I recently received an iPad 3 for graduation, and am struggling with downloading GoPro footage from both my laptop (2008 MacBook Pro 15") and the iPad SD Card Reader.

I can't push GoPro videos (720p, 30fps, .mp4) from iTunes to the iPad - it says the files are in a format the iPad can't play, so it won't even put them on the iPad.
I also can't see the files on the SD card through the SD card reader attached to the iPad, but they show up fine on my laptop.

The icing on the cake: using home sharing, I can access the GoPro videos that are in my iTunes library on my laptop and play them on the iPad. I'm not sure if home sharing streams the files in a different format, but clearly iTunes knows what to do with the files to get them to work on the iPad, it just doesn't want to put the files physically on the iPad. Frustrating.

What gives? How can I get iTunes to quit being the village idiot and push the videos to my iPad? I could use DropBox but I'd rather just have the files on the iPad and not waste my DropBox space.

i have succeeded in this always, with my old ipad1 and this new 3rd. i use the camera connection kit, and stick the sd-card from my gopro hd hero2 to the slot. only problem there has been with the ipad1, with no power to play 1080p. 720p played just fine. of course the 3rd gen plays all just fine.

are you sure your card reader isn't faulty?

Turns out this is an iPad 3, I hadn't quite figured out how to tell as it doesn't blatantly state it anywhere on the iPad, in the settings, or even on the box...

Anyway, I really hope the SD card reader isn't faulty as I bought it yesterday​...

Interesting. It works if I take a video and immediately plug the SD card into the iPad, but not if I've put videos from my laptop back onto the SD card. I'll have to look into it more but as of now this is a bummer as I was hoping to put some videos I took a few weeks ago onto the iPad and I've long since cleared the memory on the card.

I have run into the same thing, my iTunes will put videos from my gopro hd hero on my iPad and they will play just fine but when I try to transfer videos from my he hero 2 it tells me they are in a format the iPad can't play and won't let me transfer them. I would think that they would record in the same format, so why wouldn't they both work? If you find a solution I would love to hear it because it's becoming extremely frustrating.

I believe the CCK is looking for a very specific file naming and folder configuration to recognize the files.

From Apple's Support topic "iPad: Using the iPad Camera Connection Kit":

"Only device-created files are supported. If you copy files from another device or manually edit or rename files on the digital camera or SD card, the iPad may be unable to detect and import these images or videos."

Thanks but my files are untouched, I pulled the card directly out of the gopro, put it into my computer and tried to transfer the files.