Infuse

Within the first week of using Infuse I subscribed to a month of Pro. After a month, I subscribed to a year! That is to say, I’ve been absolutely pleased with this app on both my iPads and AppleTVs. It looks great and plays even better. So far it has played everything I’ve thrown at it without a hiccup. Admittedly, these are my own files so there isn’t too much variation in codecs, etc. But considering all of the issues I’ve had with playing very large files and other weird playback issues on other apps, this is still a major improvement. I ditched Plex a long time ago because it felt bloated and unwieldy for my needs. I then switched to Airflow/Airflow Server (the polar opposite) which was very minimal but played everything well, until it didn’t. Once the latter basically became abandoned by its developer I came across Infuse which has since replaced them both. Essentially, Infuse has all the parts of those that I want without all the parts that I don’t: no middleman server app, no obtuse organization, no payback issues, so on. I’m loving it so far. My only complaint, if it can be called that, is that I wish Infuse’s player integrated some of AppleTV’s built in audio enhancement/accessibility features like Enhance Dialogue. This feature is a godsend when dealing with modern films especially things like Christopher Nolan’s? This is the only thing I miss from Airflow: the ability to toggle to the appropriate setting right from the player itself. I won’t even go into my other wishlists because the app is continuously being improved and those may be remedied in updates. The fact that I can just point this thing to a NAS and let it do its good work, is a breath of fresh air.

This is by far the best app to play movies (of finest quality and high resolution) and the fact that it supports Dolby Vision and Audio is just everything. But here’s the down side to the latest update, during airplay via TV-WiFi Router-IPhone, the audio quality starts to get worse by the muffled and distorted audio quality it gives unless you open a pic from gallery just so it could change the picture quality to Dolby Vision and still have to go back to the infuse player in order to smoothen the audio results, I mean why can’t infuse app just play the Dolby vision and audio directly? Secondly, when you use airplay with wireless (Bluetooth speakers or home theater) at some point, the audio stops and disconnects the TV from the Bluetooth speakers, but works smoothly when you use ARX/AUX cables for audio output, but why that when wireless technology is has been a major technological innovation/breakthrough?! Please look into these issues. And also, the PIP works only once or twice daily after paying for PRO services? Afterwards, you won’t find the PiP button again when you have to use it. It was supposed to be unlimited for PRO users as stated in the article.

This is the best player I have ever tried and I’ve tried a ton (and keep evaluating new ones as they come out.) I’ve been using Infuse since it came out and always come back to it as my main choice. The Pro will play absolutely everything and flawlessly. The bad - I’ve been burned buying the previous pro stand alone version all of which have fallen by the wayside and left to rot. I am not a subscription fan. I understand innovation takes money and backing and I’ve sucked it up and do the subscription now. The added features have been awesome so I deal with it. (Although a bit cheaper would be nicer.) What I would like added is having a library/share with dual addresses - with one public and one private address for the same share so I don’t double up my posters and metadata for my NAS at home that I can access via a public IP on the road. All that being said, this is still the best player on the market and that warrants some props and some cash. Again, based on performance and features, you will not find one better.