Ondrej Holzman It's rare to call an app magical, but what Waltr can do is truly like magic. Uploading AVI or MKV videos to iPhones and iPads has never been easier thanks to this application. Everything is a matter of a few seconds and a single move.
Uploading media to iOS devices has always been more complicated. iTunes is primarily for this, however, many have looked for and used other ways to get music and video to their iPhone and iPad. But the developer studio Softorino came up with the most simple way - it's called Walter.
For two years, developers have been researching how iOS works with media files and how they are uploaded to it. Finally, they developed a technology that overcomes all the barriers introduced so far and uploads videos and songs directly to system applications in a direct (at least to the user's eye) way. That is, where until now it was only possible via iTunes.
There were several problems with iTunes. But the main one was that they don't support all formats, so movies and series in AVI or MKV always had to be "stretched" first by another application, which converted them into the appropriate format. Only then could the user upload the video to iTunes and then to the iPhone or iPad.
The other option was to bypass iTunes entirely and install a third-party app. We can find several of them in the App Store, and formats that are not normally supported in iOS, such as the aforementioned AVI or MKV, can be added to them in various ways. Waltr, however, combines the two mentioned methods: thanks to it, you can get a normal movie in AVI to an iOS device, directly into the system application Videa.
Waltr is unique above all in that it requires virtually no operation from the user himself. You just connect your iPhone and drag the selected video into the application window. The application itself takes care of everything in the background. After two years of research, Softorino has developed a very reliable technology that bypasses system restrictions, which until now could only be similarly bypassed with a jailbreak.
Waltr supports the transfer of the following formats for their native playback on iPhones and iPads:
- Audio: MP3, CUE, WMA, M4R, M4A, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, APE, OGG.
- Video: MP4, AVI, M4V, MKV.
Waltra can therefore also be used for songs, although there are usually no such problems with them. Using their software, Softorino also demonstrated some time ago that the latest six-figure iPhones can even play 4K video, which can also be converted through their technology. However, it does not make much sense to play it, the displays of iOS devices are not ready for it, and moreover such files take up a lot of space.
While it sounds great to be able to convert videos and songs of all formats to native iOS apps completely seamlessly and easily, there are reasons not to buy the Waltr in the end. In order to be able to use the application without limits, you need pay $30 (730 crowns) for a license. Many users will certainly prefer to purchase some type of application for a fraction of that amount infuse 3, which will do the same with just a few extra steps.
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However, if you want to get rid of iTunes completely (you usually have to continue working with them even with Infuse 3), Waltr is a good solution that will prove invaluable especially when you want to get video or music onto an iPhone that isn't yours. Waltr solves otherwise unavoidable obstructions with paired iTunes in no time.
On the other hand, it may be limiting for some users that videos via Waltr are saved in the native application Videa, which has not received any care from Apple for a long time. Unlike Pictures it cannot work with files in any way and, above all, it cannot share them to other applications. But it's up to everyone how they work with videos.
For Czech users, it was interesting news that in the last update (1.8) subtitles were also supported. You just need to drag them along with the video file using Walther, but unfortunately iOS cannot handle Czech characters. If you would know about the way in the application Videa also display Czech characters in the subtitles, let us know in the comments.
Great, but I still have to upload it to the Cloud via iTunes. And when I start iTunes sync, I lose audio/video recorded using other apps. So nothing for me :-(
I would love to be able to play a video on the iPad or view the data I have on a network drive without downloading it to the device. Or download, but via the iOS interface. It's nice to have an Air port with a network drive when it's invisible to the iPad.
eg buzz player?
[however, this does not address the "visibility" of the network drive; I am answering the first part of the post, because it is not so clear from the assignment what the client's problem is in the end... ;-) ]
Through OPlayerHD or nPlayer, I can access a network drive (Synology) via the SMB protocol and play movies and series directly from it without the need to download.
And of course downloading is also possible, in case I want to play the content offline - either downloading via iTunes or downloading apps directly via WiFi.
I am completely satisfied with nPlayer, it handles everything via the SMB network, FTP, Cloud and others, without the need to upload a movie or music to the device (iPad, iPhone). Although it is a paid application, it works as it should (plays many formats including audio!).
Hmm, that probably won't appeal to me. I use AVPlayer and I'm satisfied... Launching iTunes and adding a file is a matter of a moment...
I don't know if it will work for these purposes, but in general, the file with subtitles must have UTF-8 encoding (this file can be opened in Notepad (Windows) and just re-saved with the new encoding. And Czech is in the world.
it would be great, but we need an iPhone with 512GB or better 1TB. mp4 are standard
Very nice app :-)
otherwise, I converted the subtitles via the Terminal and the Videos application in iOS displays them just fine, even with Czech characters :-)