Existing Movies onto Android Device

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Since I am new to Android, I have many movies from Apple on my iPad which I'm sure I can't copy over, right? i do however, have a huge digital library of ripped blu rays for XBMC. Is it possible for me to take an MKV ( or some other format of movie) and copy it somewhere onto the Nexus to watch? Or, do I have to rely solely on the Play Store for movies?

[Haggis Veteran]

Just copy it onto your SD or internal memory and watch :)

[Ambroos]

You can play a lot with the built-in movie players for Android, and if you use a third-party player (I highly recommend MX Player) you can pretty much play any video format you want. On my Xperia T with ICS I can play 720p h264 with several Dolby Digital 6ch-audiotracks in an MKV just fine, subtitles included. Just move the files somewhere on the internal storage (doesn't matter where), fire up your video player and you're ready to watch!

[AJerman]

A little more involved, but I set up a Plex Media Center at home, and use the Plex app on my Android phone to stream any movie, tv show, or music from my home computer to my phone or iPad. I have a 2 Mbps connection so fairly decent quality too.

[Growled Member]

Just copy it onto your SD or internal memory and watch :)

That's basically what I do. Easy as pie. :)

[patseguin Global Moderator]

My Nexus doesn't have SD, so basically all I have to do it plug it in and copy the movie file over to the tablet, it doesn't matter where?

Also, what rip format should I use? My movies in my media library are all 1080p MKV files and can vary in size ~10GB

[AJerman]

My Nexus doesn't have SD, so basically all I have to do it plug it in and copy the movie file over to the tablet, it doesn't matter where?

Also, what rip format should I use? My movies in my media library are all 1080p MKV files and can vary in size ~10GB

What exactly do you have? A Nexus 7? Nexus 10? I believe either Nexus should play your file just fine as is, though you're not going to have much space with files that big. I think a lot of people use MX Player if you wanted to give that a try. May play smoother than the stock player. H264 MKV files should be fine, but you may want to rip in 720p to save space unless you don't mind constantly copying new files. That's why I stream my movies to my devices so I don't have to worry about space.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Actually both now. I've had a Nexus 7 for a while and just got a Nexus 10 today. I intend to use it camping and want to load up movies. a 15Gb 1080p movie seems like it might be overkill for a tablet. Could I still get a good picture if I used another preset? I use DVDFab BTW.

[Growled Member]

I use DVDFab and I use the standard MP4 settings and my files are usually in the 1.5 GB range. You can use a AVI setting and get it down even lower but the movie quality is not as good.

[remixedcat]

I use Moboplayer now and it's awesome.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I use DVDFab and I use the standard MP4 settings and my files are usually in the 1.5 GB range. You can use a AVI setting and get it down even lower but the movie quality is not as good.

I used DVD Fab last night and used the "Android" preset to rip my new disc of Dark Knight Rises. When I selected it, it listed Nexus 7 but I ripped it anyways and I got about a 1.5GB MKV file. I copied it to the movies folder on my Nexus 10 and used MX Player to play it and it looked and sounded amazing. It's very cool that I can just convert any of my library of videos and just copy them to my Nexus. I'm now looking to see if there's a player out there that will use a network location for a source. MX Player seems to only use local directories for sources. I'd like to try streaming my MKV library onto the Nexus. Something that could set up a source like "\\DISKSTATION\\Pat HD Movies" and stream it. I understand that XBMC now has an Android version but I guess you have to compile it yourself and root the device which I still don't know how to do.

[AJerman]

XBMC APK: http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/android/ No need to compile or root. Thanks for reminding me by the way. I need to try it out.

As for a network share, I know you can download different apps like Astro file manager and mount SMB shares if that's what you want to do. I'd suggest again doing something like Plex because it's FAR easier and more streamlined than trying to mount network shares. Plus you can have it reencode your stuff on mobile so you can just keep 1080p files. It's worth the small cost of the Android app.

[Frantix]

Hi, I am thinking about a tablet but I want one that will let me use my current external hdd that is filled with all my movies on it so that I can watch all my existing media on the tablet without transferring it to the internal storage. Which tablet if any will allow me to do this. I'd also like HDMI out if possible.

[remixedcat]

Hi, I am thinking about a tablet but I want one that will let me use my current external hdd that is filled with all my movies on it so that I can watch all my existing media on the tablet without transferring it to the internal storage. Which tablet if any will allow me to do this. I'd also like HDMI out if possible.

I don't think there's many out there with this.... but one thing though.... does your router have USB storage??? if you spend most of the time at home you can get a router with one and it will be shared as a network drive and you can get an app to have it stream from the drive or get a file manager that will work for network shares and it will almost be like the drive is attatched.... there's also a few cloud services that will put the drive on the cloud something like pogoplug or whatever and you can access the drive from the internet if you want it on the go. thing is you'd have to use wifi hotspots or worry about data usage :(

[*RedBull*]

That's basically what I do. Easy as pie. :)

Yes should be simple

[Frantix]

Remixed cat that's a really good idea, I won't use a NAS But I can use my media centre pc and some software. I've decided on the asus transformer pad infinity though as it has all the things on it that I want, including a full size USB port on the docking station, I'm going o go and pick one up from best buy today. Hopefully there won't be any problems taking it back and using it in the EU.

[remixedcat]

Remixed cat that's a really good idea, I won't use a NAS But I can use my media centre pc and some software. I've decided on the asus transformer pad infinity though as it has all the things on it that I want, including a full size USB port on the docking station, I'm going o go and pick one up from best buy today. Hopefully there won't be any problems taking it back and using it in the EU.

You;re welcome. :)

and yep.... I wanna get a good NAS myself but the one I want's pretty pricey.... I want an IOSafe Fireproof NAS drive but the one I want's like 900 bucks and I'm soooooo broke right now.... :(

might just have to get the regular version.... :( they use Synology and I've heard very good things about them....

[dancedar]

I'd stick with 720p converts for space and the face the 7's screen is only 800xsomething...1080 is overkill for the space. MX Player is awesome, too, especially as it uses the GPU for decoding which greatly eases load on the cpu and is better for battery life.