All iPads HELP PLEASE: Whats the fastest way to transfer movies from Macbook Pro to iPad?

magentawave · Jan 21, 2013

I'm going to be traveling extensively in a motorhome through the US, Mexico, and Central America and have questions about watching movies on my iPad 1 while traveling please...

1) Will AVI files play on an iPad?

2) What is the fastest video converter that will convert AVI files to MP4? Is there anything faster than Handbrake?

3) Whats the fastest way to transfer a 600MB MP4 movie from my Macbook Pro to my iPad WITHOUT internet?

4) And whats the fastest way to do the above transfer WITH internet? (I'm trying Dropbox right now but it says its going to take 4 hours for the MP4 file to appear in my iPads Dropbox...and thats with decent 19MBPS WiFi.)

Thank you!

RedCroissant · Jan 21, 2013

magentawave said:
I'm going to be traveling extensively in a motorhome through the US, Mexico, and Central America and have questions about watching movies on my iPad 1 while traveling please...

1) Will AVI files play on an iPad?

2) What is the fastest video converter that will convert AVI files to MP4? Is there anything faster than Handbrake?

3) Whats the fastest way to transfer a 600MB MP4 movie from my Macbook Pro to my iPad WITHOUT internet?

4) And whats the fastest way to do the above transfer WITH internet? (I'm trying Dropbox right now but it says its going to take 4 hours for the MP4 file to appear in my iPads Dropbox...and thats with decent 19MBPS WiFi.)

Thank you!

1. I don't think so.

2. Handbrake. No, in my experience, HB is the best.

3. iTunes via included usb cable

4. no idea.

blueroom · Jan 21, 2013

Motorhome with AC power.

Although I've not tried it I'd look at a Synology DS213Air and plunk all my data on that. It should be possible to set it up as a wireless AP, and Synology has free apps for the iPad for media playback.

Your AVI's probably wont play unless they're encoded for h.264 or you find a media player that'll play them (I convert so I can't help with that). Personally I'd just batch em up in Handbrake for iPad and let it run.

TJ61 · Jan 21, 2013

1. Yes, with 3rd party players. If converting all your avi's to mp4 seems daunting, I'd try some 3rd party video players like yaPlayer that will play avi's as is. Note: if your video files have AC3 audio (Dolby), I don't think any 3rd party apps will work any more. (Note: I have not explicitly tried playing avi's with yaPlayer.)

2. On a Windows machine, I use HandBrake to convert avi's.

3&4. With or without internet, the fastest way to transfer is via the cable. I would avoid DropBox; I think that would take forever.

Regards,
Tom

ShadowPenny · Jan 21, 2013

Smart Converter Pro

I use Smart Converter Pro. Drag and drop the avi's you need converted, click on the ipad symbol down the bottom and hit convert. Converts them to mp4 or m4v, ready for playback on iPad, mac or Apple TV.

magentawave · Jan 21, 2013

Can I transfer the movie file using the iPads USB cable to the desktop of the iPad or do I have to put it in iTunes?

I just tried dragging the MP4 from my MBP's desktop over into the iPad's iTunes and it won't let me do that. Got any ideas why?

Thanks again.

Noremac4 · Jan 21, 2013

I use this.

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/

I didn't want to take up space on my iPad or go through the heartache of trying to transfer movies onto my iPad. You can also connect more than one device.
Also, friends that have movies on their HDDs, I give it to them for the night and "voila"I have more movies.

It's one more thing to carry and keep charged, but I don't mind at all.

TJ61 · Jan 22, 2013

magentawave said:
Can I transfer the movie file using the iPads USB cable to the desktop of the iPad or do I have to put it in iTunes?

I just tried dragging the MP4 from my MBP's desktop over into the iPad's iTunes and it won't let me do that. Got any ideas why?

Thanks again.

I think you can only do this if you have iTunes set to manually manage your iPad media. I do this regularly on a Windows PC, with iTunes set to manually manage. I assume you did not get any error message suggesting wrong format or something.

Regards,
Tom

dXTC · Jan 22, 2013

magentawave said:
Can I transfer the movie file using the iPads USB cable to the desktop of the iPad or do I have to put it in iTunes?

I just tried dragging the MP4 from my MBP's desktop over into the iPad's iTunes and it won't let me do that. Got any ideas why?

Thanks again.

You'll need to do this in two steps:
First, open your iTunes Library's "Movie" list, then drag the MP4 onto that list. This establishes an entry in the iTunes database (and makes a copy of the MP4, if you have "Copy media..." checked in Preferences).
Then, find the movie's entry in your Library, and drag that onto the iPad.

Let us know if this works...

darngooddesign · Jan 22, 2013

Have you considered one of the wifi hardrives like the Seagate Satellite Go? Or if you could have a cellular hotspot device you can just stream from the your MBP to your iPad.

magentawave · Jan 22, 2013

I was able to drag the movie into iTunes Movies on my computer but it still won't let me add it to my iPads or my iPods Movies section. When I try to drag it and drop it, it just snaps back to Movies in my computers iTunes. I updated iTunes to the latest version too. I am able to play it in iTunes on my computer though. Any other suggestions?

dXTC said:
You'll need to do this in two steps:
First, open your iTunes Library's "Movie" list, then drag the MP4 onto that list. This establishes an entry in the iTunes database (and makes a copy of the MP4, if you have "Copy media..." checked in Preferences).
Then, find the movie's entry in your Library, and drag that onto the iPad.

I'm pretty sure its set to that because when I plug my iPad into my computer it doesn't automatically start adding stuff from iTunes on my computer to iTunes on my iPad. There are no error messages.

TJ61 said:
I think you can only do this if you have iTunes set to manually manage your iPad media. I do this regularly on a Windows PC, with iTunes set to manually manage. I assume you did not get any error message suggesting wrong format or something.

I didn't know WiFi hard drives existed and they are cool but its unlikely I'll have much WiFi as I'm traveling through Mexico and Central America.

use this.
http://www.seagate.com/external-hard...ate-satellite/

I didn't want to take up space on my iPad or go through the heartache of trying to transfer movies onto my iPad. You can also connect more than one device.
Also, friends that have movies on their HDDs, I give it to them for the night and "voila"I have more movies.

darngooddesign said:
Have you considered one of the wifi hardrives like the Seagate Satellite Go? Or if you could have a cellular hotspot device you can just stream from the your MBP to your iPad.

magentawave · Jan 22, 2013

Please read my previous post first.

UPDATE:

I think I have a mess here...

[/B]When I click on Music in my iPad iTunes from my computer there is tons of stuff that is dimmed with a dimmed little stopped spinning thing to the left no doubt because the first time I hooked up my iPad to my computer a couple years ago (which I almost never do) I stopped my iPad iTunes from syncing with my computers iTunes because I didn't want tons of stuff going into my iPads iTunes and sucking up all of the iPads memory. I would say that probably 95% of everything in my iPads iTunes Music is dimmed and highlighting it and clicking Delete won't get rid of it. Obviously you can't play any of the dimmed stuff because I didn't let if finish synching. I can play the non-dimmed music in there from my computer but I can't delete that stuff either.

[/B]How can I delete everything in my iPads iTunes except for my books and start over? To save the books I tried highlighting all them in my iPads iTunes from my computer so I could drag them into my computers iTunes Books section but it won't let me move anything. In fact, the only thing I can do with my iPads Books from my computer is to right click and choose "Get Info" or "Rating". I tried selecting all my Books in my iPad and then I clicked "Add To Library..." from the iTunes menu on my computer, and then I created a folder called "Books from iPad iTunes" and it still wouldn't let me add them to that folder or anywhere else.

When I open iTunes from within my iPad the only thing I can access is all the commercial stuff from Apple (new songs and movies, etc.) and the songs I purchased from Apple but I can't see any of my other music or books in there.

When I open the Music app on my iPad I can see all the same music under "Songs" that I can see from my computer when the iPad is plugged into the computer. I see the same dimmed songs (that I can't play or delete). I can see and play and delete individually the few songs that made it there before I stopped the synching a couple years ago. None of my books are in there.

I see 38 books in my iPads iTunes from my computer but can't find them anywhere in iTunes from my iPad. 25 of those books are in my iBooks.

If your head hasn't blown off your shoulders yet, here is what I want to do...

1) I want to save all 38 books I can see in my iPads iTunes when its connected to my computer by either putting them somewhere on my iPad (iBooks??) or a folder on my computer.

2) I want to delete iTunes from my iPad and upload a fresh copy of iTunes.

3) I want to MANUALLY put only the stuff I want in my iPads iTunes (to save memory).

4) I want to get all 38 books in my iBooks on my iPad.

Can anyone tell me how to do that stuff please?

Thanks again.

darngooddesign · Jan 22, 2013

magentawave said:
I didn't know WiFi hard drives existed and they are cool but its unlikely I'll have much WiFi as I'm traveling through Mexico and Central America.

The drive creates it's own Wifi network that your iPad joins.

magentawave · Jan 22, 2013

You mean I could be boondocking out in the middle of nowhere with no cellphone service and no WiFi and that HD will share whats on it with my iPad or computer?

darngooddesign said:
The drive creates it's own Wifi network that your iPad joins.

Acorn · Jan 22, 2013

Noremac4 said:
I use this.

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/

I didn't want to take up space on my iPad or go through the heartache of trying to transfer movies onto my iPad. You can also connect more than one device.
Also, friends that have movies on their HDDs, I give it to them for the night and "voila"…I have more movies.

It's one more thing to carry and keep charged, but I don't mind at all.

I have never seen this before. It looks like a sweet device. Do you have to have a cellular or existing wifi connection for it to work. IE will it work with no internet connection?

Noremac4 · Jan 22, 2013

Acorn said:
I have never seen this before. It looks like a sweet device. Do you have to have a cellular or existing wifi connection for it to work. IE will it work with no internet connection?

No, you don't have to have an existing cellular or wifi internet connection for it to work. The HDD emits its own wifi signal that your iPad, iPhone or whatever connects to.

So you could be in the middle of no where, without a signal, and be able to watch a movie. I do it all the time on planes.

mpayne2k · Jan 22, 2013

I have begun using the standard videos app to play downloaded .mp4 files. Otherwise for .avi I've had good luck with GoodPlayer for iPad.

For transferring, you just go into iTunes and go to your apps tab, scroll down to goodplayer and select files to add to the app. It even has a wifi option to sync without iTunes.

darngooddesign · Jan 22, 2013

magentawave said:
You mean I could be boondocking out in the middle of nowhere with no cellphone service and no WiFi and that HD will share whats on it with my iPad or computer?

Yes. The wifi network is between the drive and your computer/phone/ipad.

By the same token, can't you just use an airport express basestation to create a network and then just share your devices like you're at home.

Acorn · Jan 22, 2013

Noremac4 said:
No, you don't have to have an existing cellular or wifi internet connection for it to work. The HDD emits its own wifi signal that your iPad, iPhone or whatever connects to.

So you could be in the middle of no where, without a signal, and be able to watch a movie. I do it all the time on planes.

that is really neat. I will have to pick up one of those. The only downside seems to be you cant reformat it as a mac journal encrypted drive. I like to set up all my external drives as an encrypted drive with a password so at least if its ever stolen or loss they wont get all my data for free too. It does seem to have a password protection (i think for wifi) but its easily reset to nothing at the press of a button on the bottom of the drive. if the drive was stolen people could still plug it in and download all the movies.

Redjericho · Jan 22, 2013

magentawave said:
I'm going to be traveling extensively in a motorhome through the US, Mexico, and Central America and have questions about watching movies on my iPad 1 while traveling please...

1) Will AVI files play on an iPad?

2) What is the fastest video converter that will convert AVI files to MP4? Is there anything faster than Handbrake?

3) Whats the fastest way to transfer a 600MB MP4 movie from my Macbook Pro to my iPad WITHOUT internet?

4) And whats the fastest way to do the above transfer WITH internet? (I'm trying Dropbox right now but it says its going to take 4 hours for the MP4 file to appear in my iPads Dropbox...and thats with decent 19MBPS WiFi.)

Thank you!

1) Many apps can play .avi (GoodPlayer can it extremely well)

2) Nothing that will be noticeably faster

3) A USB transfer is fastest (and probably the only way without Internet), I don't imagine t would take more than 5 min for 600mb

4) USB will be almost always faster than Internet, unless you've got a blazing connection, Dropbox is probably your best choice there.

Smearbrick · Jan 22, 2013

Travelling in an RV? Why not just take a Macbook or some other non-iPad device and not worry about converting? Must these movies be watched on an iPad for optimal enjoyment?

magentawave · Jan 22, 2013

I am taking my Macbook Pro 17 but I like to watch movies in bed at night sometimes with my iPad.

Smearbrick said:
Travelling in an RV? Why not just take a Macbook or some other non-iPad device and not worry about converting? Must these movies be watched on an iPad for optimal enjoyment?

----------

Does anyone have any input based on my previous posts #11 and #12?

NewbieCanada · Jan 22, 2013

Many AVI files these days are XVID and use a video version of MP4 that iDevices will play, but the audio needs to be converted.

Apps like avidemux2 and MP4 tools will convert these to MP4 without touching the video, and it only takes a couple of minutes for a one or two hour video.

Night Spring · Jan 22, 2013

magentawave said:
Does anyone have any input based on my previous posts #11 and #12?

In order to copy iBooks from your iPad to your computer, you need to do a "transfer purchases" command. I'm not in front of my computer now, so I can't check to see how you do this with the latest iTunes, but I think you'll find it somewhere in the menus.

I also think you are confused about what the iPad iTunes app does. It is just the iTunes music and video store -- where you buy music and videos, and also download podcasts. In order to play music and videos on your iPad, you should open the Music and Video apps, respectively.

smileyface · Jan 23, 2013

Those wireless hard drives are damn expensive.

You can store videos,movies and pics on SD cards and download them onto the ipad using the camera connection kit card reader.Cheaper way to do it.

All iPads HELP PLEASE: Whats the fastest way to transfer movies from Macbook Pro to iPad?

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