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Movies on iPad

J

Jeepman88

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 26, 2011
56
0
So let's say I have blu-ray quality movie on my computer(.mkv file) that is around 2-3GBs. I'm wondering what the best way to get that file to my iPad is without sacrificing quality? Should I drag it to iTunes then just transfer to iPad? Convert file to "iPad preset" on handbrake? Key thing here is not sacrificing quality. I can't stand watching "pixely" movies, drive's me crazy.

Thanks

P.S Mac user
 
I use the Apple TV2 preset on Handbrake, and the quality is outstanding. On a smaller screen (ie an ipad) you will not notice any quality drop off at all. Go with that, I believe it encodes to a higher resolution than the ipad preset.
 
iPad apps that can play MKV files have serious problems with anything at 720p and above, even on the iPad 2, so you'd need to convert the movie anyways.

Also you'd eliminate any extra bulk from, say, 1080p movies, which the iPad can't even display anyways (as its screen only has a *768 resolution)
 
Fliesen said:
iPad apps that can play MKV files have serious problems with anything at 720p and above, even on the iPad 2, so you'd need to convert the movie anyways.

Also you'd eliminate any extra bulk from, say, 1080p movies, which the iPad can't even display anyways (as its screen only has a *768 resolution)
Click to expand...

So are you saying I should put it into handbrake and down convert?
 
Jeepman88 said:
So are you saying I should put it into handbrake and down convert?
Click to expand...

Yes. Handbrake using Apple TV or iPad preset. If you're actually watching it *on* the iPad, you won't notice any degrade in quality, since the iPad resolution is less than the source.

If you want something faster or want to use the HDMI out to a TV at full quality, you can use something like Subler or MKVTools to remux the original video and audio into an mp4 for iTunes/iPad... assuming you don't mind one movie taking up 2-3 GB on your iPad.
 
I have a movie in 1080p, as an 11GB file. I can watch it on my iPad streaming it using AirVideo. I can also connect the iPad to my TV using the Component Cable, and the quality is great. Of course, it gets resized to 720p.
 
Jeepman88 said:
So are you saying I should put it into handbrake and down convert?
Click to expand...

I have been doing a lot of this. I rip my Blu-Ray movies using MakeMKV, then re-encode them using the AppleTV2 preset in handbrake. The output is a 720P, 30 FPS m4v file which looks great on the iPad and even better when played on an HDTV connected to the iPad via AirPlay or an HDMI cable.

Handbrake now can re-encode the DTS soundtracks which are typical on Blu-Rays into a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which is compatible with the AppleTV.
 
Fliesen said:
iPad apps that can play MKV files have serious problems with anything at 720p and above, even on the iPad 2, so you'd need to convert the movie anyways.

Also you'd eliminate any extra bulk from, say, 1080p movies, which the iPad can't even display anyways (as its screen only has a *768 resolution)
Click to expand...

AVPlayerHD released an iPad 2 update a couple of days ago which optimized the app for the dual core chip, and now it plays 720p MKV files (x264) smoothly. I haven't tried 1080p though. Here's the link if you are curious:

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/avplayerhd/id407976815?mt=8
 
I use the Universal preset under the Apple section in HandBrake. It works good and quality seems good and never had any problems with compatibility.
 
benhollberg said:
I use the Universal preset under the Apple section in HandBrake. It works good and quality seems good and never had any problems with compatibility.
Click to expand...
This.

Quite often people use higher bitrates and higher resolutions for their encodes than the device can handle. Once you exceed the physical limitations of the screen hardware that extra resolution and bitrate does nothing to improve the quality and only adds to the size of the file and the increase the work the CPU/GPU needs to do.

Using the universal preset in HandBrake, my videos weigh in between 600-800MB (depending upon the length of the movie) and look great on the iPad.
 
I've used Handbrake to convert 1080I video for the iPad and the loss of quality was not noticeable when watching on the iPad.

The issue is that it takes really, really long to convert files to .mp4 for ATV2 or iPad. If you don't mind the wait, then it's fine, otherwise it's easier to just rent a movie on itunes.
 
air video. it plays everything i've thrown at it so far including .vob files. streams it to your ipad/iphone from your pc.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like either either the apple tv or universal preset is the way to go. And just to clarify, I'm referring to movies that I would store on the iPad itself, so that I can watch them on a plane or a place where wifi/3G isn't necessarily available.
 
benhollberg said:
I use the Universal preset under the Apple section in HandBrake. It works good and quality seems good and never had any problems with compatibility.
Click to expand...

Well, universal preset is no good for HD. The largest horizontal resolution it supports is 720 pixels (vs. 1024 for iPad preset and 1280 for AppleTV 2 preset).

Many people seem to think universal preset is a magic setting, but it really is meant for DVD quality source that can be used across widest range of devices.
 
dxr808s said:
Interesting. Does it play MKV files? Does it do it well?

The file list seems unclear.
Click to expand...

I too would like to know how good it is at playing 720p MKVs.

I hate having to encode everything I want to take with me. Would be nice just to be able to drag and drop practically anything on my hard drive (while being realistic that I am not going to get it to play a massive 1080P video).
 
sracer said:
Using the universal preset in HandBrake, my videos weigh in between 600-800MB (depending upon the length of the movie) and look great on the iPad.
Click to expand...

I always use the Universal preset but my movies are usually about 1.5 GB, which is fine but I wonder why the big difference.
 
I have to say the converter in the airvideo app is not very efficient. It compresses by only a couple hundred mb.

Hand break is much better, however it takes hours! I have a 8 core mac pro but it's boxed up (moving house and my new place isn't ready. So I'm using my 2008 mbp and takes around 2.5 hours to convert an .avi to a m4v.
 
sochet said:
I have to say the converter in the airvideo app is not very efficient. It compresses by only a couple hundred mb.

Hand break is much better, however it takes hours! I have a 8 core mac pro but it's boxed up (moving house and my new place isn't ready. So I'm using my 2008 mbp and takes around 2.5 hours to convert an .avi to a m4v.
Click to expand...
The problem is that you are converting from an .avi (which is nothing more than a container file that can contain different video encoded in various codecs)

In contrast, using Handbrake to convert directly from a DVD to an .m4v or .mp4 file takes 1:2 or 1:3 (1 minute of conversion for every 2 or 3 minutes of video) on my 2010 MBP.
 
transfer of file from ipad to Mac or vice versa

Hi
Without sacrificing quality you can transfer movie from ipad to mac or vice versa with the hlep of ipad to mac transfer software. iTunes has so many problem in transferring of file. But ipad to Mac transfer tool will automatically transfer your data once you connect it to your Mac system.
 
sochet said:
I have to say the converter in the airvideo app is not very efficient. It compresses by only a couple hundred mb.
Click to expand...

Both Air and HB encode as h264 (AFAIK), if you're getting different filesizes then your encoding settings are different, so of course you'll get different results.
 
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