How can I stream movies that are on an Airport Time Capsule on my iPad 1?

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I'm thinking of buying an Airport Time Capsule mainly so I can load it with a ton of movies and watch them on my iPad 1 while traveling in my motorhome.

I have a couple questions about using an Airport Time Capsule please...

1) Can I stream a movie directly from the Airport Time Capsule to my iPad using one of those free video player iPad apps or do I have to put the movie in iTunes on my iPad first before I can actually watch it? (I called Apple with this same question and got two totally different answers from two humans) The bottom line is... What is the fastest, easiest most hassle free way to watch movies that are stored on the Airport Time Capsule on my iPad 1?

2) Is it possible to move movies from a DVR to the Airport Time Capsule? I called Time Warner and Cox and they said I can do that but weren't to clear on how to actually do it. Is it as simple as hooking up a USB cable from the DVR to the Airport Time Capsule and then dragging them into the Time Capsule?

3) Is there a better wifi external hard drive than the Airport Time Capsule? Like maybe the Seagate wifi hard drive??

Thanks very much!

UPDATE: This will be with NO internet.
 

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Am assuming you mean without an accessible computer nor an internet connection available.

iPad 1 ???

Perhaps take a look at FileBrowser.
 

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I use FileBrowser to stream from my NAS. Works well.
 

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Yes. If you follow the link in the post above it takes you to a page with additional info. At the bottom of the page is a link to the iPad app in the app store.
 
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Yes I looked at the FileBrowser page and it looks awesome. Do you know how Filebrowser compares with Plex?

Yes. If you follow the link in the post above it takes you to a page with additional info. At the bottom of the page is a link to the iPad app in the app store.
 

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Plex will require you to have a computer running as the server.
If you have your computer there with all the movies in iTunes, then you don't need Plex or FileBrowser. Just use Home Sharing in iTunes and in iOS.
 
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Hi Magentawave - there are some excellent suggestions but most depend on the use of a computer and the presence of a Wi-Fi network - you really need to tells us what equipment you will be using? I'm assuming you will be traveling, so will you just have an iPad 1 and some unit that will carry the movies; if so then a Wi-Fi network would be needed to stream the movies to your iPad w/o having the files stored on the device.

Also, tell us if this is for home use and/or while you are traveling - if the latter, airplane, hotels, RUV, etc.? If you have a TV w/ a DVD player, then other options come to mind, especially when wanting to get movies from your DVR to view - I have a few 'other' suggestions but would need to know your specific needs. Dave
 
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I will need to conserve energy so I would prefer to do this without my computer running.

Are you saying that I can share files, in this case it would be movies, between my iPad and Macbook Pro without internet and wifi?

Plex will require you to have a computer running as the server.
If you have your computer there with all the movies in iTunes, then you don't need Plex or FileBrowser. Just use Home Sharing in iTunes and in iOS.
 
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Thanks for replying. I think I covered the equipment I'll be using and what I want to do in my first post, but to reiterate...

I want to watch the movies that are stored on an Airport Time Capsule on my iPad 1 and I want to stream the movies directly from the Airport Time Capsule on to my iPad because I don't want to put them in my iPads iTunes or download them on to my iPad. I want to do this with NO internet as I travel through Mexico, Central America, and South America in my motorhome. I was considering the Airport Time Capsule because its basically an external hard drive that creates its own wifi network. There are other external wifi hard drives available, like the one Seagate has, but none of them are larger than 1 TB, whereas the Airport Time Capsule is 2 or 3 TB's.

I appreciate everyones response and if I can do all of the above with just the Filebrowser app on my iPad 1 and an Airport Time Capsule then that is really simple and I like simple!

I called Time Warner to ask them if its possible to transfer the movies on the DVR to the Time Capsule and they said it is but couldn't explain how. Does anyone know how to do this? Would I plug both the Time Capsule and the DVR into my Macbook Pro with USB cables and then just drag the movie files over from the DVR into the Time Capsule?



Hi Magentawave - there are some excellent suggestions but most depend on the use of a computer and the presence of a Wi-Fi network - you really need to tells us what equipment you will be using? I'm assuming you will be traveling, so will you just have an iPad 1 and some unit that will carry the movies; if so then a Wi-Fi network would be needed to stream the movies to your iPad w/o having the files stored on the device.

Also, tell us if this is for home use and/or while you are traveling - if the latter, airplane, hotels, RUV, etc.? If you have a TV w/ a DVD player, then other options come to mind, especially when wanting to get movies from your DVR to view - I have a few 'other' suggestions but would need to know your specific needs. Dave
 
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I will need to conserve energy so I would prefer to do this without my computer running.

Are you saying that I can share files, in this case it would be movies, between my iPad and Macbook Pro without internet and wifi?

Well, please just be more specific rather than elusive - you have an iPad 1 w/o any movies on it, you'll have a MBPro but no internet or Wi-Fi, and you want to get movies off your DVR to play on your iPad - am I getting close? ;) Dave
 

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I called Time Warner to ask them if its possible to transfer the movies on the DVR to the Time Capsule and they said it is but couldn't explain how. Does anyone know how to do this? Would I plug both the Time Capsule and the DVR into my Macbook Pro with USB cables and then just drag the movie files over from the DVR into the Time Capsule?
I researched this a whle ago to see what options there were when the cable box filled up and I had not had an opportunity to watch/delete the stored shows. Here's what I discovered:

Without knowing exactly which cable box you have (each company has one or more preferred boxes). You could use an analog method and video capture device to pass the files to the Mac.

I can't say for sure but I doubt that you can just drag and drop the files from the box to the Time Capsule. The USB ports on some boxes are "service ports only and would not accept a hard drive. On other boxes the port will accept a hard drive but you have no way of controlling which programs are on the original DVDR drive and which are on the external hard drive. On the boxes I've seen that have this feature the external drive is essentially seen as an extension of the existing DVR drive and isn't intended to be read directly by the computer.

There are some boxes that have firewire ports that can be used to connect to the Mac and transfer files. The ports may/may not be active. Here again the process involves playing the file in real time while the computer is connected to the box. One hour of video would take an hour to transfer. The files are often in .m2t format and often have to be transcoded to a more usable format. There is also the possibility that the file will not transfer/transcode properly due to copyright restrictions.
 
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Without knowing exactly which cable box you have (each company has one or more preferred boxes). You could use an analog method and video capture device to pass the files to the Mac.

I can't say for sure but I doubt that you can just drag and drop the files from the box to the Time Capsule. The USB ports on some boxes are "service ports only and would not accept a hard drive. On other boxes the port will accept a hard drive but you have no way of controlling which programs are on the original DVDR drive and which are on the external hard drive. On the boxes I've seen that have this feature the external drive is essentially seen as an extension of the existing DVR drive and isn't intended to be read directly by the computer.

There are some boxes that have firewire ports that can be used to connect to the Mac and transfer files. The ports may/may not be active. Here again the process involves playing the file in real time while the computer is connected to the box. One hour of video would take an hour to transfer. The files are often in .m2t format and often have to be transcoded to a more usable format. There is also the possibility that the file will not transfer/transcode properly due to copyright restrictions.

Hi Slydude - I've been struggling w/ these DVRs for a number of years - now on my 3rd Time Warner DVR cable box (all Scientific Atlanta - DL manuals to all) - I'd first have to agree that there really is no way to attach these devices to a computer and analyze their file formats for transfer of data, such as movies recorded - maybe in the future or possibly a 'trick' that I'm missing - don't know, BUT I've not figured it out yet.

What I've done for 4-5 years is to use a stand-alone Sony DVD burner (on my 2nd model shown below - not cheap), but I've burned to DVD-R over 500 films off my DVR - process is tedious in that the DVR is attached to the Sony device via composite AV cables and has to be played in 'real time' - now it does work, though! There are SD card inputs but these only go in one direction, i.e. SD card to DVD - now if only they could go the other way (or if there is a similar device that would 'burn' to SD cards) - if so, then there is a solution (or several).

I also own an AirStash device (also shown below) - this accepts SD cards (even of large capacity) and sets up a personal Wi-Fi network; there is a free app for the iPad which allows easy transfer of photos/music/movies from the SD card to the iPad - NOW - only to figure out how to get the movies off the DVR to SD cards? Intriguing I must say - Dave :)


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419X-8knkpL.jpg

AirStash_01.jpg
 
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Thanks for replying. I think I covered the equipment I'll be using and what I want to do in my first post, but to reiterate...

I want to watch the movies that are stored on an Airport Time Capsule on my iPad 1 and I want to stream the movies directly from the Airport Time Capsule on to my iPad because I don't want to put them in my iPads iTunes or download them on to my iPad. I want to do this with NO internet as I travel through Mexico, Central America, and South America in my motorhome. I was considering the Airport Time Capsule because its basically an external hard drive that creates its own wifi network. There are other external wifi hard drives available, like the one Seagate has, but none of them are larger than 1 TB, whereas the Airport Time Capsule is 2 or 3 TB's.

I appreciate everyones response and if I can do all of the above with just the Filebrowser app on my iPad 1 and an Airport Time Capsule then that is really simple and I like simple!

I called Time Warner to ask them if its possible to transfer the movies on the DVR to the Time Capsule and they said it is but couldn't explain how. Does anyone know how to do this? Would I plug both the Time Capsule and the DVR into my Macbook Pro with USB cables and then just drag the movie files over from the DVR into the Time Capsule?

Hi again - we posted at almost the same time so I kinda missed your post above - reading and helps - now I may 'burst your bubble' regarding the Apple Time Capsule but a Wi-Fi network is not created unless there is a cabled internet connection, i.e. won't work as you plan even w/ plenty of movies on its hard drive. I'm willing to be corrected but I own an Airport Extreme and when my TW modem decides to stop working (needs a reboot) I completely lose Wi-Fi - having a HD in the device will not make a difference.

Now there are several follow-up posts concerning the DVR situation - in my post, I've explained my way of getting DVR movies unto another medium (DVD-Rs) - the AV can be fed to any compatible external device but the process is slow & tedious - if these files could be placed on SD cards then using the AirStash would work w/ your iPad - I've not given it a try but I believe the movies can be streamed from those cards rather than loaded onto your iPad.

However, just curious about your motorhome - do you have a TV w/ a DVD player? If so, may be easier to just use optical media and if you want the movies from your DVR then you could burn them to DVD-R like I've been doing for years. Dave :)
 

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@RadDave I did something similar to what you do with the DVR. For a while I had a TiVo unit with a DVD burner in it. Getting the initial file took about half the time it took to watch the program. I gave up that method when the burner died. Even at its fastest the process was still time consuming due to the transcoding needed to yield an editable file.

I've tried the firewire cable process but the files are huge (20-40 GB for most programs), As far as I can tell the few programs I've seen that help with this have not been updated with new features in some time. Some of the programs can be copied freely, some copied once, and some won't copy (depending upon flags set by the copyright holder). Transcoding to a usable file can be very time consuming. Sometimes even VLC can't play some of the files.
 

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I have not investigated getting movies from a cable/satellite provider's DVR in many years. Unless there has been some new external device come out (which it appears there has not been based on Dave's and Sly's comments), the easiest way to watch the movies that are on your DVR, is going to be by taking your DVR and a TV on your trip. You can buy a 24" TV for a couple hundred bucks.

I did this for some time - I should still have sitting in my closet, the last ATI All-in Wonder HD card that could capture video and does not recognize flags.

All these DVRs use proprietary file formats - specifically to prevent people from just copying movies they've recorded to their computers. As far as I am aware, to get the files from the DVR and be able to watch them on a computer/iPad or any other device is going to require some sort of video capture device that will re-encode the files into a file format playable by the iPad. This is going to require real time play back of everything you want to take, prior to going on your trip.
 
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Yes exactly and I think that is pretty much what I've been saying from the beginning. :Blushing: I'll be traveling through Mexico, Central America, and South America and will most of the time be camping in areas with NO internet so it would be nice to watch a movie at night on my iPad so I'm trying to figure out how to do this with the least hassle.

Well, please just be more specific rather than elusive - you have an iPad 1 w/o any movies on it, you'll have a MBPro but no internet or Wi-Fi, and you want to get movies off your DVR to play on your iPad - am I getting close? ;) Dave
 
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Hmmm, thats weird because even the people at Apple told me that the Airport Time Capsule creates its own wifi network without the need for an internet connection. I'll have to call them again to confirm this because I was very clear in telling both people there that I will not have internet.

Space will be at a premium so I'm really hoping to do this without taking a ton of DVD's.

Are the threads you started on how to transfer movies obvious to find if I look at all the threads you started here? (Assuming I can even do that on this forum)


Hi again - we posted at almost the same time so I kinda missed your post above - reading and helps - now I may 'burst your bubble' regarding the Apple Time Capsule but a Wi-Fi network is not created unless there is a cabled internet connection, i.e. won't work as you plan even w/ plenty of movies on its hard drive. I'm willing to be corrected but I own an Airport Extreme and when my TW modem decides to stop working (needs a reboot) I completely lose Wi-Fi - having a HD in the device will not make a difference.

Now there are several follow-up posts concerning the DVR situation - in my post, I've explained my way of getting DVR movies unto another medium (DVD-Rs) - the AV can be fed to any compatible external device but the process is slow & tedious - if these files could be placed on SD cards then using the AirStash would work w/ your iPad - I've not given it a try but I believe the movies can be streamed from those cards rather than loaded onto your iPad.

However, just curious about your motorhome - do you have a TV w/ a DVD player? If so, may be easier to just use optical media and if you want the movies from your DVR then you could burn them to DVD-R like I've been doing for years. Dave :)
 
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Hmmm, thats weird because even the people at Apple told me that the Airport Time Capsule creates its own wifi network without the need for an internet connection. I'll have to call them again to confirm this because I was very clear in telling both people there that I will not have internet.

Space will be at a premium so I'm really hoping to do this without taking a ton of DVD's.

Are the threads you started on how to transfer movies obvious to find if I look at all the threads you started here? (Assuming I can even do that on this forum)

Hey again - as said, I'll stand to be corrected about whether the Apple AirPort stations can establish their own Wi-Fi network w/o an internet connection - the AirStash device that I own & described does it, so not a difficult issue, I guess - I'll be quite curious about Apple's response - my AirPort Extreme is the previous model and cannot do what you describe.

Now, if indeed the new model can establish a Wi-Fi network while you're camping, you still have to figure out how to get those movies onto the HD of the Time Capsule and then to beam the films wirelessly to your iPad - would require an app on your iDevice - does one exist? Still dubious that you'll be able to accomplish your goals, as described. Hopefully other members will continue to 'chime in' to help - keep the questions coming, may just help others trying to do the same. Dave
 

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Am pretty sure the TC can create a wifi network without internet access - would have to test again - but thinking I have done this and pretty sure my TC wifi network has been operational on the lan even when the internet has been down. Will not have time to test that until the weekend.

Edit:

To me that's still not the biggest issue - the real issue is getting videos from a cable companies DVR in a format that is playable on other devices. And the simplest/easiest answer is take the DVR and a TV.
 

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