It’s Playing review [iPhone]

It's quite astonishing Apple still hasn't bothered to extend the usability of the iPhone's built-in video playback app, instead choosing to leave it nailed to the solitary cross of MP4s.

There doesn't seem to be any mention of iOS 5 expanding the range of compatible media types to include standard digital video files either, so if you don't want to spend time converting all your movies so you can watch them on the road, it's time to grab yourself an app.

There's a growing number of multimedia playback apps on the App Store, with It's Playing having recently been updated to handle the more unusual - though increasingly popular - file formats so you can bung your video library straight on the iPhone with none of that silly conversion fuss and palaver.

It's Playing offers full compatibility with your usual roster of digital video suspects, including AVIs, WMVs, RMVBs and the rather wide DIVX and XVID ranges, but also boasts compatibility with FLV Flash videos (the kind you see on YooChoob) and the high-def format of choice, MKVs.

This latter format is rapidly growing in popularity, and given that it's a container package (all your audio, video, subtitle and more files bundled together into a single MKV) it's easy to see why. It's Playing is happy to accept all these and is even pretty good when it comes to the HD stuff.

Tested with a variety of HD files in the 720p category, It's Playing did as good a job as we've seen any third-party media players do. On the tough stuff, with lots of movement on-screen and a particularly high bit rate, the app stumbled.

But it didn't break down and although there were a good number of frames dropped it managed to keep going without grinding to a halt. The video then kept playing once the processing migraine subsided.

With lower bit rates and resolutions more in the 480p range, It's Playing was as happy with those as it was with standard DIVX files. Playback is instantaneous and there were no audio/video sync issues experienced even when picking up a video in the middle or scrubbing through it.

The app also offers an opportunity to lock your video library away behind a four-digit passcode, and to create folders within the app to help keep things better organised. And if you want, you can delete or move your videos all from within the app after loading them onto the device via iTunes' file sharing feature.

Certainly It's Playing benefits hugely from its simplistic, minimalist approach to multimedia playback, making it far less daunting to use than many of its competitors. But this also means that your options are lessened if you're an experienced video user. For viewing purposes this isn't a problem, but when it comes to loading videos onto the device your only recourse is through iTunes - no FTP, web server, Samba, upnp or network access of any kind. A small but important omission for some users, but not a deal breaker.

When it comes to playback It's Playing is hard to beat, and when you're being buffeted around on the train its quick and simple menu - with large buttons - will be quite welcome. A smart buy for anyone who likes to watch stuff on their commute.