Free iPhone and iPad media player, VLC, has finally succumbed to DRM squabbles and has been yanked from the App Store by Apple.
Back in November 2010 one of the program's primary developers, VideoLAN's Rémi Denis-Courmont, warned that VLC's GNU General Public License is in direct conflict with Apple's App Store digital rights management.
"Any restrictions placed on VLC directly oppose the open source nature of the original software, and the original GNU General Public License," Wired.co.uk reported last year. "By imposing any level of DRM, the third party development house Applidium and App Store shop-keep Apple are violating the original terms."
Writing on VideoLan's website, Denis-Courmont says: "The incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved -- the hard way. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone, given the precedents."
If you've already downloaded VLC player, it won't magically disappear from your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or iTunes. And as long as you back up the IPA file (right click on the App in iTunes, and choose "View in Windows Explorer", or View In Finder on Mac) when moving to a new computer or operating system, it's yours to keep forever.
But if you missed the boat, there are some alternatives.
Those with jailbroken devices will find VLC player in the blackmarket app store, Cydia. There are also other, legitimate apps on the store that can provide very similar functionally to the VLC Player.
CineXPlayer (£1.19 on iPhone, £1.79 on iPad) is the best choice, and most authentically replicates the VLC experience. Using iTunes' built-in file sharing feature you drag and drop AVI or DivX files directly onto your device, and view them in the app. We found it smooth and very reliable, and its array of features is impressive: you can use SRT subtitle files, lock it landscape for bedtime viewing and do video out.
Yxplayer (£2.99 on iPhone and iPad), on the other hand, isn't much cop at all. It stuttered and spluttered on a DivX video, and routinely made the TV show's audio completely garbled. It's got a lot of features, including subtitles and video out, but the unreliable video playback makes it impossible to recommend.
Both players need a relatively up to date iPhone or iPod touch to playback the processor-intensive file types. We tested them both on a fourth generation iPod touch.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
