MX Player, a Video App Used By More Than 175 Million Users, Debuts OTT Service. Android Enthusiasts Express Concern. (venturebeat.com) 54
MX Player, a video app which has been downloaded more than 500 million times across the globe, kickstarted its OTT (online video streaming) service in India, one of its largest markets, this week. MX Player, which is popular worldwide, has earned a loyal user base over the years for being the app that can run any video file you throw at it, even if your smartphone, tablet, or Android TV box doesn't have high-end specs or updated software. It was acquired by Times Internet, an India-based conglomerate this June, and now the big giant is beginning to show what it intends to do with the app. From a report: [...] All of these titles, including those produced by Times Internet, are now available to MX Player users in India at no charge, Karan Bedi, CEO of MX Player, told VentureBeat in an interview. Like most of Times Internet's properties, which include several TV channels and newspapers, MX Player will count on ads to generate revenue. Betting on ad-driven business model, a popular path in developing markets, could help MX Player quickly convince its existing user base to give the streaming offerings a try as it begins to compete in the Indian market. Star India's ad-supported service Hotstar, which offers about 80 percent of its catalog to customers for free, currently leads the video streaming market in the country.
Going forward, Bedi said, the company remains committed to making investments in what made MX Player so popular among customers: The ability to play a plethora of video files on low-end devices. The company won't be bringing its new streaming offerings to the paid version of the MX Player app, MX Pro, he said. Additionally, MX Player's streaming offerings are limited to India, one of its largest markets, for now, although Bedi said the company is working on the right content catalog for other regions. Over at Android sub-reddit, where this story has been discussed, dozens of users expressed their concerns on the direction MX Player appears to be headed.
Going forward, Bedi said, the company remains committed to making investments in what made MX Player so popular among customers: The ability to play a plethora of video files on low-end devices. The company won't be bringing its new streaming offerings to the paid version of the MX Player app, MX Pro, he said. Additionally, MX Player's streaming offerings are limited to India, one of its largest markets, for now, although Bedi said the company is working on the right content catalog for other regions. Over at Android sub-reddit, where this story has been discussed, dozens of users expressed their concerns on the direction MX Player appears to be headed.
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Going forward, Bedi said, the company remains committed to making investments in what made MX Player so popular among customers: The ability to play a plethora of video files on low-end devices.
This gentleman got it wrong! he should have written that second sentence as follows:
The ability to play a plethora of video files on low-end devices, with no ads, let or hindrance. (Bold mine).
I can confirm to the poor fella that the player will be off my phone within hours after seeing the first ad.
All based on ffmpeg. MX, VLC, mplayer, ... (Score:1)
If your player can play it ALL... even ancient obscure game video formats... even folders of JPEGs... Then it is based on ffmpeg. Full stop.
Basically everyone and their donkey use ffmpeg. Even DirectShow players, with the ffdshow that is the heart of every Windows codec pack.
And so, fighting about which player plays the most formats, is as silly as aguing which arm (aka "party") of the industry is more evil in the US.
They are just front-ends. Veils. Th
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VLC's tracked 2 billion downloads, and that figure doesn't include installations coming from Linux distros, app stores, or other third parties (I get mine from packman.links2linux.de).
I saw the article title, and my first thought was, "Why are we posting stories about a 30-year-old ballistic missile program?"
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It stands for "Over The Top," which means they're going to screw you so bad, you won't even believe how bad you're getting screwed, even afterwards. You'll always be like, "They didn't really do all that to me, did they? Am I overstating it?" You'll never quite believe how bad they were.
An example would help... (Score:2)
Here's one:
You've paid for internet access on your [capable] mobile device. Some authority then sees it fit to charge you to for instance fully access Viber, Telegram, WhatsAPP or any other service that runs over the internet backbone.
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OTT makes almost zero sense. I hate whoever is trying to use it.
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I should clarify, OTT as a term. It's not even intuitive to Internet Streaming Video, why not ISV or something.or Online Video Streaming like the synopsis had to explain. OVS sounds better too.
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Over-the-top is a more widespread concept than streaming media. More people use the phrase over-the-top than even know the difference between "watching," "streaming," and "downloading."
And, what an awful idea for them! Why don't they choose a term that makes them looks good, or is suggestive of their product?
Maybe they think that language is invented by marketing people? That they're considered an authority? I doubt even marketing people use the term at home. "Streaming" is faster and easier to say than the
I worked for a HUGE streaming company (Score:1)
The IP in the player and its abilities are a big deal for Times Internet and probably why they bought them. Over half of R&D efforts are toward getting a consistent streaming experience across platforms (and working around Apple's insanely bad protocols you are forced to utilize).
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Over the top.
I'm not sure on the etymology. Now wondering if it's linked to the use of that phrase in WWI.
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That is still less than helpful.
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No, but this is Slashdot and someone will be annoyed enough that I'm wrong that they'll post the correct definition in order to correct me.
It seemed quicker than using Google.
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Wiki sez:
Over the top (OTT) is a term used to refer to content providers that distribute streaming media as a standalone product directly to viewers over the Internet, bypassing telecommunications, multichannel television, and broadcast television platforms that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.[1]
The term is most synonymous with subscription-based video on demand services that offer access to film and television content (including existing series acquired from other producers, as well as original content produced specifically for the service), including but not limited to Amazon Video, Hulu, Netflix, and fuboTV as well as a wave of "skinny" television services that offer access to live streams of linear specialty channels similar to a traditional satellite or wireline television provider, but streamed over the public Internet, rather than a closed, private network with proprietary equipment such as set-top boxes.
Over the top services are typically accessed via websites on personal computers, as well as via apps on mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets), digital media players (including video game consoles), or televisions with integrated smart TV platforms.
Yeah, I've never heard of it used that way either. It must be yet another term being redefined by the cultureless, uneducated children of today.
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Thought you were joking.
Shit. So did I.
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Shit. So did I.
WTF is OTT? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're going to use obscure acronyms, at least spell them out once. I get tired of articles where I have to make 10 trips to Google just to translate them to something resembling English. Even those of us who are tech savvy cant keep up with all the latest shorthand.
VLC is Superior in Every Way (Score:5, Insightful)
With VLC, I've been able to play any video file you throw at it, even if your smartphone, tablet, or Android TV box doesn't have high-end specs or updated software. VLC is open source so i trust it and it doesn't display any ads.
Has anyone here actually used MX? Sounds like a downgrade to me.
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Before VLC for Android, MX was my main video app.
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The reason it took so long to get hardware decoding working in x86 in general is because x86 is the bleeding edge in this particular instance. That's where all the newest stuff is tested first.
After the tech is worked out, the rest is usually just a mix of getting drivers for your hardware to actually respect the specs. On linux, that's always been a bitch. On android, it's actually quite well standardized in terms of relevant APIs and specs. Which is why VLC's android page states the following:
https://www. [videolan.org]
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Re:VLC is Superior in Every Way (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.videolan.org/ [videolan.org] The one linked on their site: https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com]
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I'm still... evaluating, yeah, that's it... i'm evaluating the free version. It plays ads in between filenames when you're browsing files to play, which is insanely annoying - one slip of the finger and suddenly you're installing some stupid casino cash-vacuum-cleaner, which is why i only use it with wifi, bluetooth and mobile data turned off, inside a faraday cage. The ads don't show up then.
It does play any media file I've thrown at it so far, and handles subtitles well; I'm wondering how badly it would r
Re: VLC is Superior in Every Way (Score:3)
I currently use both VLC and MX. It used to be that MX was the best way to play MPEG2 on Android. Then they removed support for that. I swear, licensing is the root of all evil.
Anyway, VLC mostly supports MPEG2 now, but it still can't play 1080i MPEG2 on my Kindle Fire. However, as MX keeps getting worse - they've added noisy video ads recently - and VLC keeps getting better, I'll probably drop MX soon.
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Have you actually used MX Player?
While VLC has huge support for technical things (formats etc), MX Player has better handling (UI and "experience") on Android, it was also much earlier than VLC. Think of MX Player as "VLC for Android".
Ads are displayed with free version, you can purchase an unlocked version that doesn't show them. It's one of the applications I find worth paying for (value for money).
Change of direction is a valid concern.
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I've used both and I'm a big fan of VLC and recommend it to people. That being said I use mpv on Linux and Windows because it's good and minimal which is similar to MXplayer. I seem to remember VLC playing certain videos badly and MXplayer played it smooth so I bought it with my free google play credit. MXplayer is minimal with no bullshit (yet) and easy to use. That being said, I haven't really used it in a year or two as I don't really watch videos on my phone anymore. I'm obviously not happy about this n
Dozens, eh? (Score:3)
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News at 11 ~ Reddit users are bitching about something again!
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Hey stop type casting reddit users :) while some sub reddits are certainly not nice places to be for most people, others are actually quite helpful and informative. I guess it is the same as whith Slashdot or any other community,some bad users some good ones >90% neutral, I try not to be in the first group
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FYI even the early symbian phones were "spyware phones". And every single modern phone is.
There's a reason why state security people require that any high security meeting, no phones are allowed in the room.
For all the /. users incapable of googling OTT (Score:2)
I guess it really shows were /. is headed nowadays when the forum users are worse than some AOL group user in their ability to use the internet.
OTT is a well established concept ever since netflix came along. And for all the others who hear this the first time, they can use google.
The first entry I get in my localized google version is a special wikipedia link since basically google itself tells me the definition. However it's in pretty much any wikipedia version, including the international one: https://en [wikipedia.org]
Just Use VLC (Score:1)
I've been using VLC for years. It's never failed me.