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iPad use in Hospital (Movies)

C

craznar

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 20, 2009
189
6
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
So my friend is going to be in hospital for a year, and he has a brand spanking new iPad 3 64gig to keep him going. It is the 3G model so he can surf/email/facebook etc up to a limited amount of traffic per month.

The question I can't find out is how to get movies to him given his computer, iTunes and broadband connection are still at home.

I have an iPad 3 and an iPhone 4S, he has a Samsung Galaxy SII, I have a USB camera adapter and USB dongles.

Is there any way to put movies onto my iPad then move them to his ?

What applications would I need on each device ?

Is there a way to get them off a USB stick or something ?

He also has a Samsung SIII in hospital with him.

Any suggestions to help relieve my friend's boredom and my frustration simultaneously ?
 
I'm sorry to hear that your friend must spend so much time in the hospital, but the iPad will really be useful for him.

You should check what restrictions the hospital has with their wifi. When my husband was in the hospital for extensive lengths of time a couple years ago, wifi was everywhere (great!) except iTunes and FaceBook were blocked. --Otherwise gifting iTunes things would have been possible with his laptop and/or iPod. I did find that sometimes, near the VIP unit, it was possible to access iTunes.
Sadly, this was just before the iPad was released --because even with restricted wifi the bigger screen is so much better for webzines & news and everything.

So we were stuck paying $5 a day for really basic stations. You know, if you're paying for bone marrow transplants it really sucks that the patients get gouged for basic diversions & entertainment, especially if they can't really leave the unit or their rooms... Okay, end rant. For now.

Some of the rooms had a DVD player, or the ability to hook one up so that was great, Unfortunately not all of my husbands rooms had that though, especially at the end.

You might just have to borrow his iPad for a few hours to load fresh things on it.

Best wishes to you both!
 
CrickettGrrrl said:
I'm sorry to hear that your friend must spend so much time in the hospital, but the iPad will really be useful for him.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Took him a while to come over to the Apple camp - hope I'm not left looking the fool :)

CrickettGrrrl said:
You should check what restrictions the hospital has with their wifi.
Click to expand...

No access allowed at all. He wont be even able to leave his bed for at least 6 months of that, so no access to anything else except his iPad and his Samsung phone for the long haul.

CrickettGrrrl said:
You might just have to borrow his iPad for a few hours to load fresh things on it.
Click to expand...

I can only see him once a week - that means every second week he would have no iPad.

There has to be a way of getting content to him... I thought we went iTunes free with iOS5 or something ?
 
poloponies said:
It's not without added cost, but if he's there for such a long stay:
Click to expand...

He blew all the dosh on the 64GB iPad thinking 64GB would be enough to hold lots of stuff. Given he would need two of them, it seems a little out of reach.

Are you telling me that the 64GB is a waste of money, because he can't get anything on to it ?

Sorry - but I've always had access to wi-fi and Air Video on my iPad, so I'd never tried to do it any other way.
 
craznar said:
He blew all the dosh on the 64GB iPad thinking 64GB would be enough to hold lots of stuff. Given he would need two of them, it seems a little out of reach.

Are you telling me that the 64GB is a waste of money, because he can't get anything on to it ?

Sorry - but I've always had access to wi-fi and Air Video on my iPad, so I'd never tried to do it any other way.
Click to expand...

You can't expect it to do all things under any circumstances. The device is not intended for use on a space station without some means of connecting it to the outside world. The most expeditious and cheapest route would be for you to pick up his iPad and reload it. Short of that, one of the devices I linked to will enable you to reload the external device which would then be accessible to him. Without wireless access there really aren't that many options.
 
poloponies said:
You can't expect it to do all things under any circumstances.
Click to expand...

Just want to watch some videos ...

poloponies said:
The device is not intended for use on a space station without some means of connecting it to the outside world.
Click to expand...

There is a way of connecting it - I can take stuff in and put it on, question is how ?

poloponies said:
The most expeditious and cheapest route would be for you to pick up his iPad and reload it.
Click to expand...

I don't consider buying a second iPad a cheap alternative....

poloponies said:
Short of that, one of the devices I linked to will enable you to reload the external device which would then be accessible to him. Without wireless access there really aren't that many options.
Click to expand...

Can we load the videos on to the iPad from those devices ? So I can take the device back with me after each visit ?
 
craznar said:
Just want to watch some videos ...



There is a way of connecting it - I can take stuff in and put it on, question is how ?



I don't consider buying a second iPad a cheap alternative....



Can we load the videos on to the iPad from those devices ? So I can take the device back with me after each visit ?
Click to expand...

I get that he just wants to watch some videos but he can't without wireless or the ability to use 3G to stream the video. Nobody's suggesting he buy a second iPad, but if it's possible for you to pick up his iPad, load and return it then that's the cheapest option. Short of that he can get one of the drives I linked to store more movies and stream them wirelessly to his iPad.
 
poloponies said:
I get that he just wants to watch some videos but he can't without wireless or the ability to use 3G to stream the video.
Click to expand...

That is all, I want to take in some movies so he can watch them during the week.

poloponies said:
Nobody's suggesting he buy a second iPad, but if it's possible for you to pick up his iPad, load and return it then that's the cheapest option.
Click to expand...

Yeah - but then I have the iPad for every second week unless we end up buying another iPad.

poloponies said:
Short of that he can get one of the drives I linked to store more movies and stream them wirelessly to his iPad.
Click to expand...

Again - two of those drives, unless there is a way of copying the stuff off the drive on to the iPad ?
 
Switching iPads

What about switching Ipads every week. You load one up with whatever and leave it and alternate each week. Now I don't know how good a friend this is or what you each have on your ipads but it's an idea.
Mi-fi's another solution but an expensive one. I used to have an app on my old Droid that allowed me to connect my laptop to the web thru my phone. Maybe something similar could be rigged up?
 
I see a couple options here. Both options involve the camera connector kit and some SD cards.

The first, and somewhat more elegant solution is to jailbreak the iPad, purchase and install iFile from Cydia, and then use that to copy files from an SD card into the video player of your choice (something like AVPlayer HD, or even GoodReader, but not the native iOS videos app-it needs to talk to iTunes to get content loaded into it). This way, your friend only has to get comfortable with iFile and then use his favorite video app.

The second option, and this one doesn't require jailbreaking but isn't quite as nice for playback, is to place the movies (make sure they are in mpeg4 format for this solution) into a folder on the SD card called DCIM. This fools the iPad into thinking that these movies are coming from a digital camera, and it will load them into the Photos app, where they can then be watched. Unfortunately, the Photos app isn't designed to be a movie playback app, so the movies won't display their names and the video controls are a bit different than normal. However, I've used this method, myself, in the past and it works pretty decently.

Okay, here's an addendum to the second option. I just realized that you can import movies from the camera roll into GoodReader. As GoodReader is a much more user friendly app to use as a movie player, that could be a decent method, though I haven't tested it out extensively.

I hope this helps. And it's pretty inexpensive, either way. You're looking at less than $20 in apps, plus about $30 for the camera connector kit, plus, about $40 for a couple of high capacity cards (you can get 32GB SD cards on Amazon for about $20 each). So, total of less than $90, and you're good to go. By having two SD cards, you'll be able to fill one and leave one, swapping each time you visit him.
 
Snowy_River said:
I hope this helps. And it's pretty inexpensive, either way. You're looking at less than $20 in apps, plus about $30 for the camera connector kit, plus, about $40 for a couple of high capacity cards (you can get 32GB SD cards on Amazon for about $20 each). So, total of less than $90, and you're good to go. By having two SD cards, you'll be able to fill one and leave one, swapping each time you visit him.
Click to expand...

Second option is working, I couldn't get the USB to work (too much power), but a 2Gig SD card seems to be just fine - so will try bigger ones as required.

Thank you. SD cards are a dime a dozen, have several already for our cameras.

Thanks.
 
Do you have access to a netbook or laptop? Can you load it up with movies, etc and sync when you go see him?

Or how about a mifi device. I know he would still be limited based on data limits but those come with bigger limits.

And if you're in the US a shared data plan from AT&T using a phone and the iPad may give him a lot of data. A 15G plan is a lot and if he tethers to the phone, I think the iPad sees it as wifi so download limits won't apply. It's expensive though.

I hope you find some solutions. And I hope your friend does well. A year seems like a long time and yet one year is still just a small part of an entire life. Best of luck to him. He is lucky to have a friend like you. Keep his spirits up, it will help him.
 
Bring a laptop with movies, music, etc. Then put them on his iPad. That's the best solution, I can't imagine you or your friend can't get a laptop somewhere.
 
What mobile phone has your friend got?

If he wants to surf the internet, he can just turn his phone into a mobile wi-fi hotspot and connect to it with his iPad.

I was going to get the new iPad Cellular on a dataplan but then realised that I could save a ton of money just using my phone as a hotspot so I can access the internet on the go.

Hope that helps :)
 
Badrottie said:
Hi Crazner…

Why not buy a ClearWire Spot mobile hotspot? The size is very very small (Like hockey puck) and ClearWire have two different unlimited data plans. :apple:

Clear Spot mobile hotspot
Click to expand...

Clear also offers a "home" modem. We had one for about a year because our apartment complex didn't support any other internet service. They have plans for 20-40 a month, usually with a free modem. You will have to use a wireless router, but those can be bought pretty cheap now.

http://www.clear.com/devices/hubs

You may need a laptop for the initial setup, but I am not 100% sure.

FWIW the hotspots and the hubs use the same plans.

Wishing your friend the best!:)
 
craznar said:
So my friend is going to be in hospital for a year, and he has a brand spanking new iPad 3 64gig to keep him going. It is the 3G model so he can surf/email/facebook etc up to a limited amount of traffic per month.

The question I can't find out is how to get movies to him given his computer, iTunes and broadband connection are still at home.

I have an iPad 3 and an iPhone 4S, he has a Samsung Galaxy SII, I have a USB camera adapter and USB dongles.

Is there any way to put movies onto my iPad then move them to his ?

What applications would I need on each device ?

Is there a way to get them off a USB stick or something ?

He also has a Samsung SIII in hospital with him.

Any suggestions to help relieve my friend's boredom and my frustration simultaneously ?
Click to expand...

Would the hospital provide Wifi or Wired Internet (Bring your own Wireless AP) incase you don't have unlimited Internet plan.
and install PLEX on his home computer. I use it Everyday and LOVE it.
 
craznar said:
The point is - he got an iPad. If he had a laptop, he would have used the laptop :)
Click to expand...
I know, but in order to transfer files properly you need a computer. Since he's in the ospital, let it be a laptop. If he doesn't have one, borrow one. You only need it to transfer files every now and then.

Other solution: take his iPad home, fill it up and bring it back.
 
TC03 said:
I know, but in order to transfer files properly you need a computer. Since he's in the ospital, let it be a laptop. If he doesn't have one, borrow one. You only need it to transfer files every now and then.
Click to expand...

So solution #1: Sell iPad, buy Laptop

Other solution: take his iPad home, fill it up and bring it back.[/QUOTE]

Solution #2: Buy second iPad.

not what I call excellent solutions :)
 
You could try one of the many wifi/USB adapters, some use usb hard drives, just preload the movies before a visit on it. I am not sure if you can do a direct transfer to the iPad using the appropriate app, but I bet some of them will using either a specific app program or general wireless transfer like goodreader software.

http://www.hypershop.com/CloudFTP-by-HyperDrive-s/218.htm
http://www.hypershop.com/iFlashDrive-by-HyperDrive-s/210.htm
http://www.kingston.com/us/usb/wireless#wid
http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/

Edit: forgot one: http://www.amazon.com/Maxell-AirSta...F8&qid=1347723324&sr=8-5&keywords=iflashdrive
 
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The best bet is a laptop that you take to the hospital and sync while you are there. It doesn't have to a be a great laptop, just as long as it has iTunes, USB2 and a big enough hard drive (or you could connect an external hard drive with the iTunes library on it). Maybe you know someone with an old laptop hanging around that you could borrow every couple of weeks?
 
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