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iPad using an ipad to play home videos instead of digital photo frame

H

halfmonkey

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 17, 2011
139
3
Here's my situation. I'm currently trying to get my digital photo frame to play home videos and not dvd videos. These videos can come from my iphone 5, Canon S95, Canon SD550, Sony A7, or Canon HF M41. I know it's a whole bunch of different formats and the frames appear to only accept MPEG4 or AVI. I found this link https://support.nixplay.com/entries/22048571-Tips-for-Mac-Users-on-Video-Conversion that gives recommended instructions on converting files to a potentially usable format. I tried it it works on one frame that I have but it's an old frame and the video came out blotchy. I don't know if that is from the video itself or the material. Another frame I have, which is newer, didn't even display the video.

Is there an easier way to display my home videos through my ipad as if it were a digital "photo/video" frame? I have created some movies through iMovie and successfully loaded them to itunes and then shared them to the ipad but I guess the material will be limited to the size of the hard drive.

Is there a way to connect an external hard drive to an ipad so that I can load all of my home movies created from iMovies onto the hard drive and let the ipad run the videos from there?
 
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Seems like an expensive picture frame to me.

I don't think there's a way to connect a hard drive directly to the iPad.
 
You could just go to goodwill and buy a picture frame and put a picture in it. That way your house is decorated, and when you want to show someone a video, you can just show them on your iPad.

That will save you much money, and your house won't look like Hogwarts with the moving pictures on the walls...
 
maflynn said:
Seems like an expensive picture frame to me.

I don't think there's a way to connect a hard drive directly to the iPad.
Click to expand...

Hyper brand makes an ext drive called the HyperDrive specifically to connect with the ipad. You do need to the camera connection for the ipad as it appears to connect via usb. I'm just not sure how it would display the video though. I guess once the drive is connected, it'll just show up as a regular external drive with access to the video files. From there, I'd guess that you just click on the video files to play. I don't know if you can play all video files and if it will automatically loop.

Here's a link to one of the drives I'm referring to.
http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive/HDIP-320.html
 
halfmonkey said:
Hyper brand makes an ext drive called the HyperDrive specifically to connect with the ipad. You do need to the camera connection for the ipad as it appears to connect via usb. I'm just not sure how it would display the video though. I guess once the drive is connected, it'll just show up as a regular external drive with access to the video files. From there, I'd guess that you just click on the video files to play. I don't know if you can play all video files and if it will automatically loop.

Here's a link to one of the drives I'm referring to.
http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive/HDIP-320.html
Click to expand...

Sorry, iPads don't work like that. You'll need to download an app supplied by the drive manufacturer to access the files. They'll need to be in iTunes compatible video format. As for playing all videos or looping, it'll depend on whether that function is provided by the manufacturer app.
 
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There are a number of options, starting with getting your content converted to mp4 so you can use your original frames. I would suggest Handbrake for this.

If you want to go the iPad route, you can get a wireless hard drive (something that creates its own WiFi), and then a suitable player app on the iPad. I suggest nPlayer. This should be enough to Google up some info. Otherwise, you can ask more questions here.
 
Night Spring said:
Sorry, iPads don't work like that. You'll need to download an app supplied by the drive manufacturer to access the files. They'll need to be in iTunes compatible video format. As for playing all videos or looping, it'll depend on whether that function is provided by the manufacturer app.
Click to expand...

That's funny, I use FileBrowser (available on the App Store) to play back videos from my old Western Digital MyBook World II drives, no WD software required.

For the videos that aren't in mp4 format OPlayer HD works. It even plays back mkv files plus if you have multiple files in one folder it will play them as a playlist.

Note that I'm doing all of this over WiFi... no special drive, no special cords, no special software. (Other than the aforementioned obviously.)

Just saying. :D
 
powerstrokin said:
That's funny, I use FileBrowser (available on the App Store) to play back videos from my old Western Digital MyBook World II drives, no WD software required.

For the videos that aren't in mp4 format OPlayer HD works. It even plays back mkv files plus if you have multiple files in one folder it will play them as a playlist.

Note that I'm doing all of this over WiFi... no special drive, no special cords, no special software. (Other than the aforementioned obviously.)

Just saying. :D
Click to expand...

I use FileBrowser too, but I don't think it plays videos that are in formats other than the iTunes compatible ones.

And I'm not familiar with OPlayer -- is that one of the apps that convert videos on the fly and stream them to the iPad? If so, that might be what the OP is looking for. Those would, however, require that a computer be on, so it can convert and send the videos. My previous post was in response to how wireless hard drives will work with iPads. If we throw in a computer serving as a streaming server, then a lot more is possible.
 
Night Spring said:
I use FileBrowser too, but I don't think it plays videos that are in formats other than the iTunes compatible ones.

And I'm not familiar with OPlayer -- is that one of the apps that convert videos on the fly and stream them to the iPad? If so, that might be what the OP is looking for. Those would, however, require that a computer be on, so it can convert and send the videos. My previous post was in response to how wireless hard drives will work with iPads. If we throw in a computer serving as a streaming server, then a lot more is possible.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what OPlayer does actually, in that regard. It's like VLC..it will play almost anything. Edit- you're correct about FileBrowser only playing iTunes compatible files. I use FB to grab the incompatible files and copy to the ipad if I need to.

I do not use a computer to convert any files or facilitate in streaming. I connect my iPad mini retina to the wireless network that has my hard drives on it and that's it.
 
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