How To: Import movies from usb drive to iPad
Just came across a situation where I had a movie on my 16 GB usb flash drive and wanted to directly import that movie into my iPad. I have the camera connection kit, so it should be easy, right? Turns out there are a few key steps that have to occur before the iPad will allow this to happen.
- The iPad will not power most USB devices (at least since iOS 4.2). In order to use a flash drive (or any other device) you will need to have a USB hub independently powering your device. In my case I used my monitor.
- The drive must have the proper folder structure (same as what a digital camera would use).
- On the root of the drive create a directory called DCIM.
- Below that create a 8 character directory. The name does not matter (i.e. 16GBUSB1).
- Inside that directory store all your picture and videos you want to import.
- Movies must be in the m4v format. Also, the names of the files should be 8 characters long.
After all this is configured, when you plug into the camera connection adapter (connected to the USB cord) the photos app should show the contents of the drive and allow you to import the files directly into the iPad without the need of iTunes.
To take this process a step further (and make it more practical), I would imagine using a SD card would avoid the power issues and provide a way to carry around vast amounts of extra storage. It's amazing how fast 64 GB's fills up when it comes to HD movies...
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 3:01PM |
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