Q: Can you put a movie on an SD card and watch it from their?  Also, will it work with an iPod touch?

You don't.

Directly (off the card without importing it), you can't. However, if you do get the Apple Camera Connection Kit and make sure you properly name your movies (8+3 chars + inside the DCIM folder as is explained at, say, http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20043530-285/how-to-use-sd-cards-for-extra-i pad-video-storage/ ), you can use your SD cards as a back-up. (With the above-mentioned hassles, of course.)

This only works with iPads, not with iPod touches.

Another way. You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.

Plug the USB flash drive into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov; DSCN0164.jpg).

Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import. (You can not export using the camera connection kit.)

Pad2, the new iPad Supported Video Formats & Movie Formats

• H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
• MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
• Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

 Cheers, Tom

Texas Mac Man wrote:

 

Another way. You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.

 

Plug the USB flash drive into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov; DSCN0164.jpg).

 

Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import. (You can not export using the camera connection kit.)

 

I experimented with that procedure and found a serious limitation on the size of the USB sticks. Even a stick of 1 GB caused the iPad 2 to refuse access to the data by saying that the stick required more power to run than the iPad could provide, or words to that effect. Further reading indicates that the max size of USB stick which the iPad will read from is 512 MB. Obviously useless for any movies or more than a few small photos of the grandchildren. I doubt you can buy that size sticks anymore and those of us who had them have probably discarded them by now anyway.

Cheers

Peter Sealy1 wrote:

 

I experimented with that procedure and found a serious limitation on the size of the USB sticks. Even a stick of 1 GB caused the iPad 2 to refuse access to the data by saying that the stick required more power to run than the iPad could provide, or words to that effect. Further reading indicates that the max size of USB stick which the iPad will read from is 512 MB. Obviously useless for any movies or more than a few small photos of the grandchildren. I doubt you can buy that size sticks anymore and those of us who had them have probably discarded them by now anyway.

 

Cheers

Not true. I have a 4GB and a 1GB flash drive & both work. I also have an older 512MB and it draws too much power. So apparently it depends on the brand/design of the flash drive.

There's another way where you can use an SD card. If you have a memory card reader plug it in to your computer and transfer a video to an SD card. Then using the iPads CCK, plug in the sd card & import to the iPad.

 Cheers, Tom

It does depend on the size and brand. I have about a 50/50 success rate. And I think it's less the size that's an issue than the flash drive itself. Sandisk and Kingston that have bundled software on the drive will trigger the 'too much power' warning. As will any flash drive whose LED light is too big. I've successfully plugged a 32 gig CF card in and gotten it to read, and had a 256 meg USB that doesn't work.

You have to experiment and play. I have one card reader that won't work, and a Vivitar one that will.

to the OP, yes, you can. But like they've said, the SD card must follow that formatting restriction, and you import it into the photos app, watch it and then delete it...and you have to be careful, after the import, you will be given the option to keep or delete your movie, so read which button you tap.

To Texas Mac Man and Skydiver119

Thanks for the info on results on varieties of devices. Gosh it really is a minefield. I had no idea.

Cheers