s Playing takes all those stupid steps out of the way. Also, It’s Playing lets you tweak the video file by adjusting contrast, colour, brightness, and even upping the volume on the fly. Those are biggish small tweaks that can turn an unwatchable transfer into something worth sitting down for. The non-standard video controls are admittedly a little weird (you’ll ask yourself what that weird Gemini-looking euro/pound logo looks like). There’s also gestures that let you skip around the movie and options to re-name, cut and privatise particular files. For those who missed the boat on VLC, It’s Playing a is a decent alternative.
The Best
No need to convert files!
The Worst
No Airplay
Priggle
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 12:57 PMhmmm.. ever heard of BuzzPlayer HD?
Plays everything, streams over the network. Can copy to the iPad over the network.. etc.etc. Plays every format under the sun. Has some minor issues with DVD isos, not being able to navigate DVD menus..
what about DVD isos, can this handle them – and do menus?
Simon Reidy
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 1:28 PMThen ther’s “GoodPlayer”, “OPlayer HD” and AV Player. All of which do the same thing.
I’ll try this app out, but it seems like a whole heap of hype, given its hardly the first of its kind.
JM
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 1:28 PMSeriously, please check before posing something like this. There are so many of these articles on Giz that havent bothered to check for better and more popular apps first. The RSS app of the day article was just as badly researched.
I have tried a lot and have found Goodplayer is best in my opinion because it plays all formats I need and has AC3 audio support whereas a lot of others do not. Without AC3, all DVD to AVI converted video will not play with sound as they often are encoded with AC3 audio. Otherwise I liked CineXPlayer (which does not have AC3 support).
Important to note is that no all video player apps are the same. I have found a vast difference in quality of video output (some are clearer than others), level of crashing, frame rate etc. VLC was no where near the best player when it came out so please do not use that as the benchmark – it was free but the video quality was not as good as other paid apps out at the same time.
Dan
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 2:34 PMOr Plex … which does require the Plex Media Server installed on your computer but can stream almost any video file over the network (wifi or 3G). And as it also supports AirPlay, you can use it to send MKVs from your computer to your Apple TV too.
bazuden
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 4:42 PMThis app can’t play 720p mkv’s or wmv properly, when copied directly on my iPad. Don’t waste your money. You’re better off just converting video with AVC.
soundasleep
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 12:05 AMI’ve been using MediaConnect + FlexPlayer to stream stuff off my DLNA NAS drives at home. MediConnect also let’s you download right off your DLNA server so you don’t even need to get iTunes involved!
James
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 2:26 PMWell, I’ll be thankful to you Gizmodo. I downloaded this last night after reading this, then put 42 gig of AVI tv shows and movies on my iPad and it works a damn charm.
Cheers for the heads up
Steve
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 8:19 PMStill boggles my mind that you can’t just drag-and-drop or even just go straight through the iTunes iPod app for videos that aren’t MP4. AVI’s one of the most popular file types around.