How To Watch Almost Any Type of Video On Your iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch

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We recently covered the launch of the iOS version of VLC Media Player making life much easier for Apple users who don't want to have to convert videos to watch them on their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

While VLC seems to have cornered the market with its multi-platform video player for Macs, Windows and Linux users, another lesser known app has come to the iOS platform, in the form of OPlayer Lite, with far more features that may leave VLC in the dust. There are two versions of OPlayer available in the iTunes store, OPlayer Lite for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and OPlayerHD Lite for the iPad [iTunes link], while the VLC Media Player [iTunes link] app is compatible with all iOS devices.

How To Transfer Videos From Your Computer

The easiest and fastest way to transfer videos from your computer to your iOS device is by using your USB. Hook up your device to your computer, launch iTunes and navigate to the tab which shows all installed apps.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to 'File sharing.' Any apps that allow direct file transfers from the computer to the iOS device will be listed here. Select OPlayer Lite or VLC Player and you can add files to your video library.

Another method in which you can transfer files using OPlayer HD Lite is over the air. Connect to the same wireless network and launch OPlayer HD Lite. At the bottom of the screen, select the 'More' tab, and select Wifi Transfer.

Make a note of the IP address and enter it in your browser. You will be then be able to upload files one by one directly from your computer. Of course this is a much slower method, and has been said to affect your device's battery life. Using the USB takes about 1 minute at most to transfer files as large as 1.5GB. Be sure to keep the WiFi transfer window open as you copy files otherwise the connection will be lost.

With both VLC and OPlayer, you can close the program and resume your video at the exact point where you stopped.

How To Watch Videos From Your Inbox

If you want to watch a video sent to you via email, download the video in the native mail client. When you come to open it, if you've already installed VLC, you will be prompted to open it using VLC, or another program.

If you would prefer to use OPlayer, click on 'Open in...' and a list of available programs will be displayed. Select OPlayer and your video will launch immediately.

The main difference between VLC and OPlayer when it comes to watching videos from your inbox is that OPlayer saves them on your device whereas to play them again using VLC Player, you would have to download it to your computer first and then transfer it to your iOS device.

Why Choose OPlayer?

If your priority is functionality, OPlayer is probably better suited for you. Where OPlayer is ahead of VLC in the game is that it allows you to create playlists, and organise your videos into folders, directly on your iPad.

VLC's playback of HD video also leaves something to be desired, and is accompanied by a warning that the iPad will not be able to playback the video properly. While OPlayer handles it much better, the quality still isn't as good as you'd expect it to be.

Subtitles have been temporarily disabled in VLC Media player, so if you watch a lot of foreign films, you'd be better off using OPlayer Lite, at least for the time being.

Another major difference between the two is the extent of control you have over the video settings. With VLC, you cannot adjust your settings at all, whereas with OPlayer you have control over the aspect ratio, audio stream index, subtitle stream index and more.

OPlayer has additional features including streaming videos, an inbuilt browser and direct downloads to your iOS device.

Why Choose VLC?

If you want a little bit of eye candy, VLC will appeal to you more. While there is no organisation available in VLC, the general UI is much more appealing than OPlayer's plain appearance.

Unlike OPlayer Lite, VLC is ad-free. A small ad is featured at the top of the screen in OPlayer Lite during video playback which can be a little bit distracting.