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<p><img src="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/cinexplayer.png" alt="" title="cinexplayer" width="125" height="126" class="floatright" />This app has been generating quite a bit of interest over the past few days. Why? This isn&#8217;t the first app to play movies not supported by Apple &#8211; if you&#8217;ve jailbroken your iPad, you already have access to VLC4iphone, openstreamer and YXflash. </p>
<p>But now Apple has allowed an app onto the App Store that can play DivX and Xvid. No jailbreak required.</p>
<p>This is an interesting development, no doubt, but how does the app work in reality? Does it play files well, and does it suck battery?</p>
<p>Read on for my experiences with this app so far, plus (in a first for me), a video walkthrough!</p>
<p><span id="more-4041"></span>This app was released by <a href="http://cinexplayer.com/">NXP Software</a> a few days ago, and has generated quite a splash. Not only does it enable you to watch DivX and Xvid movies on your iPad <em>without converting them first</em>, but the app is free!</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a video of CineXPlayer in action, showing the basic functionality:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/2010/08/app-review-cinexplayer-for-ipad/"><em>Click here to view the embedded video.</em></a></p>
<p>If you quite the app mid-way through watching a movie, it&#8217;ll resume where you left off when you open the app again.</p>
<p>Seeing as this is doing in software what Apple does in hardware with .mp4 files, the player works very well. Decoding in software does mean a slightly higher battery hit though &#8211; for an hour&#8217;s viewing, my battery indicator dropped from 100% to 86%. Mind you, Apple rates the iPad for 10 hours of video playback (using their own hardware decoding), so that&#8217;s not bad.</p>
<p><strong>File support</strong></p>
<p>I&#8217;m not sure of the exact specifications of the video that this app currently supports &#8211; there&#8217;s no mention of maximum resolution or filesize. The developers have made it clear that they don&#8217;t support newer file formats such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska">MKV</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding">AAC</a> &#8211; <em>yet</em>. </p>
<p><strong>What about the 2Gb limit?</strong></p>
<p>On the iPhone, apps are limited to a 2Gb sandbox &#8211; so for any app, you can&#8217;t use more than 2Gb of data. But with the iPad, the sandbox is <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2953052/what-is-the-maximum-sandbox-size-on-ipad">only limited by the amount of storage on the device</a>. </p>
<p>What does this technical gubbins mean? It means you can put as many movies into CineXPlayer as you have space on your iPad, making it a viable alternative to Apple&#8217;s built-in Videos app.</p>
<p><strong>Future Development</strong></p>
<p>I&#8217;m quite surprised that Apple has allowed this on the App Store. But if they let it remain, what could we see?</p>
<ul>
<li>Support for more file formats</li>
<li>Removal of the top bar, to provide true full screen video</li>
<li>A paid version with more features, perhaps support for folders</li>
<li>Hopefully a change to the user interface</li>
<li><strong>iPhone version???</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>I&#8217;d also love to see the app become network-capable, removing the need to transfer files via iTunes. But that would kill the battery, I&#8217;ll bet.</p>
<p>All in all, this is a great app, which removes the hassle of having to convert video specifically for the iPad. Grab it now, just in case it disappears from the App Store!</p>
<p><strong>CineXPlayer</strong><br />
Version reviewed: 1.1<br />
Category: Utilities<br />
Developer: NXP Software<br />
Current Price: Free<br />
Platforms:  iPad<br />
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id384098375?mt=8">UK App Store Link</a></p>
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