Buying the new iPad 64GB WiFi

[nampramos]

Guys,

I'm going to order the new iPad this week from the Apple Store.

It will be my first iPad and I'm pretty excited with the retina display.

I watch a lot of tv shows and movies so I think it will be great.

I've been reading some threads and there seems to be mixed opinions regarding the best players for the new iPad. I got the impression there isn't any yet that is fully compatible with the new iPad specs and all of them do not take advantage of the quad-core graphics.

And what about the transfer to the iPad? Is it fast to transfer a 5Gb file over WiFi? Faster than connected with the USB?


One other matter I'd like to ask you guys is regarding a cover for the iPad. I was thinking to go with the Apple Smart Cover. Any negative sides on that?


Thanks!

 

[waynep]

I have a new 64GB WiFi iPad. Love it!

USB is faster than wifi for getting media sync'd with the ipad. I have all my media in iTunes and I use the default player software on the iPad. It's fine, and works. I watched The Lincoln Lawyer via Netflix last night. Was fine.

I sync my iPad via wifi. It's more convenient since I don't have to plug it in. It's slower than USB. But I don't care. I am not in that much of a hurry. It it take 2 hours instead of 10 minutes to sync while I am sleeping then so what. Just my thought on the matter.

 

[nampramos]

2 hours over 10 minutes? Wow...

I don't plan in advance what I want to watch.

I just download a movie or a new tv episode when it comes out and then I want to watch.

That's why I was wondering what's the best way to transfer it to the iPad and which video player app will do the best job with the retina display.

 

[h1r0ll3r]

Unless you have a blazingly fast wifi network, USB will most likely be quicker. Took about an hour and a half on USB to transfer 8GB of photos, 12GB of movies and 7GB of music on to my iPad. Were I to do all that over wifi I'd still probably be waiting for it to finish syncing.

As the new iPad is still, relatively, new there isn't going to be a mad rush of apps updated to take advantage of its specs. I'd say within a couple months or so you should start seeing more apps able to take advantage of the new specs.

As for the cover, smart cover is really the only thing out there. I'm actually going to get one (not from Apple) but some other brand that has a smart cover incorporated into a slim case. This way I'll get the features of the smart cover as well as some rear protection for my iPad. Choice is yours really but some people love the smart covers, others not so much.

 

[scaredpoet]

I had a 64GB iPad 2 Wifi, and upgraded to the new iPad 64GB Wifi (giving the 2 to my significant other).

What I do generally is use USB for my initial sync, where I'm sending all of my stuff over to the iPad for the first time. that makes the initial sync as fast as possible. From then on, I use Wifi to sync because there's obviously going to be a lot less stuff transferred over.

On a Wifi-n network, the theoretical maximum throughout is 600Mbps, but that's if nothing else is going on in the network, and signal conditions are optimal. On the other hand, UBS 2.0 is 480Mbps, but you have a greater chance of actually getting that throughput because it's a wired, unshared connection.

 

[nampramos]

So even with a Router with the N-norm it will still be slower than a conventional USB 2.0?

What about video stream? When will there be an app that can access an HDD connected to a wifi network and just stream from there or even copy movies to the iPad memory?

 

[satchow]

So even with a Router with the N-norm it will still be slower than a conventional USB 2.0?

What about video stream? When will there be an app that can access an HDD connected to a wifi network and just stream from there or even copy movies to the iPad memory?

AirVideo will do that. You install the server on your computer, set up what directories you want it to share, then just load up the app on your iPad and stream it from there. You can even stream it over the internet over Wifi and 3g if you want.

The smart cover is nice, but has no protection on the back. I just use a naked The new iPad and an Incase Maki Sleeve. I can store my iPad in it for travel and use the sleeve itself as a stand. Having a naked iDevice is always nice.

 

[nampramos]

Since I never had an iPad, I might not know all the angles to it.

But when you're using your iPad with the smart cover, it will be protecting the back of the iPad.

When you're not using the iPad and the smart cover is closed, just put the iPad facing screen down on the table or wherever you need.

No?


Regarding the streaming with the air play app. Will that stream a full 1080p movie file without reencoding?

 

[OneMike]

I originally had an wireless G router and the transfer did take forever when putting content.

When I upgraded to a Wireless N router my speeds came close enough to that of USB that if there was a difference it was negligible. Just make sure your router and devices are all N capable. Otherwise you won't get the best speed.

 

[nampramos]

I originally had an wireless G router and the transfer did take forever when putting content.

When I upgraded to a Wireless N router my speeds came close enough to that of USB that if there was a difference it was negligible. Just make sure your router and devices are all N capable. Otherwise you won't get the best speed.

I was just looking at my router specs D-Link DIR-600 and it looks like that even the N-norm routers will have different speeds.

On D-Link webpage it seems to say max speed of 150Mbps. That's not much...

• IEEE 802.11n Wireless LAN specification, single antenna design
• Up to 150 Mbps wireless speeds

 

[satchow]

Since I never had an iPad, I might not know all the angles to it.

But when you're using your iPad with the smart cover, it will be protecting the back of the iPad.

When you're not using the iPad and the smart cover is closed, just put the iPad facing screen down on the table or wherever you need.

No?


Regarding the streaming with the air play app. Will that stream a full 1080p movie file without reencoding?

Correct, you can fold back the smart cover to protect the back when you're using it and you can place it upside down when you're not using it.

For AirVideo, it'll play a 1080p mp4/m4v file without reencoding, but for any other filetypes it'll have to reencode. This isn't a problem except for the 5-10 seconds it'll take for it to start up and when you FF/RW. It works really well.

 

[nampramos]

Are there any good apps to change an avi file to one of those two formats?

Would it take ages to do so?

If it takes more than 5 minutes, I'm not interested anymore...

 

[satchow]

Are there any good apps to change an avi file to one of those two formats?

Would it take ages to do so?

If it takes more than 5 minutes, I'm not interested anymore...

Will definitely take more than 5 minutes to convert an .avi. You can use Handbrake for that.

But there's good news if you're interested in 1080p files. If it's an .mkv file, you can use software to just remux it and change the container to .mp4/.m4v. This takes about 3 minutes for a full length 1080p movie. For windows you can use mkv2vob and for osx you can use mp4tools.

 

[VFC]

Guys,

I'm going to order the new iPad this week from the Apple Store....... And what about the transfer to the iPad? Is it fast to transfer a 5Gb file over WiFi? Faster than connected with the USB?...... Thanks!

FYI - Some of the new Wifi iPads owners are experiencing slow Wifi download speeds. Hopefully you'll get one that doesn't have that problem.


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402622,00.asp

"Apple is aware of an issue affecting the Wi-Fi on select new iPads, and instructs those affected to contact Apple.
"Symptoms can include, but are not limited to: Intermittent connectivity, slow Wi-Fi speeds, Wi-Fi network not seen," the documents reads."


http://www.pcworld.com/article/253427/ipad_wifi_issues_may_be_fault_of_power_management.html

"[The Broadcom BCM4330 chip] boasts a new design including several new power-saving features," said Vronko. "Wi-Fi can be a hungry customer in mobile devices and Apple knew that the new LCD and its requisite monster truck GPU would be guzzling battery juice. They had to go aggressive on performance per milliwatt on every other component."

For that reason, Vronko wasn't surprised to hear users gripe. "Tune a few million test subjects tightly against the performance limit and you're bound to have some problems in the field," he said.

The solution could turn on adjusting the iPad's power management software to make more battery power available to the Broadcom chip."

 

[nampramos]

VFC, regarding the WiFi problems that some users are experience that is pretty easy to resolve.

If for some reason the iPad I receive comes with a defect, I just contact Apple Care and ask for a replacement.

It shouldn't be hard to prove that the iPad WiFi is underperforming, right?
Aren't there diagnostic apps that monitor the WiFi speeds when transferring files for example?

I can very well transfer a file to my iPhone 4S and then do the exact same thing with the iPad and compare the data.

Wouldn't that be a way to go?

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Will definitely take more than 5 minutes to convert an .avi. You can use Handbrake for that.

But there's good news if you're interested in 1080p files. If it's an .mkv file, you can use software to just remux it and change the container to .mp4/.m4v. This takes about 3 minutes for a full length 1080p movie. For windows you can use mkv2vob and for osx you can use mp4tools.

Are there any differences between an mp4 and a m4v?

It's not that normal that I have mkv files but sometimes I do have them.

For that amount of time I would be willing to convert them.