General question about IPAD and ITUNES

[Crow331]

OK so forgive my ignorance here because I don't have an IPAD. I know that IPAD has ITUNES on it or you download it on there. My question is this: The IPAD doesn't have a big enough hard drive for all the movies I want to put on it. Theoretically, could I put my movies on a laptop and plug the IPAD into the laptop and have I-Tunes on the IPAD access the movies from the laptop instead? Forget the practicality of this, I just want to know if it can be done?? I have a good reason. I want to use the IPAD in a very different way. I was hoping to find out the answer myself before buying an IPAD and testing the theory myself.

Thanks!

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

OK so forgive my ignorance here because I don't have an IPAD. I know that IPAD has ITUNES on it or you download it on there. My question is this: The IPAD doesn't have a big enough hard drive for all the movies I want to put on it. Theoretically, could I put my movies on a laptop and plug the IPAD into the laptop and have I-Tunes on the IPAD access the movies from the laptop instead? Forget the practicality of this, I just want to know if it can be done?? I have a good reason. I want to use the IPAD in a very different way. I was hoping to find out the answer myself before buying an IPAD and testing the theory myself.

Thanks!

Yes - you can upload movies to the iPad from iTunes on a PC, or you can use the optional extra adaptor that enables an SD memory card to be plugged in to the iPad. You could copy the movies onto that SD card and then upload them onto the iPad via the adaptor (but you can only upload movies and photos).

Another way is to use a third party app, such as GoodReader, which enables you to upload/download any file from your PC to the iPad via WiFi.

There are also 'cloud servers', such as Apple's MobileMe iDisk, that enables you to upload files from your PC to the iDisk and then download them from the iDisk to your iPad when you're on the move.

So, basically, yes - there are many ways of transferring video (and other) files to and from the iPad - usually by WiFi or 3G, but also by USB to a PC using iTunes or by the SD card adaptor.

Tim
Scotland

 

[Crow331]

Thanks Tim. This is not what I am asking. I know that I can transfer files from my pc to an IPAD. This is not what I want to do. Lets say I have 100 movies. Well they all aren't going to fit on an IPAD at over 1G each. So lets say that an an example my itunes was corrupted on my PC. Could I plug the IPAD into my computer and play the movies from the PC using the ITUNES from the IPAD? Basically i want to use the IPAD's convenient touch screen for a project I am working on, but the IPAD won't hold 100 movies.


So can i use the IPAD's ITUNES and have it "point" to my PC to access the 100 movies on the PC? I could do it on a "cloud" as you mentioned but that is unreliable. I don't want to rely on the internet. I need it to work 100% of the time. Or could I use the SD card adapter you mentioned and have the movies permanently stored on the card and have the IPADS ITUNES access the movies from there? How much memory does the SD card have?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

Are the movies DRM protected?

If not, you could use AirVideo to stream movies directly from your laptop to iPad wirelessly. Basically you have a free streaming server running on your laptop, point it to your movies folder and then access the server form the iPad app. You can get the free Version first to see, if this is what you are looking for; The difference to the paid version is, that only a 3 movies will be shown in each directory. But that it is enough to see, whether this will work the way you planned.

 

[Superbike81]

There are two apps that do what you want wirelessly.

AirVideo and ZumoCast.

 

[Crow331]

I would assume they are DRM protected. They are movies that are downloaded from the ITunes store.

But this was a little test I just did. I put a movie on my external drive and then opened up ITUNES on my PC. Then from Itunes I went to
FILE-----> ADD FILES TO LIBRARY and browsed to my external 'F' drive and selected the movie. ITUNES loaded it and when I doubleclicked it, it played from the external "F" drive. This is essentially the same theory I'm wanting to test in an IPAD now.

Would someone be willing to test this and tell me if it works? Put a movie on your PC that isn't already in your ITUNES on your IPAD. Now plug your IPAD into your PC and in ITUNES on the IPAD go to FILE----->ADD FILES TO LIBRARY and select the movie on your PC. I would think this would work the same way it just worked on my PC. You should be able to now doubleclick on the movie from your IPAD Itunes and the movie should play from the PC!

Someone tell me this works??

Of course now I just realized something else. I need to send the output of the IPAD to a tv screen (actually several tv screens). I see the IPAD has a VGA adapter but many people are reporting that it won't let you send movies, even those downloaded through Itunes, to your tv through the VGA! Well what the hell is the point of it then?? Are there any touch screen TABLETS out there that will output to multiple monitors?

Thanks!!
Dan

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

iPads iTunes has reduced functionality, so there is no possibility of adding external content from other devices. It can only be used to buy/rent movies from the iTunes store.

Is there a specific folder, where Videos saves its movies. Because it might be possible to create a link with ifile from your movie folder on an external harddrive to that movie folder on the iPad.

Other than that, you will have to rely on streaming methods.