Hard Drive for iPad 2

[Archer]

Hi

I bought a Seagate STBF500200 500GB GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage drive from Amazon seamed like the best option for Apple mobile products, connected to wireless ok but when I went to sync my video library only the MP4 files backed up to the drive, it will not recognise AVI files that I use for all video's. I use AV Player normaly to watch all my video's but it will not let me use that to play video's that I manually loaded to the drive.
I have returned that drive to Amazon as not being suitable.
I am now looking to buy a Hyperdrive iPad hard drive has anyone got one of these drives and will I be able to load and view AVI video's with AV Player?[h=1][/h][h=1][/h]

 

[moose404]

You can stream videos from another computer (i.e. mac or windows) using Air Playit. It plays any format video even mts (from my Cannon camcorder). There's server software for the computer storing your video files and separate software for the iPad
Seems to work excellently, no freezing even with large files.

 

[AQ_OC]

I'm not sure it makes sense to blame the drive if the software app you are using doesn't know how to see it.

I had the goflex but I sent it back because the firmware for the drive simply didn't work well at all. That was in early 2011, after the iPad 2 came out.

I have an Air Stash + now, and it works much better. It can use SDHC and SDXC cards. AVPlayer can't see files on the Airstash but the Airstash App plays the movies and it plays whatever iPad plays.

BTW, the iPad doesn't natively play AVIs so you will always need an app for those. Mp4 or M4Vs are your best bet.

 

[drb_52]

I have the goflex satellite. I use buzz player hd. I connect the goflex to the pc and copy the files to it.
Buzz player hd works with the goflex.

 

[Lusid]

I would stick with the seagate drive, and use drag&drop to copy files to it instead of the sync software. Then use whichever 3rd party playback app works best with your videos.

The problem with the hyperdrive approach, is its really just a clever hack against the photo app. It tricks the iPad into thinking it is a camera card and a CCK, so everything loaded through it comes in through the photo app. I think you'll find it is difficult if not impossible to get a video loaded that way that is not already encoded to apple spec.

If you have a CCK, you can test compatibility easily enough by putting your video on an SD card, and following the DCIM specifications for folder structure and file naming.

 

[AQ_OC]

The air stash has all the advantages of being a USB stick and, because it has its own web server, it easily talks to the iPad and any app that knows how to talk to WebDAV. It is tiny and can last a good 7 hours on a single charge. It doesn't seem to work well with some android devices, but iOS eats it up. If you plug it into a USB power while in use, you have unlimited battery time. That is easy to do while in a car, for example. I've had three devices streaming 1080p rips off it at the same time. Its range seems to be good, too. You can trade files such as PDFs with laptop users while on the go.

The seagate has horrible software and a lousy interface and even to this day, people have to use 3rd party apps to make the thing bareable. It is USB 3.0. So it is fast for coping files to it. It is large, too, and the spinning disc inside could crash. You're going to need to take around an ac power adapter too and a special USB cable to use it. Its main advantage is price and capacity, but in terms of easy of use and reliability, it gets low marks.

I can't comment on the hyperdrive as I have not used one of those. You can buy just the enclosure with no drive and add a low cost ssd to it, and that would be fast and reliable storage (this was my plan when I consider buying the model without the display). I don't like having to plug it into the iPad, though. That's why I chose the air stash over the hyperdrive, plus the air stash is just smaller and easier to travel with.

It seems there are pros and cons to each device. I really thought the seagate was going to be a winner, but it was sucky to use and believe it or not, it is bulky when compared to the air stash a02 and a couple of SD cards. I may one day get an sdxc card. As they go up to 2tb in size, though I have not seen one that large and it would be costly.