iPad 101: The easy way to get high-def videos onto iPhone or iPad

I wish it did this automatically like the new down-coversion of music in iTunes 9.1.

How would I convert AVI files to the iPad size? Ideas?

Strange, I managed to transfer and play a video with 576 vertical pixels on my iPod Touch perfectly OK.

A couple of points.

1) the minimum HD resolution is 1280 x 720. The maximum is 1920 x 1080. *

2) HD format is 16:9 and can be either "i - interlaced" or "p - progressive" in either resolution. *

I have a copy of "Star Trek" (2009) that I transferred to my Mac from the digital copy which came in the Blu-Ray edition. It transferred to my hard drive at 853 x 352. It plays just fine on my iPhone in either letterbox format or full screen, with just a tap of the screen. Will be interested to see it on the iPad. It looks great on my 52" big screen.

While it would have been cool for the iPad to have been a true 16 x 9 format, it would not have worked for other applications in the portrait mode. Plus, the naysayers are bitching about how "big" it is now. They would have gone nuts if it had been bigger, and to have just made it narrower would have been weird. Of course we will see how a 16 x 9 tablet will look now that HP has announced it's "Slate."

And people wondered why Apple didn't call theirs the "iSlate..." (Yes, I know, iPad is not the best name, but it's the one. If you can't handle that, get a Slate.

* (source: "Moviola Pro Video Guide" app plus 30 yrs of video production experience, including several years of shooting and editing HD video.)

Not sure where Michael Rose is getting his facts, but I have dozens of 720x400 videos on my iPhone 3GS. I play them on my Panasonic 52' 720P TV and they look great! Definitely better than a standard DVD and just about as good as my DirecTv high def channels.

I have apple tv formatted videos in iTunes that refuse to transfer to the iPad. They work fine on apple tv and in iTunes. When I try to use the built in converter in iTunes, it gives me the same error in the article above, that it is already in the correct format. But it won't sync to the iPad. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Chuck

Or perhaps better yet... just use the StreamToMe Universal App for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch.

http://projectswithlove.com/streamtome/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/streamtome/id325327899

(Editors- I implore you to do tuaw readers a huge favor and review this app. In my mind it obviates the need for higher capacity versions of the iPad, or iPhone, thereby saving readers hundreds of dollars each.)

With this app (and companion server app) you stream on-the-fly converted music and videos from your mac at home, and enjoy them over your wifi network. No need to re-encode anything.

With a little port forwarding action in your airport settings, you can also connect to your home share while you're away from the house. (Works best with high speed internet.)

No, no, no. Have you used a 16:9 screen in portrait mode before?

No.

That does not work for videos loaded via a Digital Copy disk (Why is that?) nor a video acquired on the Apple TV (and sync back to the iTunes library (Why is that?).
This applies only to videos downloaded via iTunes directly.

Another door apple closed in the face of their loyal customers I guess.

I put some 720p videos on my 3GS, but not with iTunes. I used FileApp. So i think the same thing is possible with 1080p on an iPad.

I have a question for iPad owners. I'am in France, so the iPad is not yet available here. On my iPhone, due to the lack of multitasking, when i'am listening a radio, i don't use an application, i open Safari and directly go the radio website, where i can open a .pls link, so Safari open the stream and run it in background, so i can do mails, etc... but no more web browing, because Safari won't let me open another tab. What about this on the iPad ?

PS : excuse me for my engish, as i said before, i'am french.