Overview/Review – Air Video: Watch Your Videos Anywhere!

Written by occasional correspondent Lee Peltz

One of the major limitations to non-jailbroken iOS devices is their inability to play any video formats other than mp4 files. The first time I ran into this phenomenon I nearly returned my iPod Touch right then and there. At the time I was in university and like most students I watched my TV and movies via downloaded Avi’s, DivX’s and MKV’s (I’ll leave how those files were obtained to your imaginations) and my plan was to take my TV shows with me for those boring classes that seem to get in the way of the university experience.

The hunt was on to find a decent and cheap/free conversion program. I went through a steady succession of different freeware programs over the course of a couple of months; however nothing I tried was convenient to use. Then I found an app that solved all my problems and more: Air Video.

Air Video is a universal app (iPhone/iPod/iPad) that works in conjunction with a computer-based server program (Windows/Mac) to not only convert your videos into the mp4 format but allows you to stream your already converted files over your wireless network, and to “Live Convert” streaming videos in other formats directly to your iOS device. Air Video supports AVI, DivX, MKV and other popular video formats.

Air Video works like this:

First, you install and run the free Air Video Server program on your Windows or Mac that contains the videos you want to use. The Air Video Server is a simplistic program with that auto detects the best settings for your purposes. You point the server at the folder your files are contained in or an existing iTunes Playlist and start the server.

Then you start the Air Video app on your iOS device, making sure it is connected to the same wireless network as your computer. There are two versions of this app available from the App Store: a free version which only shows you three random videos from the targeted folders, and a $2.99 (Canadian App Store) full version which removes that restriction. The app scans your network for your Air Video Server and displays the folders that you have available for it to access.

After this you select the video you want to use. You are then presented with three options: Play (if the video is already in mp4 format), Play with Live Conversion, and Convert.

Using “Play” will stream the file directly to your iPhone, with no loss in quality and in most cases no pauses or jitters, depending on your wireless network.

“Play with Live Conversion” converts your videos on-the-fly, streaming the converted file directly to your device as it gets converted. The quality of this option varies depending on the power of your computer and your wireless network, but usually is no worse than watching Youtube, with the occasional pause for buffering. This option is excellent if you are at home but would rather watch your videos somewhere other than your computer, I would imagine that you would do this more with your iPad than with an iPhone or iPod Touch.

“Convert” is the option I use the most. This queues up your video for a complete conversion from whatever file format it is in into mp4 in the best quality possible. Your iOS device doesn’t need to be connected to the server once the conversion process starts and you can queue up as many conversions as you like.Once the conversion is complete the newly converted file is placed in the same folder as the original file and you add it to iTunes and your device as you would any other video. The quality of the conversions is excellent. I can see no real loss in quality and it even keeps the original aspect ratio, something that some of the other programs I’ve used didn’t do.

There is also a less obvious feature in Air Video, which is the ability to have the server available over the internet, letting you stream your videos to your device anywhere you have an internet connection, including over 3G. I don’t have the bandwidth available to try this option but I see no reason why it would not work just as well as over your home network provided you had enough internet bandwidth available.

If you find yourself watching a lot of videos with your iOS device Air Video is one app that you should not do without, it expands the usability of your device as a media player immeasurably and it is definitely $2.99 that you will not regret spending.

Air Video is available on the App Store. The Air Video Server for the computer is available here.

If you have used Air Video please let us your experiences with it in the comments and if you know of any alternative programs please let us know that too!