Infuse is one of the most versatile video players in the Apple ecosystem, it plays any video format, automatically organizes your content, and even lets you stream content you have stored in your own clouds.
Availability
Whenever I have to choose a new application for my devices, I always try to find the one available on as many platforms as possible.
Using an application on Mac, and having to use a different one on iOS because the developer has not created a mobile version (or vice versa), is quite frustrating, as well as unproductive since you do not end up adapting to a particular interface.
One of the advantages of Infuse 7 is that it is available for the entire Apple ecosystem:
- iPhone
- Mac
- iPad
- Even AppleTV
This is a great plus, if you try the application on one platform and you like it, you will no longer have to look for alternatives on another platform, you can simply use the same app.
Infuse 7 Features
Elegant and clean interface
As is common with video players, Infuse 7’s main interface is quite simple, especially if you don’t “store” content in it.
But if you start adding content to your library (something you’ll see later on how to do), the home page will become much more colorful, and the best part is that it will do this automatically, as Infuse 7 will download the content metadata automatically.
It will do this not only with e.g. the cover and description of the movie/series in question, but also with many more elements such as category/genre, or year, so that in the future you can use almost any feature to find what you want to watch.
It supports every video format
One of the most critical points you have to take into account when choosing a video player, is the lack of compatibility with some kind of format (I’m looking at you, .avi)
Although nowadays there are plenty of apps for converting video, the most practical thing is not having to convert anything at all, your computer will suffer less, and above all, the process will be faster: open and play.
To achieve that, you need a video player that can handle at least MKV, FLV or AVI files; Infuse supports those, but there are many more in the list.
- Supported Video Files: 3GP, AVI, ASF, BDMV, DIVX, DVD, MEDIA, DVR-MS, FLV, ISO/IMG, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MTS, MXF, OGM, OGV, TS, VIDEO_TS ,WEBM, WM, VWTV.
- Audio files (contained in the video): AAC, AC3, E-AC3, DTS, DTS-HD, FLAC, MP3, OGG, DOLBY, WMA.
- Extra – Subtitle Files: DVB, DVDSUB, MICRODVD, MPL2, PGS, SMI, SSA/ASS, SRT, SUB, TIMED TEXT, TMP, TXT, VOBSUB, VTT, XSUB
Player features
You can then use Infuse as a simple video player on your devices to avoid using Apple’s default ones (Quicktime on Mac, Apple TV on iOS).
In addition to playing more formats and be more elegant, with Infuse you can also for example:
- Preview content by hovering your mouse pointer over the duration bar (useful for finding specific parts).
- Use PiP (Picture in Picture)
- Or change the playback speed (up to x2), which is very useful for training videos.
Media Center capabilities
In addition to using Infuse simply as a simple player, you can also use it as a media center to view all your content in a very organized way.
You can do this by adding files to the library (by clicking on the dedicated button on the main page, then clicking on the “Files” option in the sidebar).
Important: the “add” part should be taken with a grain of salt, since with the exception of iOS, what you’re really doing is linking content.
That is, the files won’t be moved to a specific Infuse folder, library or anything like that, you can have your files in their original place, and Infuse will read them from there.
But, if you want, you can actually also move files to the folder you will find in the route “Videos > Infuse”, so all of them are automatically shown within the app, it all depends on how you want to work.
There are several ways to add content, you can for example:
- Add content from local folders: for example, to organize content from your video folder and consume it directly on the Mac itself.
- Add your computer as a content source: for example, to consume content that you have on your Mac, from your iPhone or iPad.
Streaming from your Mac, NAS, or PC
The latter is very practical if for example, you store content on a Macbook Pro or iMac, but you like to consume the content from your iPad, by configuring the main computer as the source, you won’t have to send the content to your iPad.
This also applies if, for example, you have a NAS.
Streaming from Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin
Similarly, with Infuse you can also consume content from your Plex, Emby or Jellyfin.
Streaming from Clouds (Pro feature)
In addition to all of the above, Infuse allows, in its Pro version, to connect to a cloud to consume the content you have stored there.
This is very interesting, since, in addition to the classic ones like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box, it also has options to connect for example MEGA, and most interestingly, pCloud.
pCloud has an interesting feature that it is a one-time payment cloud, so you can store many gigabytes there without having to pay for them recurrently.
Easily add files to iOS devices
If you don’t want to stream from your computer or a cloud, but would like to have the content locally on your iPhone or iPad, with Infuse you can achieve this in a very simple way.
- If you already have the file in another app on your device (for example, the Photos app), simply share the file and open it with Infuse so that the video is stored there.
- If you have the file on your Mac, although you can transfer from the browser or via cable, it’s most convenient to use AirDrop.
For better compatibility (for Infuse to detect that you want to send the videos to its app), simply add “.infuse” to the end of the file name and voilá, they will go directly to the mobile app.
Powerful Sync
As I mentioned at the beginning of this Infuse review, using the same application on different devices brings nothing but advantages.
In the case of Infuse, one of these advantages is its sync, with which you will be able to keep between your devices for example:
- Shared saved networks (address, username, password, etc…) So you don’t have to configure for example cloud connections on all your devices.
- Favorites
- Saved home screen layouts (lists and favorites)
- Metadata and manual metadata corrections
- File-specific playback settings (selected audio/subtitle track, zoom adjustment…)
- Downloaded subtitles
- Playlists
If you get the PRO version, you can also sync:
- Watch next list (current and recently added items).
- Viewing history
- Playback position of current items (in case you leave something unfinished)
- And Ratings
All this through iCloud.
Other Features
The ability to organize your content automatically, and the options of being able to stream from different devices or even clouds, make Infuse a very powerful application, which goes far beyond being a simple player.
In addition to everything you have seen, in Infuse you will also be able to:
- Specify a predefined audio and subtitle language,
- Enable continuous playback of episodes,
- Turn off other connected monitors when you are playing something in full screen,
- Set parental controls, adding an access PIN, or blocking series and movies of a certain rating,
- Options to fit content to any screen by zooming, cropping, aspect ratios and alignments,
- Intelligent video scaling for viewing low-resolution videos in better quality, even on the largest screens,
- Automatic subtitle download from OpenSubtitles.org,
- Synchronization of your watched movies and series with Trakt,
Infuse is compatible with devices such as the Airstash, SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick, or SanDisk iXpand, so you can consume content directly from these devices.
Infuse 7 pricing
Infuse is a free app.
You can use it at no cost as an alternative player to Quicktime.
It also has a Pro plan, which includes some extra features that you have already seen throughout the review, the most interesting being AirPlay and Google Cast support, streaming content from clouds, or synchronization between devices.
You can access these features for:
- $0.99 per month
- $9.99 per year
- $84.99 lifetime
Family Sharing
Whichever Infuse purchase option you choose (subscription, or lifetime purchase), you can share it with your family members, making the Pro version even more economical.
Infuse, bottom line
Infuse is an application that I recommend you at least try, as it is free, and you may find it a good content player for your day-to-day life.
Is it worth buying the Pro version?
This is a very personal decision, as it will depend on each case.
The price is quite moderate, plus the company does not “force” you to use the annual plan by increasing the monthly price (something that is usually common), so you can even try the monthly version for only $0.99, which is not risky to see first hand if it is worth it, or even use it only sporadically, such as summer vacation where you have more time to consume content.
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