New ipad to watch movies with subtitles

[diegosened]

Hello
I am going to buy the new ipad because I need a tablet to watch movies (in general TV series) with subtitles.
Among all tablets I have seen, new ipad is the one with the best screen and therefore I decided to buy it.
I have read that unfortunately ipad does not support avi and mkv. I know that there are some apps (such as aviplayerHD which permit to watch videos with these formats) or it is possible to convert them.

I would like to know if:

1) with both the methods (apps and conversion) is the overall quality of movies lost? because if I can watch only downscaled quality movies is it worth buying new ipad since I am buying it only to watch movies with its brilliant screen?
2) is it possible watching movies with subtitles? does it create problems?
3) does the conversion (from mkv or avi to apple supported format) require long time? "long" is around an half of hour. And which is the average time of conversion for a 1 hour length movie whose original format is mkv?

 

[jimt29]

I have been using Daniusoft DVD to MP4 Converter for over a year now and have converted over a hundred DVD movies to MP4 movies with out a hitch except when I forget to select Closed Captioning.

I make the MP4 and load it on to the iPad and it plays perfectly with closed captioning. The DVD movie has to have closed captioning to begin with, by the way.

I've never used anything that has a mkv. Don't know what it is.

 

[AQ_OC]

Frankly, I have a hard time recommending the new iPad for movies. I don't feel it is worth it for that reason alone. Assuming you are talking about Blu-ray rips at 1080p, which you don't state, you would need to be within a foot to see the benefit over a 720p rip on a 10-inch screen. That's pretty close. And that is not using the full resolution of the new iPad, either. If you don't plan to be within one foot to watch, you might was well rip to 720p, and the iPad 2 will support that since its screen is 1024 x 768. 720p rips are smaller rips than 1080p rips, all else being the same. Larger files take up more storage space, taking longer to create, and take longer to transfer to the iPad.

If you plan to be ripping DVD, then you're not going to get more than 480p, so again you're not going to be using the full resolution of either device for them. I watch a lot of my older TV stuff, which comes from DVD, using the MKV format using AVPlayerHD. The files typically are about 1.5GB for a 42minute episode. That is a straight rips with no compression from a DVD source (quicker that way since no additional compression is used). If I were ripping from Blu-ray, those files would be a lot larger and I would probably either compress them using handbrake or not watch them on my iPad. My blu-ray movies that I rip typically are about 2GB in size and take from 45 minutes to 1:15 hours to rip. This is a compressed m4v file. The bit-rate is around 2000kbps or so...depending...these are 1080p, too.

I don' think movies are the best justification for buying an iPad 3.

When you convert for the iPad, there is technically a lost of quality as the bit rate usually has to be decreased for the movie to fit on the device (even a DVD can be close to 9GB, depending on the movie). You may not notice it if you keep the bit-rate high enough. The small screen will hide some problems. But the compressed rips you make can look nice, but there will be a lost of quality from the Blu-ray source. The idea is to compress just enough to not notice the loss in quality...but just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it is there...especially for Blu-ray sources.

The amount of time it takes to transcode will depend on the machine you're using. An hour it not out of line for a feature length blu-ray rip.

 

[diegosened]

Frankly, I have a hard time recommending the new iPad for movies. I don't feel it is worth it for that reason alone. Assuming you are talking about Blu-ray rips at 1080p, which you don't state, you would need to be within a foot to see the benefit over a 720p rip on a 10-inch screen. That's pretty close. And that is not using the full resolution of the new iPad, either. If you don't plan to be within one foot to watch, you might was well rip to 720p, and the iPad 2 will support that since its screen is 1024 x 768. 720p rips are smaller rips than 1080p rips, all else being the same. Larger files take up more storage space, taking longer to create, and take longer to transfer to the iPad.

If you plan to be ripping DVD, then you're not going to get more than 480p, so again you're not going to be using the full resolution of either device for them. I watch a lot of my older TV stuff, which comes from DVD, using the MKV format using AVPlayerHD. The files typically are about 1.5GB for a 42minute episode. That is a straight rips with no compression from a DVD source (quicker that way since no additional compression is used). If I were ripping from Blu-ray, those files would be a lot larger and I would probably either compress them using handbrake or not watch them on my iPad. My blu-ray movies that I rip typically are about 2GB in size and take from 45 minutes to 1:15 hours to rip. This is a compressed m4v file. The bit-rate is around 2000kbps or so...depending...these are 1080p, too.

I don' think movies are the best justification for buying an iPad 3.

When you convert for the iPad, there is technically a lost of quality as the bit rate usually has to be decreased for the movie to fit on the device (even a DVD can be close to 9GB, depending on the movie). You may not notice it if you keep the bit-rate high enough. The small screen will hide some problems. But the compressed rips you make can look nice, but there will be a lost of quality from the Blu-ray source. The idea is to compress just enough to not notice the loss in quality...but just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it is there...especially for Blu-ray sources.

The amount of time it takes to transcode will depend on the machine you're using. An hour it not out of line for a feature length blu-ray rip.

thank you. You have been really exhaustive.

Although I know this problem with movies, I would like to buy new ipad because:

1) I read that android tablets have similar problems with movies
2) apps in android are mainly thought for smartphones and not tablet.

 

[AQ_OC]

Hey, by all means go for the new iPad. I wasn't really wanting to put you off it. I friggin love mine. I just didn't want you to be disappointed in your movie watching experience. And if you want to use it for that purpose, it will serve you well. And you will find other uses for it too. Lots of nice apps. Over here in the states, we can get HBO Go, Netflix, Amazon Prime, as well as Youtube and Vimeo...all sources of video material. And you can make HD movies on your new iPad too. Apple wants it to be a content creation device as well as a content consumption device. I think it can serve both roles.