[iOS] Whiskey Media Video Buddy

I'm pleased to announce that Whiskey Media Video Buddy is now available for iOS. Previously an Android exclusive, this free app aims to make watching videos from any of the five Whiskey Media sites on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad as convenient as possible. How? I'm glad you asked:

Everyone is able to:

• Stream all non-member-exclusive videos from each site
• Save your place in a video and resume from that spot later
• Send video to AirPlay-capable devices like an Apple TV

Additionally, paid Whiskey Media members can:

• Access the subscriber-only videos
• Access HD streams for every video available
• Download videos to watch later

There are also two limitations I should mention:

You must be running iOS 5.0 or better. This is my first time working with iOS and only targeting the most recent version of the operating system simplified things immensely.

Videos can only be streamed over WiFi. App Store policy effectively requires that Whiskey Media Video Buddy use HTTP Live Streaming when using the cellular network for data and, to the best of my knowledge, Whiskey Media does not currently support HLS. For those interested in details, see section 9.4 of the App Store Review Guidelines and the "Requirements for Apps" section in the "Using HTTP Live Streaming" portion of the HTTP Live Streaming Overview

If you own an iOS device and are a fan of Whiskey Media's video content then I encourage you to head on over to the App Store to check it out. If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

This is rad, thank you for porting it!

Strange stuff about the HLS requirement, seems like there are plenty of apps that serve video and I severely doubt they all use HLS.

What are your plans for the app going forward?

As a long time user of the Android version, this is the best way to view WM videos. Great job - heck, you even updated the app only a few days after I posted a review with a bug!

Are you going to add thumbnails etc? And if you want I can whip up a new logo that better represents the app (more Whiskey like etc.)

I'll try this on my iPod and iPad and tell you how it goes.

EDIT: Logged in fine (even though I'm not a premium member), you just need to find a way to cover up what's going there, however. Good work though, just need to pretty it up a bit. This was on my iPad.

I'm really liking this, two things I would love is:

1. Thumbnails for all the videos

2.The ability to download the videos

Edit: Though it seems that I can't watch any HD videos using the app. Trying to watch the Q.U.B.E quicklook in HD opens the video page for a second then closes. I can watch in High quality though. It seems to do this for all videos. After checking it out, it does this for every site except Tested.

This is great. Finally an easy way to access this

Oh great stuff I will check it out.
 
Still sad that videos can't launch from the Giant Bomb app anymore :(

@Niall_Sg1 said:

I'm really liking this, two things I would love is:

1. Thumbnails for all the videos

2.The ability to download the videos

Edit: Though it seems that I can't watch any HD videos using the app. Trying to watch the Q.U.B.E quicklook in HD opens the video page for a second then closes. I can watch in High quality though. It seems to do this for all videos. After checking it out, it does this for every site except Tested.

If you're a subscriber, why don't you just subscribe to the Member's Only video feed on iTunes, and consume and download their vids like a podcast?

@Wrighteous86 said:

@Niall_Sg1 said:

I'm really liking this, two things I would love is:

1. Thumbnails for all the videos

2.The ability to download the videos

Edit: Though it seems that I can't watch any HD videos using the app. Trying to watch the Q.U.B.E quicklook in HD opens the video page for a second then closes. I can watch in High quality though. It seems to do this for all videos. After checking it out, it does this for every site except Tested.

If you're a subscriber, why don't you just subscribe to the Member's Only video feed on iTunes, and consume and download their vids like a podcast?

I rarely sync my iPad to my computer. If ever now that you can update the firmware straight from the device. Even transferring movies across I just use the ftp mode in AVPlayerHD. Being able to download straight from the device would be great.

I can watch videos fine so.... Oh well it's not like I'm gonna upgrade my iOS I hate that, it messes my app placements.

Wow that's awesome. Thank you for sharing and making this!

@Wrighteous86: Thanks for the tip, that's great, considering how many podcasts I tend to synch daily this will work well in my routine.

@Pezen: Yeah, it really is a feature they should advertise more. I don't watch any videos on the site these days. I consume them as podcasts during my breaks at work or when I'm doing busy work at my house, or around town.

Okay, a few things:

- I like when an app's full name fits under the icon. Perhaps consider a name change for the app, may I suggest calling it Duder?
 
- Take @ShaunassNZ up on their offer to get you a nice Whiskeyfied icon

Thanks, everyone! I love getting feedback.

Regarding future plans, the number one thing I'd like to add is the ability to download videos. I have some ideas for how to go about it, but it's a non-trivial task and will likely take some time. Adding thumbnails is also on my to-do list, though it's a lower priority than downloads. That said, I may end up tackling it first since it should be substantially easier.

@Niall_Sg1: I found the bug that was preventing HD playback and have submitted an update. Thanks for reporting the issue!

@ShaunassNZ: It's been on my mind to change the icon to incorporate the Whiskey Media logo to sort of match the Android version, so I'm probably going to give that a go with the next release. I definitely appreciate your offer though!

@sirchode: That's a lot of suggestions! No promises, but I'll see what I can do.

The video playback is not working for some videos after the update. Mostly the ones that are over an hour long.

Great work with the app.

I do have a suggestion, though: To be able to view the downloaded without having the device connected. Maybe having another icon in the dashboard besides the Whiskey Media ones. That is because most of the times I download a video is to see them later, so to need to be connected to a Wi-Fi to access it, or even having to search for it among the other videos of the site should not be required.

Just downloaded the app, it seems pretty damn good, I wouldn't mind if I had to pay some towards it, whoever the funds went to. I have one comment, the icon is a bit generic. Other than that I think i'll be using this insted of the mobile website.

@sleeping143: Would you mind providing a few more details? Stuff that would be helpful would be:

• What device you're using
• How it's failing (Is there an error message? Does it try to load for a while or just fail instantly? etc)
• What quality you're trying to play and if other quality settings fail as well
• One or two specific videos that are failing

@hermes: This is regarding the Android version, correct? If so, you can view a list of downloaded video from the main menu by pressing your phone's menu button and select "Downloaded Videos". From there you can play or delete anything you've downloaded.

@Hooded: Thanks! I'm working on an update that will bring, among other things, a new icon. I'm hoping to be able to send it off for approval in the next couple of days.

@soup_menu: is it possible to airplay video while my iPad is asleep like in Safari?

@soup_menu: Amount the other requests, I would like to add the video being able to play in landscape when the iphone is held upside.

Imagine lying in bed watching a video holding the phone infront of your face and you turn on your side, the video will rotate but if you hold it one way it will stay how it is. I think Safari and many other apps added this, I find it pretty helpful when lying in bed watching videos.

@Zidd: I'm not seeing a lot of information about what happens to AirPlay when the screen locks and, unfortunately, I don't have an Apple TV to test with. That said, I'd be happy to look into it as best I can. Can you let me know what model iPad and Apple TV you're using? I've also seen some reports that if you manually turn off the screen instead of letting it time out then the video will keep playing. Would you mind trying that?

@Hooded: Adding an option to lock rotation has been on my to-do list. I'll see if I can get it into the next release.

This is awesome, thanks duder!

I use the Video Buddy all the time, it's fantastic! Great job duder!

Thanks for the app, duder! Loving it!

Version 1.1 is now available!

• The biggest addition is that premium members can now download videos. Downloads can be started by hitting the save icon on the quality selection screen and managed from the download manager accessible from the main menu. Apple's policies governing multitasking preclude unrestricted background downloading, but Whiskey Media Video Buddy is able to continue for up to 10 minutes after the screen is turned off or you switch apps. If the downloads haven't finished when those 10 minutes are up they'll be paused and automatically resumed the next time you open WMVB.
• Another change is that, by default, videos will play in landscape regardless of how the device is held. If you'd like videos to rotate with the device there's an option in the settings app.
• Also new in this version are thumbnails in the video listings, an updated main menu, and a new app icon.

It didn't make it into this release, but I also have a fix that prevents AirPlay from stopping when the iOS device's screen locks. Another update that includes the fix should be available in about a week.

I hope you guys like it!

Oh hey, this is pretty snazzy, but I don't see the point when I have access to the mobile site. Though if I can download the videos, then it's a completely different matter.

Edit: Bah, I spoke too soon. Btw, you might want to edit the first post and put all then new changes.

Awesome!

It would be cool if we could favorite videos, then those could be on the screen with the icons?

Wow, nice update man!!

Thank you for the great app!

Great app, looks kinda lame, basic, but it's functional. Also, it would be nice if you could log-in from inside the app and post comments.

Ok, this is not working. I log-in and select any video but after touching high, low or mobile the app closes and sends me to the desktop. I have the iShit device called iPad 2 and it's running iOS 5.0

@iPliskin: Would you mind logging out in the app and trying to watch videos then? It's possible that there is an issue with free accounts.

Edit: I'm having trouble reproducing the crash, so I'm hoping to find a common thread among those affected by the issue. Could people who are running version 1.1 let me know the following?

1. Are you able to play video?
2. Did you upgrade from 1.0.1 to 1.1 or start from 1.1?
3. What iDevice are you using?

This is amazing! Thank you for this, so much!
Tell me if you need art assets or something like that, just hit me up with a PM.
Again, thank you so much for this!

@soup_menu I logged out but still does the same thing, it crashes, i can't watch anything!.

@iPliskin: Any chance you're running jailbroken or haven't picked up the iOS 5.0.1 update yet?

@soup_menu said:

Additionally, paid Whiskey Media members can:

• Access the subscriber-only videos
• Access HD streams for every video available
• Download videos to watch later

If you have a paid account you can do this stuff already. So why would a paid subscriber want this?

Good news indeed.

@soup_menu: I'm not actually using an AppleTV to get my airplay streams. I'm using this app on my PC http://funky-factory.blogspot.com/p/versionsinfo.html. if you got a spare PC or a copy of Windows on your mac you could run that. I'm running iOS 5.0.1 on an iPad 2 Wi-Fi 64GB. I will try letting the screen time out automatically and report back with this new version you've just released.

@soup_menu No, it's not jailbroken or anything like that and it's running 5.0 not 5.0.1

@BrockNRolla: My goal with Whiskey Media Video Buddy isn't so much to let you do anything new, but rather to provide a more convenient way to access Whiskey Media's video content from your mobile device. For example, Mobile Safari's pretty good at streaming, but you can't use it to download videos to watch later. You could download videos to your computer and then use iTunes to sync them over, but then you're adding a separate computer to the mix. A podcatcher like Instacast could be paired with the RSS feeds to download videos without using iTunes, but then you can't access the back catalog.

Whiskey Media Video Buddy is there to try to make all of those use cases available through one app and to add some additional benefits like saving your progress and fast load times.

@soup_menu said:

@BrockNRolla: My goal with Whiskey Media Video Buddy isn't so much to let you do anything new, but rather to provide a more convenient way to access Whiskey Media's video content from your mobile device. For example, Mobile Safari's pretty good at streaming, but you can't use it to download videos to watch later. You could download videos to your computer and then use iTunes to sync them over, but then you're adding a separate computer to the mix. A podcatcher like Instacast could be paired with the RSS feeds to download videos without using iTunes, but then you can't access the back catalog.

Whiskey Media Video Buddy is there to try to make all of those use cases available through one app and to add some additional benefits like saving your progress and fast load times.

I see. I guess it hasn't been an issue for me since I don't use the Safari browser. Atomic Web Browser enables a lot of those things as well. This is free though, so that's great.

just watched an episode of TANG on it. this is so great. thank you so much! great job ^^

@Zidd: Thanks for the link to Aerodrom. I ended up using AirServer to accomplish basically the same thing on my Mac. I'm pretty sure you'll still have issues with AirPlay in this version, but the next update (hopefully out next week) benefited from testing with AirServer and should have gotten AirPlay support up to snuff.

Since you mentioned that you're using an iPad 2, are you having any trouble playing videos after updating to version 1.1?

@BrockNRolla: Cool, I hadn't heard of Atomic before. I'd encourage you to give Whiskey Media Video Buddy a try since, as you said, it's free, but if you prefer Atomic I certainly wouldn't hold it against you.

I'm having the same problem of it crashing everytime I try to play a video as well, I had version 1.01 and it worked just fine but since I upgraded it crashes (I'm using an iPad 2 btw). Great app though, let me know if you need any other info!

@wild_fire987: Thanks for the details! The one other piece of information that would be helpful is if you're running iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1. If you're on 5.0 and wouldn't mind upgrading I'd be very curious to know if that fixes it.

@soup_menu I'm having the same problems as @wild_fire987 worked fine until the recent update and now crashes immediately after choosing a video, iPad 2 running 5.0.1. It's a great app so I hope you figure this out.