ipad for watching films

[sawman]

One of the best ways I have found to keep the kids quiet in the back of the car is watching movies on those "strap to the headrest" screens. These things seem to conk out periodically, and this usually seems to be due to connections breaking or motors dying. It occurred to me a while ago that some form of hard drive with movies loaded on it would be a positive move, but brief research didnt provide a ready made solution, or a sensible (easy) way of connecting an existing screen to a hard drive. Then along comes the ipad. I reckon that this might be a useful, neat solution to the in car movies issue.

But how many movies would you be able to load up with reasonable definition?

[t84]

Allow for around 1GB per movie.

[sawman]

t84 said:

Allow for around 1GB per movie.

Ok, this idea might fly, probably need the 32 or 64 then

Anyone know when the UK will be blessed with the release?

[Blue Meanie]

It depends on the storage you have! However, most of my movie collection, (I have maybe 300+ movies on my hard drive from films I ripped before leaving the UK...), they are between 700mb and 1.2 gb per movie. I find that that is perfectly adequate on the ipad, (I watch them on the 42" as well, and they look 'OK' on that too.

[amir_j]

sawman said:

It occurred to me a while ago that some form of hard drive with movies loaded on it would be a positive move, but brief research didnt provide a ready made solution, or a sensible (easy) way of connecting an existing screen to a hard drive.

Should have looked up Archos....

http://www.archos.com/home.html?country=gb&lan...

They do tablets, media players etc

Edited by amir_j on Tuesday 27th April 17:30

[sawman]

amir_j said:

sawman said:

It occurred to me a while ago that some form of hard drive with movies loaded on it would be a positive move, but brief research didnt provide a ready made solution, or a sensible (easy) way of connecting an existing screen to a hard drive.

Should have looked up Archos....

http://www.archos.com/home.html?country=gb&lan...

I did my research in Best buy in Canada, they were not available at the time

[Blue Meanie]

I had an Archos 604... Wasn't overly impressed.

[TonyHetherington]

I almost bought an Arcos, but didn't get round to it and then lost the need for it. Anyhow, I'm typing this on an iPad and for what you're after it will be great.

[Rollin]

Car mount here....

http://modulrcase.com/accessories.php

[Bungleaio]

sawman said:

Anyone know when the UK will be blessed with the release?

Preorder opens may 10th, launch is end of may.

[Man-At-Arms]

sawman said:

"strap to the headrest" screens.

so you'll need 2 ipads then ?
one for each headrest

[sawman]

Man-At-Arms said:

sawman said:

"strap to the headrest" screens.

so you'll need 2 ipads then ?
one for each headrest

probably look at one in the middle, as its bigger than the seat back screens.

from those who have personal experience, whats the viewing angle of the screen? or to put it another way how would it compare to my current macbook pro?

[Blue Meanie]

This is what they look like side by side, at about 45 degrees angle, (more than you will have I would imagine)

I'd say the ipad is slightly better than the MB on that angle. Both were at full brightness, just for comparison.

[sawman]

Blue Meanie said:

This is what they look like side by side, at about 45 degrees angle, (more than you will have I would imagine)

I'd say the ipad is slightly better than the MB on that angle. Both were at full brightness, just for comparison.

cheers chap, thats really helpful

[neil_bolton]

I ripped a blueray version of Avatar using Handbrake and the standard iPhone settings that it cones with, and it came out at 1.5gb.

Do the maths based on that - it's a 3 hour movie and looked great when I transferred it to my collegues iPad