Going into hospital and want lots of movies to watch. What's the best way to do this with an iPad?

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Going into hospital and want lots of movies to watch. What's the best way to do this with an iPad?

Ok, I'll try to keep this simple.

I'm going into hospital in a months time for major surgery and will have to stay in for a week/10 days (over Christmas too, boo).

I'm sure for the first few days I'll be too uncomfortable/too off my face on morphine to be bored but for the rest of the time I'd like to get my teeth into as many movies as possible and TV series' I've been promising myself to watch for years.

I have both a Macbook Pro and an iPad and a hard-drive full of viewing delights (entire Soprano's back catalogue) so the content is covered. In an ideal world I'd have everything good to go on the iPad (I won't be able to move my arms, or put myself in sitting position after surgery so an iPad is the best way of my being able to do this independently) but obviously there's a limit to how much I can put on the iPad at any one time.

Other option was just to use the Macbook but I think I'm going to struggle to use that with ease.

So my question is, is there anyway to bypass the whole plugging into Macbook then syncing from hard-drive scenario? Is it worth me just putting everything onto iCloud or Dropbox? The problem I see with that is I have no idea if they'll be wifi at the hospital and if there is, how reliable it is.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi, own:iMac, MacPro, iPhone, iPad, ATV

Posted on Nov 13, 2013 3:44 AM

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Answer 1

Skydiver119

Level 9

53,393 points

Nov 13, 2013 4:19 AM in response to why_the_face

There are harddrives that have their own little wifi antenna. One early example was the seagate goflex, which allowed you to stream movies from the drive to your device via an app. Perhaps something to look into. A portable drive with a wifi transmitter than you can use to stream.

Good luck with your surgery

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Answer 2

Nov 13, 2013 12:18 PM in response to why_the_face

Hi,

I agree that the portable wireless hard drive is the way to go. This Amazon page shows a few of them.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keyword s=sandisk+wireless+media+drive&sprefix=sandisk+wireless+%2Caps%2C152

You might wait until Thanksgiving and Black Friday and check websites to try to get a deal on a wireless media hard drive. When you get it, set it up and use your MBP to put your media library onto the wireless hard drive. From what I've read about them, you have to pay attention to set up and add any updates the media drive company puts on their website. Just don't wait until the last minute to set it up and load the drive with your media. It will take time to load your media.

You should also check with the hospital' IT department - maybe go there yourself and bring your ipad to check - and find out how reliable their wifi is. Wireless might be area to area at the hospital, so the reliability could be questionable. If you find out that the hospital's wireless is reliable and you'll be allowed to access it from your room, you might also consider the following -

PLEASE NOTE YOU'LL NEED A WIRELESS CONNECTION AT THE HOSPITAL FOR THESE -

Only days before you go, get a free thirty day trial of netflix, amazon prime, hulu plus, and ask your cable provider if you can have a free one month trial of HBO (and any other premium channels they might give you.)

Then download the netflix, amazon prime, hbo go and hulu plus apps to your MBP and your ipad. With Amazon Prime you will have to pay for many or most of your media, but with the Netflix, hulu and hbo go apps you can watch what they have for free, adding to what you'll have on your media drive (or instead of it.) It will expand all you can watch or read in the hospital and as you recover at home.

I wish you well with your surgery and recovery and have a Merry Christmas as you recover.

I hope this helps.

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