Hack my flight- iphone edition

November 11, 2017 3:37 PM

I'm flying for about six hours twice in the next week. I've converted a few movies and want to play them on my iphone. It keeps asking for a wireless connection. Google has failed me. More info inside. Help me ObiWan.

So here's what I've done thus far. I've converted some movie files using handbrake. I love handbrake. It does what it promises. I'm not loving the iphone TV app. I've used iTunes to download the movies to my phone, but they will only play in the TV app with a wifi or cellular connection. They won't play with airplane mode on. Has anyone run into this? Is there a tricky iphone setting that I don't know about? I'd really appreciate the help as I hate flying, and hate the work colleague I'm flying with. Movies will make the trip go faster.

posted by Draccy to Technology (3 answers total)

Best answer: VLC is the app you want. It's a mostly-no-frills player that'll play anything that's music or video. If VLC's not playing something, either there's DRM or it's not really video.

Not sure why the TV app is checking in, as handbrake should've removed any DRM that the app would try to call home about, but maybe it just wants to report home about what you're playing, to scrobble onto some secret file that Apple can sell off to advertisers or whatnot.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:56 PM on November 11, 2017 [8 favorites]

If you want to do this on a regular basis, it may also be worth checking out Plex. It lets you sync to your phone for offline play and has a pretty nice interface.
posted by primethyme at 11:01 PM on November 11, 2017

Came here to recommend VLC for iOS, one super-handy feature is to avoid the use of iTunes altogether and transfer videos directly using VLC as described here.

Great for binge-watching from the comfort of your airline seat.

Condolences on having to be stuck with both hating flying and hating the colleague.
posted by scooterdog at 4:41 AM on November 12, 2017 [3 favorites]