Movies

[JamBon87]

Hey guys. Finally took the plunge and bought a Nexus 7, so far so good.

What is the best way to view movies on this.

Obviously the Google Play Movies App is there to download them how good is this as I will be wanting something to watch on a flight in a few weeks time.

Alternatives how easy is it to transfer movies onto the device?

Cheers

 

[John Bean]

It's as easy to move movies onto the Nexus 7 as any other file type; just how this is done will depend on what other resources (PC, say) you have available.

There are some good video players available too; I prefer MX Player but there are numerous others.

If you use the inbuilt Google app make sure you really download the movie rather than just watching it online, as it needs to be available locally to watch without any data connection. There's a "pushpin" icon next to the movie which tells it to download and keep on the device for watching offline.

That said I don't use Google movies at all, I prefer to download from wherever and watch with MX Player.

 

[JamBon87]

Thanks for the reply, what sort of file size am I looking at for movies from Google do you know? It seems the most straight forward option and I'm not to good with ripping DVDs etc

So download and pushpin. Sounds simple enough

 

[Rhyan]

I also use MX Player - it's a great player and you can use swipe gestures to control the media (fast forward, rewind, volume up/down etc). It also plays most file types.

Personally, I don't get movies from the Play Store. I decrypt my DVDs and Blurays using MakeMKV, and then convert to an Nexus-friendly format (e.g. MP4) using Handbrake. Both MakeMKV and Handbrake are free at the moment. I then copy the MP4s across to the Nexus 7.

Well, in truth, I actually copy them across to a USB stick (since I only have the 16Gb version of the Nexus 7), and watch the films from the stick connected to the Nexus 7 using an OTG cable and the Nexus Media Importer app, but the principle is the same. Although I'm eagerly awaiting for a MicroSD card OTG adaptor (Kickstarter project) to be released to replace the dangling cable and USB stick.

Whilst decrypting and converting is a fairly simple process once you get into the swing of things, I admit that it's not as simple as downloading a movie from the Play store.

Rhyan

 

[John Bean]

I don't really use them so I can't generalise, but the free demo movie (Ice Age) that came with mine was quite large, bigger than those I I copied manually.

Google Movies are easy and hassle-free to use though, so if you don't need dozens of them stored on your Nexus 7 it's probably the simplest solution.

 

[davis.rob]

I've used both ripped DVDs and Google Play to watch movies off-line (on a plane) on my Nexus 7. Both worked great for me. The Google Play option is easier, but you have to pay (I think it's worth it to get the HD version but YMMV). I've used DVDSmith Movie Backup and Handbrake to rip DVDs ... tedious but not too bad once you get the hang of it. There's better products if you plan to do a lot of this and don't mind paying a bit. The MP4s for a movie usually are <1gb and look pretty good.