External Data Solution

Dirk Diggler · 15 Mar 2016 at 15:54

I'm going on holiday soon and want to have 3 iPads stocked up with plenty of movies for the long haul flight. The problem is the classic Apple problem... not anywhere near enough storage, and no microSD capability.

I've seen the Leef data solution, but reviews suggest it's buggy and slow. Is there any reliable solution out there?

Dirk Diggler · 15 Mar 2016 at 16:34

bloodiedathame said:
Can you get an internet connection on the plane? Set up Plex media server at your house and stream it to your devices.

I have Plex set up but didn't think it would work on the plane.

Dirk Diggler · 16 Mar 2016 at 09:28

I've got a 64GB SD Card and I'm starting to think it's going to be easier if I just buy an Android tablet for movie playback when traveling.

Apple really doesn't offer much of a solution for this.

Dirk Diggler · 17 Mar 2016 at 08:46

sbi5ar said:
Get a RavPower Travel Router. They allow you to attach a HDD or a SD card and you can stream whatever is on them (using their own app on iDevices). This is what I use when I am travelling. The router also acts as a batter so it can power the HDD or you can use it to charge phones etc... Well worth it IMO and it only cost me £30-ish I think

Edit: just looking now, I have the RP-WD03 which will do as you ask (you just need a HDD or SD card extra)

That looks interesting. I had a similar unit, but it was slow and could lose connection randomly. Hope you don't mind me asking a few questions...

Is this unit reliable, as in it won't randomly lose connection?
How long would it take to transfer 1GB file to my iPad?
Do I need to use a third party app with it?
How long does its battery last?

I'm going to look at a Samsung tablet today as I'm considering selling my iPad, however a gadget like that might just save me the trouble.

Dirk Diggler · 21 Mar 2016 at 08:37

Caged said:
How much storage space do you have? You can easily encode a movie down to a couple of gig and retain a more than decent image quality. I think you're over complicating this.

I think you're over simplifying it.

A couple of gig a movie would afford me around 4 movies on the ipad, and that's hardly going to last me 2 long haul flights and a couple of rainy days on holiday. I also need the space for my 3 week trips offshore (but you didn't know that as I hadn't mentioned it).

Anyway, problem solved as I've bought a Samsung S2 8" and 128GB card to replace the ipad.