AirAV review [iPhone]

Watching iTunes-specific videos on the iPhone is fine, as its built in multimedia player is happy to consider that as a viable video format. As we're all acutely aware, however, Apple isn't too enamoured with all these other digital video formats floating about the place. Can you imagine the sheer cheek of using a non-Apple authorised format?!

But, as much as we're loath to stray from Apple's path of approval, watching videos on your iPhone is a damn sight easier with a third-party app that's compatible with all those other formats, and not just MP4s. So popular is this concept that the App Store has an ever-increasing number of multimedia players for us to fawn over, but AirAV manages to earn itself a badge of individualiity due to its file storage system. Or lack of a file storage system, actually.

This app isn't focused on filling up your iPhone's (or iPod touch's or iPad's, of course) memory with videos to play when out and about. Instead, this is a network connected app that looks for multimedia content floating around your wireless home.

Streaming from network connected drives or computers used to be notoriously irksome, but it's a concept that's been gratefully simplified over the last couple of years - ever since Wi-Fi routers became an expected piece of living room furniture, really. And AirAV followers the growing tradition of ultra-simple plug and play network sharing by doing all the hard work automatically so you can concentrate on the content.

Upon launch the app automatically scans whichever network your device is currently connected to and brings up a list of devices willing and able to share videos, music or images. This could be a computer, a network attached drive, a media server or anything else that also broadcasts its name and its contents on your local Wi-Fi interspace (that last word may have just been invented, but seemed strangely appropriate).

A single tap takes you into its folder to browse a little deeper until you find the multimedia files the app is compatible with. It's an impressively long list of such formats, too, with most any video and audio file being fully playable by the app, from AVIs and WMVs to MP3s and FLACs.

Server support is equally comprehensive, and AirAV is happy to chat with almost any media server from a PS3 to a Linux, XBMC or Twonky-powered device. Chances are you've no idea what any of those strange noises really mean, but the good news is you don't have to. AirAV seems to be well clued up on server types, and it's this aspect that really streamlines the whole media streaming concept.

Which ultimately brings us to playback quality. For all intents and purposes, the videos might as well be stored on the device. It begins playing immediately and can jump to any position within the video (or music) instantly and without losing synchronisation. Selection slows down a little as you near the outer edges of the Wi-Fi range, but only so the app can buffer enough video to ensure you can watch interrupted.

One thing the app is lacking is a playlist option. This isn't too important when streaming videos to your iPhone, but it would be appreciated if you could build quick, dynamic lists when listening to music. AirAV automatically jumps on to the next track in the folder, which is something, but a shuffle or repeat function would be nice.

Ultimately, however, this is a small oversight in a superb feature set, so if streaming content around your network sounds at all appealing, look no further than AirAV.