iPad: The Missing Manual, 5th Edition

Chapter 15. Watch, Create, and Edit Videos

You’ll learn to:

• Add videos to your iPad

• Watch movies on your tablet or streamed to HDTV

• Shoot and edit your own movies

• Share videos by email, message, or YouTube

• Delete old movies

APPLE ADDED VIDEO PLAYBACK powers to its handheld devices in 2005, when it introduced the first video iPod, with a 2.5-inch screen. The screens on Apple’s gadgets have gradually increased in size, now at 7.9 inches for the Mini and a glorious 9.7 inches on the regular iPad. Either tablet is perfect for immersing yourself in a movie, even if that means watching it inflight while crammed into a knee-knocking coach seat.

And now, with a 2012 iPad and iOS 5 or later, you can enjoy high-definition videos in top-quality 1080p resolution (instead of the bare-minimum 720p HD resolution on earlier iPads). And if you have a third- or fourth-gen iPad with a 3 million-pixel Retina display, HD movies look really good.

Finding video is easy. You can buy, rent, or stream movies, TV shows, music videos, and video podcasts from iTunes; download video-streaming apps (like Google’s standalone YouTube app) from the App Store; use the iPad’s built-in Safari browser; and even shoot your own videos with the iPad’s camera. And if the whole family wants to watch your movies, you can connect your iPad to your TV—with or without wires—and see them on an even bigger screen.

From getting video onto ...