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Google Android has a video player built in… but it’s hidden away in the gallery section which you use to display photos. And out of the box, the Android video player can usually only handle whatever video formats your phone’s hardware specifically supports. That often includes H.264 and MP4, but good luck trying to get MKV or Xvid files to play.

But there’s finally an app that uses software to decode a wide range of formats. A hacked pre-release copy of an app called RockPlayer leaked onto the web a few weeks ago, but now it’s officially available for download as a public beta.

So what makes RockPlayer special? It supports a wide range of video formats including AVI, MKV, MP4, FLV, 3GP, MOV, ASF, DiVX, Xvid, and H.264.

In order to run RockPlayer you’ll need a phone or mobile device with an ARM v6 or v7 processor and VFP support. The HTC G1, G2, and G3 are specifically not supported. But the good news is that RockPlayer will run on Google Android 1.6 through 2.2.

The public beta runs through July 15th, so hit up the official announcement page for a download link.