Can we load video onto iPad without iTunes?

Question

We have a shared iPad at work which is used for trade shows etc.

It is a pain to only be able to copy content to this from one PC, i.e. one nominated shared PC with iTunes on it. We have Windows XP on the PC currently.

Is there a decent way of plugging an iPad into an arbitrary PC and loading content on to it, while not breaking iTunes sync?

I've tried Dropbox but that will only allow us to stream the video within the Dropbox app, rather than download and save it into the Movies app. We really need to save the video content on to the iPad for offline playback.

Answer 1

You can use the "File Sharing" feature of various apps THROUGH iTunes, but without having to actually SYNC with iTunes.

Install the free CineXPlayer app. This will allow you to play a much broader range of videos.

Then plug your ipad into any computer with iTunes installed. iTunes will recognize the device, and let you browse it WITHOUT syncing it. If you go to the "Apps" tab inside the device's pages in iTunes, you'll see CineXPlayer listed below, in "File Sharing". Select CineXPlayer and drag movies to the "Documents" pane.

Ta da!

Answer 2

Check out buzz player. It lets you play almost all files from windows share and does not require re encoding. So its like playing file from vlc off a network drive.
And this article about How to transfer movies/video from iPad to Computer, which includes step-by-step guide to help you backup iPad videos.

Answer 3

I regularly do this with GoodReader. Despite it billing itself as a PDF reader, it has relatively wide support for playing various different types of videos (as well as being an all-round good file manager/viewer too). You can get files on and off in two ways, neither of which require iTunes:

1. By using GoodReaderUSB, which allows you to copy files on and off a USB-attached computer. This is probably closest to what you asked for.
2. By using the inbuilt support to expose GoodReader's filesystem via WebDAV and on a web console you can log into from any machine on the same network.

Answer 4

You can avoid all this iTunes/sync nonsense by letting the iPad directly acquire files via the network. I know of two apps that will let you connect to normal file sharing (SMB/CIFS) on your Mac/PC and play directly via the network or save to the ipad for offline playback. The only disadvantage is you have to play the files back using their app instead of with the built in 'Videos' app.

• OPlayer HD ($4.99) - Works with iOS compatible formats plus supports avi/mkv/wmv formats without conversion, transfer files with SMB, FTP, HTTP or via DropBox.
• FileBrowser ($4.99) - Same price, but only works with standard iOS compatible content (h264 MP4, MP3, AAC, JPEG, etc) and only connects via SMB.

Answer 5

• Use a free cross-platform program like Handbrake to convert your video into an iPad supported format
• Take an SD card that you've used with a digital camera and put your movie(s) into the DCIM folder
• Use the camera connection kit to load the movie. For all the iPad knows, it's a movie you shot with your digital camera
• Note that the movie will load into your "Photos" and not your "Videos" - that means there are some limitations (no recognition of chapters, no resume functionality) but it will work very well and is a much easier solution than anything that uses a connection to a computer or to the cloud

Answer 6

You can also use Buzz Player or Buzz Player HD. Allows you to copy media in from a PC or other device on a network thru the wireless connect, without the need for the USB cable. It works great and you can download the app from the Apple Store.

Answer 7

"Instead of syncing have you tried the Manually Manage option? Then you can load content to it from multiple PCs without doing a complete sync. support.apple.com/kb/ht1535 – Ryan Sharp Jan 25 at 16:55"

Contrary to this being the top rated answer, this is incorrect. In order to actually choose the Manually Manage option, you must first sync the device with that target computer. I just tried it and it tells me that it will erase all content on the iPad and then I will be able to manually manage. This is a DRM requirement.

Answer 8

There is PadSync if you are on a mac: http://www.ecamm.com/mac/padsync/

Answer 9

If you want to avoid iTunes completely, there are out there 3rd party applications to do the same, one of those is called iTransfer

It's not for free but does the job.