familynullis said:
Ok probably a very simple question but I'm a newby at this!
We are going on holiday and I'd like to download some movies for my son to watch on the plane etc. I'd like decent recently released movies.
What's the best site to use and is it self explanatory how to download? No wifi on plane so need to download as opposed to online view.
Any help or suggestions appreciated!
Hello familynullis, how much time do you have before you go on holiday? How long is your plane ride going to the land of your vacation and how many movies do you think you'll need to download onto your iPad to entertain your son in flight? Both going to vacationland and coming home? How large is your iPad's storage? 16g 32g 64g?
Do consider copyright laws that govern dvd's. You should own the dvd that your are ripping.
Have over the ear headphones and not ear buds. I've seen too many kids getting very irritated with earbuds and they stop using them in flight. However headphones like Bose seem to be very comfortable.
Another note, I haven't gotten any blu-ray first hand knowledge so what I'm suggesting is regular dvd's. Be sure to get top quality dvd's and not bargain rack ones. There seems to be a difference in quality and the result is evident on the iPad.
Do you have a PC or a MAC?
Go to the internet and get the latest copy of Handbrake. Get this app from a trusted source, like CNET.COM. Install it on your PC.
Get a dvd and start encoding it. Be sure to pick iPad as the preset. Put your dvd in your drive and start encoding it. A two hour dvd takes about five hours to encode. The file it produces will be around 2Gigs. Once this process is completed, connect your iPad to your PC and launch iTunes. Drag the movie you encoded to your movies folder and synch. This will also take a while to go from your PC to your iPad.
A little note about Handbrake, if you want to preview what you are going to encode, the program will tell you to get the VLC console. However, I found that I could set Handbrake to use Windows Media or Quicktime. If you are just encoding a dvd in its entirety, you won't need to preview. However, if you want snippets of movies (why?) then you have to resort to encoding either in frame mode or in seconds mode. Otherwise the default is chapter mode.
As Marilyn suggested, the easiest way to get a dvd to watch offline on your iPad is to either buy it or rent it from iTunes. But if you already own a dvd that you want to bring along on vacation, what I suggest may be the way to go, but it takes time and storage.
I hope this helps. I hope you and your family have a great vacation! Take lots of pictures!
