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tedd's avatar

IPad users, how difficult is it to put movies on an iPad?

Asked by tedd (14078points) December 15th, 2011

Going on a vacation with the g/f to Hawaii in January. We’re going to spend about a day on planes and in airports, so we’re taking some stuff to do/watch. I bought an external battery to keep some electronics stuff powered, and it specifically points out it can keep an iPad running and playing a movie for 10 hours (in addition to the iPad’s regular battery time). So I talked my brother into letting me borrow his iPad for the trip, as opposed to taking my own laptop or a portable DVD player (which woudln’t charge on the external battery, and would die too quickly to really be of much use).

The catch is I am not incredibly familiar with iPads. Save for situations such as this, I never saw the practicality in them and hence avoided them largely. My brother told me I would need to put any videos I wanted to put on it in the apple format (I’m assuming quicktime?) Does anyone know what that format is, a method to change the format of movies into that (like a convert x to DVD program if possible)?

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13 Answers

janbb's avatar

Bookmarked this because I have an iPad but can only watch streaming with WiFi on.

mazingerz88's avatar

I have continuous internet connection for my iPad. 30 bucks a month unlimited use from AT&T so I could surf and download as much data I need without having to pay extra. They have discontinued that unlimited service. As I understand, the more or less data you use dictates the amount of your payment. There could be new deals I’m not aware about though, since I have the first version of the iPad.

Now with this service, I found that I can’t download full movies and would need a wifi signal to accommodate the amount of data that is coming. I downloaded several movies like The Wolfman and Star Trek using the wifi at home. It takes a few hours in my case. There was one time I paused downloading at home and continued it at work using the wifi signal there.

Also, I download movies in my Macbook Pro bought from iTunes and from there, transfer it to the iPad or vice versa. Once the whole movie is downloaded, all I need then is attach my earphones and enjoy it without any interruption anywhere.

I also have a Netflix account and enjoying watching a lot of their movies available via instant play streaming. Anywhere where AT&T could reach me.

janbb's avatar

@mazingerz88 Where do you download from?

janbb's avatar

Oh – thanks!

mazingerz88's avatar

@janbb I guess my answer wouldn’t be much help for @tedd since I’m only familiar with iTunes to iPad movie downloads. I have no patience learning about changing movies from one format to another and would like to go the most simple route as possible.

nikipedia's avatar

Getting movies on it is terrible. The only option I’ve found is iTunes, but if you start a movie you have to finish it within 24 hours. Even though you paid 4 or 5 bucks for the privilege. Really fucking annoying.

tedd's avatar

I have no problem getting access to movies. uTorrent + Piratebay = any movie or show I want.

I’m trying to find out if someone knows of a conversion program that swaps them into the format that the iPad runs movies on?

Does anyone know what format the movies are in on the iPad? Is it quicktime?

nikipedia's avatar

That’s what I’m saying, you can have all the movies in the world, but it’s almost impossible to get them onto the iPad. And I can’t even tell you what format they’re stored in because there’s no file system browser or terminal (obviously).

tedd's avatar

I’m looking up on it, apparently it supports .mov, .mp4, .m4v

now I just need a converter

ratboy's avatar

It’s easy. You can use Handbrake or one of the many commercial converters.

Lightlyseared's avatar

Assuming you’re using a PC you’ll need the free trial of anyDVD and handbrake

You install anyDVD and it bypasses the copy protection. Handbrake is very easy to use and it has a preset that will format the video files specifically for the ipad. It can take a little while to rip a DVD sometimes a couple of hours depending on how fast your computer is.

After you have ripped the DVD to your computer you add it to itunes and copy it to the ipad just like music.

Rarebear's avatar

As @Lightlyseared said. The easiest way of course is to buy or rent them from itunes, but that’s exactly what they want you to do. You won’t be able to stream from a plane.

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