All iPads Can I play 4K videos on ipad mini with retina Display?

[Night Spring]

I understand that this is slightly off topic, but do HD movies really look better on an iPad Air vs SD? Seems like it's all about the pixels, the problem is, is that you buy the HD version on iTunes then that is what you get when it is in iCloud, takes up way too much space on the hard drive. Thanks in advance.

I forget how, but there's a way to download the SD version. I happen to think that HD does look better than SD, at least on the 10 inch iPads, but I also think if you are short on space, the SD versions are perfectly fine, too.

EDIT: Found article about how to download SD version.
http://mac-fusion.com/how-to-download-sd-versions-of-itunes-movies-you-own-on-your-iphone/

The article uses an iPhone, but it should also work on an iPad, too.

 

[kukheart]

Thanks, that does help, I have a 32GB iPhone and with my music on here too I can only put 1-2 movies or 1 HD movie. For some reason some of my movies in iCloud says WATCH and then when I hit that it goes to the video app with it not having that video there. Strange.

 

[HarryWarden]

Thanks, that does help, I have a 32GB iPhone and with my music on here too I can only put 1-2 movies or 1 HD movie. For some reason some of my movies in iCloud says WATCH and then when I hit that it goes to the video app with it not having that video there. Strange.

I don't think you'd notice much difference between SD and HD on an iPhone. Full Size iPad yes, iPhone no. Not sure about Retina Mini.

 

[Erasmus]

I don't think you'd notice much difference between SD and HD on an iPhone. Full Size iPad yes, iPhone no. Not sure about Retina Mini.

On the phone, I reckon you probably would, if you had reasonable vision. SD video is pretty bad, on the order of 480-580 vertical pixels, and interlaced. That puts even normal HD (720p) at around 4 times the number of real pixels than SD. Then Full HD (1080p) is over double that, but I would agree that Full HD is pointless for an iPhone.

To the OP:
An iPad can display every pixel of Full HD, which an iPhone cannot do, but only just. An iPad may be able to physically play a 4K video, but there is no point. The best viewing experience you will get is playing 1080p at a 1:1 pixel map on the screen, which would leave a small border around the screen (1920x1080 on the iPad screen, which is 2048x1536).

There is no reason why downsampling a 4K video should be more crisp than the Full HD version. Either the film was shot in 4K, and already down sampled to 1080p, or it was filmed in 1080p, and pointlessly upscaled to 4K, which just wastes space, and does not improve the video quality at all.

I expect if you Handbraked a 4K movie, you could probably get it to or below 20GB without sacrificing quality, but there is no point. Just use 1080p.