Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad Watching movies

I swear, I recall a few years ago totally being engrossed in the first season of LOST, watching it on my daily train commute to downtown San Diego.

My iDevice? An iPod Video. Sure enough, it's little 2" screen was all I had and it worked well.

Fast forward to today's iPad mini and honestly, you will be just fine!
 
braddick said:
I swear, I recall a few years ago totally being engrossed in the first season of LOST, watching it on my daily train commute to downtown San Diego.



My iDevice? An iPod Video. Sure enough, it's little 2" screen was all I had and it worked well.



Fast forward to today's iPad mini and honestly, you will be just fine!
Click to expand...


I am actually on the last season of LOST on Netflix. Looks great on my iPad air.
 
Funny I've been watching movies on my iPad Air while my big screen TV sits in the background :p

The ratio aspect was the first thing that struck me but it doesn't hinder my enjoyment of watching a movie on it. The other thing is the sound isn't as loud as I would like it to be and if there's a lot of noise may have to resort using the earphones or external speakers.

The experience really will be different for everybody. I can be fine watching news shows/YouTube in a small section of a web browser page and not even bother expanding the window.
 
I am a college student as well. Get the Mini. You'll appreciate the size a lot more. Unless I'm doing something that requires a laptop like AutoCAD, I usually only bring the iPad Mini to school. You don't even feel it in your bag. It's fine for watching movies too. I just came back from a trip to Vegas last weekend and enjoyed watching movies on it during the flight.
 
All the iPads are too small to watch a movie in bed. I use an extension cord with my 27" iMac and put that in my bed.

Okay, seriously now. An iPad Mini is a great size in bed. I sold my iPad 3 and love my retina iPad Mini -- much better for portability and I watch a lot of TV shows / movies on it in bed. I like the smaller size / lower weight for holding or propping it up in bed. I don't have large hands so I find it is easier for me to type and reach all the keys on the Mini.

But all of these types of questions boils down to personal preference. Any iPad you choose will work fine. But if you want to save some $$ as a college student, no problem with the Mini for what you want to do.
 
Zmanbaseball2 said:
I am actually on the last season of LOST on Netflix. Looks great on my iPad air.
Click to expand...

I remember watching Lost on a DVR. You could get a 1 hour broadcast down to 43 minutes without commercials, and then that down to about 25 by jumping 10 second "fast forwards" through the dead air. So much of that show was filming people walking through a jungle.

I'd advise you to use as little time possible watching the show, because when its all over, you'll wish you hadn't wasted the time :)
 
I've never watched a movie on my ipad mini, but then I've never watched a movie on my galaxy tab 10.1 either. I don't watch a lot of movies but I do watch a lot of TV shows and they are fine on my mini. In bed I prefer a smaller screen as my larger tablet is too heavy. Sometimes I'll even opt for my iPod touch or galaxy phone as they are smaller and more comfortable.
 
Badrottie said:
I watch Netflix movie on my iPad 2. It is easy to read closed caption. But I am not sure about rMini screen size is great for reading closed caption. :apple:
Click to expand...

I don't know if you have a Mini, but I took this pic for you. ;) The CC color is really a deeper yellow, and is larger than the text size on my Air while reading posts on this forum. Hope that helps.

P.S. I took this pic with my Air, and the autofocus kept jumping around. The text is very sharp compared to my Mini1, and definitely readable.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 129
I was using a 50" Pioneer Plasma to watch movies in bed but switched to a iPad mini because it's less tiring on my arms and when I fall asleep watching a movie it hurts a lot less than the plasma when it bonks me in the face.
 
Does anyone have both the iPad mini and the air? If so could you pull up a movie on each and take a picture? Still undecided on which one I would enjoy more after looking at them in the store three times. I like the size of the mini but I don't know if I would enjoy watching movies on it or find it too small compared to the air.
 
anp77 said:
Does anyone have both the iPad mini and the air? If so could you pull up a movie on each and take a picture? Still undecided on which one I would enjoy more after looking at them in the store three times. I like the size of the mini but I don't know if I would enjoy watching movies on it or find it too small compared to the air.
Click to expand...

If the store you're going to as Wi fi, you might be able to view a movie on their demo models. When i was shopping for a retina mini, I would download typical file I knew I wanted to use via my dropbox account (via safari).
 
shenan1982 said:
Plenty of people watch movies on iPhone. The mini has 4x the real estate on the screen, so clearly it's just not the device for YOU.
Click to expand...

I didn't say the mini was bad, just that if you primarily want to watch movies at home, the large iPad is better. Would you recommend the iPod touch to someone who wants to watch movies at home?
 
redkamel said:
I didn't say the mini was bad, just that if you primarily want to watch movies at home, the large iPad is better. Would you recommend the iPod touch to someone who wants to watch movies at home?
Click to expand...

Yeah actually. If they want to watch movies and want a small handheld screen that also doubles as a mp3 player for workouts. One would argue against your analogy and say an iPad makes for garbage movie watching at home, you NEED an iMac 27 inch. Someone could argue that that's garbage for movie watching, you NEED an Apple TV hooked up to a 65" Samsung TV.

You're applying YOUR thoughts and opinions as fact, and it's not right to make a statement that's clearly your opinion. I disagree with you, I think a mini retina is the absolute perfect size for portability combined with screen size. If your eyes disagree, so be it, but there's no right or wrong size for movie watching, that's why Apple makes screens 4 inches to 27 inches, and devices that attach to limitless screen sizes.
 
ZBoater said:
You sound like you would enjoy the bigger screen. Get the Air. Regret is a terrible thing to live with.
Click to expand...

Exactly. For movie watching, the larger screen is the way to go. I, in addition to the Air, also have a Nexus 7.2, which, when playing back 16:9 or 1:2.35 movies, has comparable active screen estate than the Mini and almost exclusively prefer the Air because of the larger screen.

Also, 9.7" iPads have better colors because of the much larger color gamut (see https://www.macrumors.com/2013/11/1...riticized-over-poor-color-gamut-and-accuracy/ ). While there are some players that allow for "turning up" saturation (nPlayer, AVPlayerHD, VLC - see the second half of section " 2. nPlayer" in my report at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1652736/ for some screenshots showing this in action), it won't really fix the issue (and incur an additional runtime speed hit).

----------
FrankB1191 said:
I don't know if you have a Mini, but I took this pic for you. ;) The CC color is really a deeper yellow, and is larger than the text size on my Air while reading posts on this forum. Hope that helps.

P.S. I took this pic with my Air, and the autofocus kept jumping around. The text is very sharp compared to my Mini1, and definitely readable.
Click to expand...

Or, better to go for something better than Apple's pathetic CC, in the first place. Even (DVD bitmap) VobSubs are rendered better and use proportional fonts, let alone true texual / styled subtitles, which can, in decent players like nPlayer, easily be replaced on the screen / magnified etc.

Also, I don't recommend purchasing Apple's iTunes Store at all. DRM, lower IQ, lower audio quality, no iOS-playable extras, one language etc.

----------
CEmajr said:
I am a college student as well. Get the Mini. You'll appreciate the size a lot more. Unless I'm doing something that requires a laptop like AutoCAD, I usually only bring the iPad Mini to school. You don't even feel it in your bag. It's fine for watching movies too. I just came back from a trip to Vegas last weekend and enjoyed watching movies on it during the flight.
Click to expand...

Well, if you always keep it in the bag, then, the Air can be a better choice. I only recommend the Mini for people whom pocketability is utterly important. If you don't want to pocket your tablet but already have a bag, then, the Air may be a better choice.

Also, it has a faster CPU (can be useful in some cases like software decoding of MPEG2 1080i60 ATSC recordings or interlaced 1080i60 H.264) and much better-gamut screen.
 
The OP stated that he already has a MBP. Not that the Air would be redundant, but I think he could suffice with purchasing the rMini. I watch Hulu+ on my rMini and the screen size is just fine for me. YMMV, but I don't think you would be disappointed going with the rMini. Like others mentioned, if you're not happy with it, return it and pay the difference to buy the Air.
 
anp77 said:
Does anyone have both the iPad mini and the air? If so could you pull up a movie on each and take a picture? Still undecided on which one I would enjoy more after looking at them in the store three times. I like the size of the mini but I don't know if I would enjoy watching movies on it or find it too small compared to the air.
Click to expand...

I have both, and the Air tends to make skin tones and whites green. It's not as easy to tell from the pics, but it's very obvious in person. I'm guessing it's the Air's tendency toward blue that causes this, and Avatar is completely over-saturated. I haven't measured the image size, but they Air is larger lengthwise by a good margin, and less in height. I can't get past the green skin tones myself.
 
Honestly, the colors on the Retina Mini are nice and bright and on it's own, there is nothing wrong with the iPad. The gamut thing was blown out of proportion because it's just not something that you would ever notice.

I use my Mini to watch movies all the time. I watch HD TV shows and movies that I have bought in iTunes and I use Netflix as well. I am amazed at just how awesome the Retina Mini is.

This is the iPad I wished I could have bought when I bought my original Mini. I have not touched my Nexus 7 in the 6 days I have owned the Mini.
 
I agree with everything jackie said. The mini retina is, I believe the premiere book reader and tv and movie and music player.

Yes, the colors are a bit subdued compared to the 4. However since I am typically holding it about six inches from my face, it kinds of feels like of one of my iPods of yesteryear that had the ambient light sensor. Brighter in well lit room, darker in dark room. I rather like the slightly subdued colors. I have a feeling it might be easier on my eyes. Or maybe I just like the mini too much and am excusing anything, not unlike how the favored son in a given family will get away with murder. Just metaphorically, not talking bout the Kennedy's or anything like that

Sorry jackie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back