Basic iPad questions

[[TW]Fox]

Hi chaps,

Some very basic, very noobish questions which are hopefully straightfoward.

a) I presume you must use iTunes to get things like video files from your PC to your iPad. Can one iPad support multiple itunes installations etc - ie, can you use both a PC and a Laptop to sync with your ipad and copy files to it? Can one copy of itunes support multiple devices - ie an iPod and an iPad?

b) Is iTunes faff? How does it compare to simply drag+drop with files as I do with my Android phone?

c) What are the various video player options like for iPad?

Thanks!

 

[topdog@OC]

The standard way of getting things to the ipad is via iTunes, I don't ever do a 'sync' as such, I just fire up iTunes on the computer, plug in (and if needed authorize) the device (ipod or ipad), then drag/drop items from that computer's own iTunes library onto the device to copy them up to it.

Personally I don't like the iTunes application, but it doesn't cause me any major issues in operation or usability either.

You can use applications like Dropbox to get files up to the iPad, or even sent through email, and once received by those apps on the iPad you can generally route them to the apps you have installed that register themselves to receive those file types.

Same goes for 3rd party movie players, and some of those also have built in media/wifi browsers to pick up files directly across the network (much like how my android apps work).

There's quite a lot of options (IMO) - I haven't even tried it yet but I bookmarked for later a reference to something called 'vlcstreamer' recently, that looks like it'll let me both stream for immediate playback on the iPad, as well as stream for saving to the iPad for later playback whilst offline.

 

[PeterNem]

a) I presume you must use iTunes to get things like video files from your PC to your iPad. Can one iPad support multiple itunes installations etc - ie, can you use both a PC and a Laptop to sync with your ipad and copy files to it? Can one copy of itunes support multiple devices - ie an iPod and an iPad?

It's certainly the intended way of doing it. I actually quite like the way it manages my library, but given i've used iTunes for all my music for years it probably makes sense for me as it's sort of second nature.

I know you specifically asked about iPads, but the way it seamlessly manages to backup and restore phones etc to facilitate easy software upgrades etc is great.

To all intents and purposes devices are treated the same regardless of whether it's a phone or iPad.

A single instance of iTunes can support multiple devices (multiple phones, iPads etc) - they all just show up by the name of their device which you can set (e.g., "Pete's iPhone", "Pete's iPad"). I assume internally it uses some unique identifier so it'd not matter if for some reason they were named the same.

Unfortunately (at least as far as I'm aware) you have to have a single instance of iTunes as your "library" so you couldn't use both your desktop and laptop. It's a bit of a faff but there are work arounds if you want to use your desktop 90% of the time but take your library with you when travelling (you can migrate all the iTunes config files over to another machine without too much effort, although you'd not want to do it day to day).

 

[Conanius]

Unfortunately (at least as far as I'm aware) you have to have a single instance of iTunes as your "library" so you couldn't use both your desktop and laptop. It's a bit of a faff but there are work arounds if you want to use your desktop 90% of the time but take your library with you when travelling (you can migrate all the iTunes config files over to another machine without too much effort, although you'd not want to do it day to day).

I never found a manageable way around this in my years of using iTunes. I just use 1 machine for syncing, but I'm pretty sure now all devices can sync over wifi so as long as it goes into the home of the main PC relatively regularly its fine.

Photo Stream is how I get my images back to the PC, but as others have said, Dropbox is another alternative. Photo stream last time I checked does not move video's though, so you have to do those manually. Unsure the best way with a PC, but pretty sure I used iPhoto on my mac last time to do it.

 

[Rameses]

You can only sync with one computer at a time, video files have to fall into specific format, m4v etc (not sure whats max res) which you import into iTunes first then you can select which to copy over in the Movies tab. You can also, using an app like VLC, under Apps tab manually select video files and load them onto that app. It'll play .avi so you don't need to do any conversion.

Edit: If you have some movies on your system you can use a program like Handbrake to convert them, preset settings and can convert/import them into iTunes.

 

[[TW]Fox]

What if I wanted to be able to quickly drag/drop video files for playback on a third party app? I'm thinking of ways around the extremely limited filespace on an ipad here - if I can fire up my laptop to refresh the media on a trip or something then thats fine.

Not bothered about pictures, probably won't use it for music either.

 

[Sagalout]

If you can take a laptop then just install iTunes on it and sync the iPad to that library, but don't sync videos - you can opt to manually manage them (but they need to be in your iTunes library)

That's how I work - I have about 150 movies in iTunes, far more than can be synced, so if I'm going on the train or something I just plugin the iPad and manually drag the videos I want to watch to the iPad (in iTunes)

If you're watching movies on another app, you can drag and drop files to it within iTunes when you select the app...personally I find it easier to just use formats that Apple likes. If its downloaded stuff in x264 format you can use iFlicks to convert to iTunes - takes 3 or 4 minutes for a HD movie and it will add all the meta data for you.

 

[Morfik]

What if I wanted to be able to quickly drag/drop video files for playback on a third party app? I'm thinking of ways around the extremely limited filespace on an ipad here - if I can fire up my laptop to refresh the media on a trip or something then thats fine.

Not bothered about pictures, probably won't use it for music either.

It's not quite as fast as drag and drop but you can do this on as many PCs as you like but you do need iTunes on them. You don't do a sync you simply open the iPad in iTunes on whatever PC it's connected to, select the app and browse to the video you want and copy it straight to the app on the iPad. So a few more steps than drag and drop but very simple.

In terms of formats there are apps on the store (such as AvPlayerHD, though it's not listed at the moment) that support MKV, AVI containers including the usual DivX, x264 codecs.

You can also remux video files if you choose to but playback is fine regardless.

 

[POB]

If your main usage is watching video don't buy an iPad.

1) The aspect ratio is crap
2) The faffing around to get things onto the iPad is not worth it.

Yes they have the most apps, but the video solution is poor in comparison to Android devices.

Grab a Nexus tablet and enjoy drag & drop or adding a USB stick to the bottom, or plug in a hard disk.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

What if I wanted to be able to quickly drag/drop video files for playback on a third party app? I'm thinking of ways around the extremely limited filespace on an ipad here - if I can fire up my laptop to refresh the media on a trip or something then thats fine.

Not bothered about pictures, probably won't use it for music either.

Just set the iPad to manually manage music/videos and you can drag and drop music and files from any install of iTunes. For video files for the 3rd party apps it doesn't need to have any files imported into iTunes you can just go the apps section and it presents you with a file manager where you can directly copy from the computers file system. I don't find it an issue but you can't copy the files/music back to another computer.

The other options are to jailbreak it and you can import from sd cards and portable hard drives or use a video playback app that allows direct copy via web/FTP server running in the app I find this handy but it isn't as quick as copying over USB.

 

[[TW]Fox]

If your main usage is watching video don't buy an iPad.

1) The aspect ratio is crap
2) The faffing around to get things onto the iPad is not worth it.

Yes they have the most apps, but the video solution is poor in comparison to Android devices.

Grab a Nexus tablet and enjoy drag & drop or adding a USB stick to the bottom, or plug in a hard disk.

The Nexus tablets feel cheap and horrible - I want something the functionality of an Android tablet but the look and feel of the iPad. This something doesn't exist so I'm probably going to compromise on the functionality in favour of the look and feel.

 

[mrgubby]

The Nexus tablets feel cheap and horrible - I want something the functionality of an Android tablet but the look and feel of the iPad. This something doesn't exist so I'm probably going to compromise on the functionality in favour of the look and feel.

Put the Nexus in a case if the 'feel' is a problem.

After all, you watch a video.....not stroke it

 

["andy"]

On phone I use the VLC app and this is how much "faff" it is

iTunes opens straight to the device page when USB cable connected
One mouse click on "apps"
One mouse click on "VLC"
One last click on "add"
Select files and there you go

Takes a matter of seconds . Maybe one or two seconds more than double clicking folders the non apple way

It's not 2005 anymore and iTunes doesn't take forever to do things

If VLC isn't on ipad then its the same method as above for any app that can use outsider files so same applies

 

[Skyboat]

I don't actually mind the aspect ratio on the iPad when watching videos, but then again I grew up watching widescreen movies on 4:3 TVs so I'm used to the big black bars

 

[POB]

The Nexus tablets feel cheap and horrible - I want something the functionality of an Android tablet but the look and feel of the iPad. This something doesn't exist so I'm probably going to compromise on the functionality in favour of the look and feel.

The plastic back is an asset, allows for better grip. The Nexus back is kinda like soft touch plastic in cars.

I don't think the Nexus 7 looks cheap. The back offers function over dentatable scratch able metal. Chuck the Nexus in a bag and never worry about it.

I have owned the original iPad, and recently the iPad 3. But I was carrying a 10" tablet to not get a 10" view on films. The borders on films are a much greater compromise compared to the quality of the materials used.

I will give you that the Nexus 10 looks stupid, with the giant bezel. But the Nexus 7 is perfect for grabbing and watching films.

 

[Mr_White]

On phone I use the VLC app and this is how much "faff" it is

The VLC app hasn't been on the App Store for quite some time.

 

[PaulyD]

There are many other apps that do the same though. AV Player HD, Buzzplayer etc

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Air video is another good one streams to your iPad or can convert and put it on your iPad. Handled everything I could throw at it.

 

[GeX]

The Nexus tablets feel cheap and horrible - I want something the functionality of an Android tablet but the look and feel of the iPad. This something doesn't exist so I'm probably going to compromise on the functionality in favour of the look and feel.

Are you including the Nexus 10 in this?

 

[joelk2]

personally im all for itunes. it keeps all my music/videos organised.

getting films/music into it is easy.

music i pop in the cd and it sorts it out, downloaded from amazon etc just drag and drop them into itunes and it copies them over.

for movies i drag the movie file into iflicks, it grabs all the metadata, converts it and adds it to the itunes library.

it backs up multiple phones and ipads.

i dont see the hate for it.