VLC App finally shows Apple how videos should be played on the iPhone/iPod Touch and why you should get it!

Applidium, the company which brought the widely popular, play-it-all VLC Player to the iPad has finally made a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The new version supports more video formats, which is the base of the popularity of the player and a much faster decoding process. It was a surprise to the fans since it was thought so that this app would not make it through Apple's ultra-strict apps-approval process. The number one issue is that this app is a direct competitor of Apple's native Videos app on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

So when the news broke out that the app is finally approved on 25 Oct 2010, the world rejoiced. Including me. ^.^

The new VLC Player App is able to play most video formats and has a faster decoding process. It is only available for iPhone 3GS, 4 and iPod Touch 3G and 4G.

I bought an iPod Touch 3G in July this year. I usually stay clear of Apple products but I decided to splash out extra money to get one for a few reasons, the main reason being the convenience of watching videos on the go, especially on my way to school. Previously, I used to watch videos on my PSP Phat aka PSP 1000. While it was sufficient for me, I didn't like the bulk and weight of it and that I had to convert the files to an MP4 format. It was just so troublesome.

I was enticed by the large screen and thinness of the iPod Touch. Unfortunately, I haven't been thorough in my research on the video playback. After I bought it, I realised that while the audio/music app was nicely streamlined, the videos app was an absolutely pain to use. Video conversion was still needed before transferring the video onto the iPod and the onboard conversion-process in iTunes was useless. Furthermore, the video had to be specifically supported by Apple's Quicktime before it can be converted. So no MPG or MKV or other popular formats. Therefore I had to download converting software and therein lies another problem, most of these softwares do not convert into the proper aspect ratio. Letterboxing for widescreen videos are not automatically added, thus making the videos stretched. Eventually I managed to find one that could mass-convert videos with letterboxing, but the converted videos have errors most of the time.

Additionally, the video app on the iPod Touch has no sorting methods at all. At all. I have like 250 videos in my videos app now and the only way to sort the videos is to rename them individually before transferring as they only appear alphabetically. The video filenames also do appear in full, which is a problem when I have a few videos in a series with the same title except towards the back. For example, The Simpsons S16E03 - xxxxxxx. The app would truncate to The Simpsons S16.... So if I had episodes 1-22 from the Simpsons Season 16, I would see 22 video files with the same name. Truly irritating. There's also no way to sort the newest added video other than look at the green dot to indicate if it's been viewed or not.

To make matters worse, there are no substitute video player apps on the AppStore as Apple does not approve apps which "replicate functions" with other apps, as stated in the app-approval guidelines. In other words, they don't want any app to compete with their own. So in the end, I just gave up on watching videos on the iPod.

All hope seems lost but suddenly, the VLC Player app surfaced on 25 Oct 2010 and I immediately went to download it. I admit I was a bit suspicious that the king of video player has been toned down to get approved. Boy was I wrong and what can I say, it truly is a play-it-all video player, even on iDevices. I need not convert my video files anymore. What a relief! AVIs and MKVs now play smoothly. Transferring videos is as easy as drag-drop-sync. Now that VLC is on my iPod, I can chuck the Apple's video app away into oblivion. Although there is no sorting options too, at least I can see the full names of the videos and the time needed to convert the files are gone. That itself is a huge convenience to me already and I am finally using the iPod Touch for the reason I bought it in the first place. Also within 2 days of its release, the app is among the top 3 most-popular apps in the AppStore. That shows how many people hated the Apple's video app.

Conclusion: DOWNLOAD THE VLC APP NOW!