[shaunj66]

iPlayer hands-on impressions GBAtemp exclusive!

We've got our hands on the new iPlayer! A new dedicated media player for the Nintendo DS. This flash cart doesn't do gaming, but its built in CPU has other plans. This slot-1 cart promises to play various video formats without the need to spend time converting them first, which means no more DPG videos. Is this a step in the right direction, or will you be better off sticking to DPGs and Moonshell? Do you really want to watch your DivX, XviD (etc) videos on your DS screen? While we write up the full GBAtemp review, check out our quick hands-on impressions and see what we think so far!  Hands-on impressions  Discuss

[shaunj66]

iPlayer Hands-On Impressions

The iPlayer is a slot-1 media player cart that, besides homebrew, doesn't have any ROM loading functionality. The iPlayer is solely intended for playing media files and homebrew, unlike other flash kits on the market that just use this marketing as a ruse to cover their other possible intentions.

Even though most flash kits on the market support media playback, their functionality is often limited to a handful of audio codecs and DPG video - a video format that is optimised for the DS. All DPG videos must be converted on the users PC using software before copying across to what ever slot-1 cart you are using. This is required because the DS CPU is simply not powerful enough to handle playback of the usual file formats you'll find online videos distributed in.

To combat this issue, the iPlayer has a built in CPU and extra RAM that enables it to decode various file formats on the fly, thus allowing the end user to view them back on the DS without prior conversion.

The iPlayer supports a variety of codecs including DivX, Xvid, Quicktime, Windows Media video, Realmedia, MPEG, ASF, VOB and Flash video. Other formats actually work, but are either unstable or just playback at a speed too slow to watch (see MP4, h264 etc.). MKV container formats are not available for playback when viewing files under the 'Video' menu but can still be loaded under the 'Files' menu, though most heavy duty formats in such containers, such as h264 for example, are simply not able to run at a decent speed. And for files with multiple audio tracks, only the primary audio track will play. You can not switch between audio tracks. Regarding subtitle support; contained and external subtitle files are not supported.

The majority of standard formats such as XviD, Realmedia etc. unless encoded at a ridiculously high bit rate actually play back surprisingly well. There are a few dropped frames and I've experienced a few sudden skips, but these are far and few between. Audio is also very good, and sound is outputted in stereo on the DS speakers, but the volume is ridiculously low when not using headphones. Fortunately you can increase the volume percentage to 200% to make it play at a level that's comfortable to listen to, but even at that volume it's still only equal to that of most DS games.

Video quality is very good and actually looks rather stunning on the DS Lite/DSi LCD screens, even with the limited colour palette. A good quality video file will look very crisp and clear (even so much that it makes the video compression artifacts so much more obvious!). Video plays back on the top screen, while the bottom screen shows the standard player controls and file info. The screens backlight turns off after a while to focus attention to the top screen. Regarding video frame size, you can choose to make the file play in its native aspect ratio (which, for widescreen movies makes it look ridiculously small), or you can set it to stretch the video window to fill the DS screen, but then this makes widescreen videos look too stretched. There is no option to view widescreen videos in 4:3 mode by cropping to the centre.

I was actually quite impressed at the iPlayer's ability to keep the video and audio synced while I watched a few sample clips. That was, until I started seeking back and forth within the video using either the d-pad or on screen slider. The audio and video then become separated by about a second and make watching quite frustrating, and will stay that way until you completely restart the video. Whether or not this is dependant on the file codec, bit rate or even the speed of the micro SD card is still unclear.

Another feature I assumed would be present, but was surprised to not see, was a bookmark feature, to save your position when watching a long film or podcast for example.

Audio playback works just as expected and is fine. The formats tested so far include MP3, WAV, OGG, Ape and WMA which all work fine.

DLDI supported homebrew is supported and is automatically patched. Soft-reset is supported.

The Settings menu allows you to change Brightness, Language (Eng/Chi), Skin, Backlight fade time, DLDI patching and soft-reset.

The iPlayer is built off of Acekard 2 hardware and firmware. The GUI is nice and clean and works well, but it would be nice if it showed more advanced details on the files you are playing, such as ID3 tags, codec, bit rate etc. The touch screen responsiveness of the GUI is less than accurate and it sometimes takes several taps of an item to get it to take effect.

Overall, first impressions are pretty good. The cart does what it says on the tin, and does it fairly well. While it may choke on higher bit rate files or certain file formats, it plays a wide variety well (Xvid, DivX, RM) and the ease of use really makes up for the lack of features. Hopefully a software upgrade could further improve file performance and fix issues such as sync-loss after tracking, audio volume and GUI responsiveness issues. The team have told me they do indeed plan to improve the software and our taking our criticism seriously.

This was just a quick hands-on impressions, and we plan to release our full written review some time in the future. Stay tuned to GBAtemp.net for the latest exclusive news and information on the latest DS hardware.

Note: This is a production sample iPlayer. The label is a temporary one and is subject to change, as is the plastic casing.

Quick messy hands on video (sorry)

[NeSchn]

Oooo looks sexy.

[wchill]

I WANT!
No seriously. But it'd be awesome if they rereleased the iPlayer when/if DSi mode becomes unlocked so that we have even greater potential than before.

[Toni Plutonij]

Thanks VERY MUCH shaun

Answered all my questions I had for now! Looks very good and promising!

[FireEmblemGuy]

Very cool, if I ever re-upgrade from the Phat I'll be looking into this. I'd like to know the price range for this, though, although I guess it won't be more expensive then a new MP4/MP5 players.

[raulpica]

Thanks for the vid, Shaun!

Overall? It's MORE THAN AWESOME

Too bad to see how it fares with h264, but other than that, it is incredible!
With this the DS is officially more powerful than a PSP in the media department

This post has been edited by raulpica: Jun 16 2009, 01:05 AM

[Splych]

Awesomeee~! That is so freakin awesome ^^

I wants one... But... Sticker is sorta plain xD

[TeenDev]

Hopefully they release some sort of library to allow us to take advantage of this extra CPU. Unfortunately, I do not have a working slot-1 in my DS so I wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

[Nerdii]

Hopefully they release some sort of library to allow us to take advantage of this extra CPU. Unfortunately, I do not have a working slot-1 in my DS so I wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

That's sad man!!!

Anyway, best thing ever!! I've got hardly any money, so it better be cheap!!!

[wolfmanz51]

Meh unless the Extra power can be used for home brew I'll stick with Moonshell 2 it has more features and better video playback (after conversion) plus In moon shell I can read books while listening to music

[Zarxrax]

Some of the videos were not playing at the correct aspect ratio. Is there any way to correct the aspect ratio during playback?

Also, I wonder if this is capable of playing h264 video if you reencode it to the DS' native resolution first?

*Ah, nevermind, I noticed now that you can change the AR.

This post has been edited by Zarxrax: Jun 16 2009, 01:30 AM

[Islay]

What the processes power/ battery needs ?

p.s: I saw no subs in the video, how it at handling them ?

This post has been edited by Islay: Jun 16 2009, 01:56 AM

[Finishoff]

Looks cool, can't wait to see the full review.

[HBK]

This looks sweet. I only wish the PSP could play other formats than it's .MP4, which, surprisingly, did not work on the iPlayer. The screens are the big limitation, but that's DS-specific, as well as the color palette, which I found to be quite lacking, but that's the DS for ya. Audio, well both consoles suck at this, so get headphones.

I was quite impressed with the hands on, thanks Shaun! To me, the PSP is still the king of (my) portable media (I have both consoles), but this might raise the bar a bit for the DS and possibly taunt its competitor. If it weren't for the 7" screen and great graphics the PSP offers, I'd buy this.

It is a good solution for those who only have a DS. Now let's hope it's cheap.