Video Players on Android
When it comes to video players, people usually tend to stick with what comes by default in their system or branch out to popular choices like VLC or Pot Player (in respect to windows). But, when it comes to our smartphones or PC which we carry anywhere, anytime (that’s how, I like to call it). There are literally tons of options available (I’m not kidding you, just look up for video players on your respective app stores). Some of them provide features for free or there would be a paid instance for more features (a perfect example of this would be KM Player)
This blog post is just an overview of my experiences with video players on android side of things. Android was my main operating system back in 2012 till 2017, I used my android phone to learn basic web development (HTML and CSS), improve my communication skills and to do many more things (basically a whole PC setup with just 5 inch monitor).
I remember the first video player which I downloaded on my phone was MX Player, back than this player was the go to choice for everyone. Also, back then I had only 2G internet, so basically there was no YouTube or movies to watch using my internet connection.
When I got somewhat decent internet, I started to watch YouTube and stuff, but I tended to download those videos and then watch them offline (I still continue to do that). So, there was this hunt for finding the best video player for Android, which provided a great viewing experience along with less battery drain.
I then found out that VLC was available for phones, so I switched away from MX player to VLC. I thought that I finally found a perfect video player, but oh boy I was wrong. One single update to VLC, my phone’s battery life went crazy, draining more than 10-15% for basically watching a single episode of an anime. So, when I decided to go back to MX, the news broke out that MX player was brought by an Indian media company, which ruined everything for me.
After searching for some time, I found a modded version of MX player with all the online stuff removed, just to be on the safer side I blocked the internet access to the app by using my custom rom built-in feature. I used the same apk file throughout November 2021.
From December onwards I decided to give MPV a short. Don’t confuse MPV with multiple purpose vehicle, MPV is a video player, which is out there for more than a decade with cross system compatibility. I first heard and used MPV back in 2016-17, when I first started use to Linux.
On Linux side of things, MPV is my default choice, but I hardly used it on Android in the past. My initial impression was that it lacked features, which I use everyday such as changing subtitle size and color, pinch to zoom & remember the last position of playback.
I found the option for the last one in the general settings tab, which is save position on quit, but what about the other two. Welcome my friend to the world of configaration. I wasn’t aware of the fact that you could use your MPV configaration in the app by going to the advance settings. When I discovered that option, that was the last day I used MX Player. Right now I use MPV both on my laptop and phone.
Finally we came to the end of the quest and I know it was a long read for you, but thanks for taking your precious time to read.
This is the Day 1 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round Two)