Many podcasts and iTunes University classes now offer video. To watch these videos on your iPad, you just have to open the Video app. In this chapter you will learn how to watch and control video files stored on your iPad.
In addition to learning something new through video podcasts or iTunes University classes, you'll also learn how to watch movies or YouTube videos.
The Videos app lets you watch movies, TV shows, video podcasts, or iTunes video courses stored on your iPad. To see how to play these video files, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Videos. The Videos screen appears.
Tap the Movies tab at the top of the screen. Thumbnail images of all movies stored on your iPad appear, as shown in Figure 19-1.
Tap the TV Shows tab at the top of the screen. Thumbnails of your TV shows appear. Tapping the Podcasts, Music Videos, and iTunes U tabs will display thumbnails of your files in the same way.
Tap a thumbnail image to start watching that video.
When you're watching a video file, you can display controls by tapping the screen once. The controls appear at the top and bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 19-2. If you don't use any of the displayed controls after a few seconds, they disappear again. You can also hide the controls by tapping the screen once while they are displayed.
The available controls are as follows:
Playhead slider Drag this left and right to play different parts of the video file.
Full Screen Tap to expand the video to fill the entire screen; tap a second time to shrink the video slightly.
Rewind Tap to rewind to the beginning of a video file or play the previous video file in a list. If you hold your finger over the rewind button, you can quickly skip back through a video.
Volume slider Drag this left and right to adjust the volume.
Forward Tap to play the next video file in a list. If you hold your finger over the forward button, you can quickly jump ahead in a video.
Note
To skip backward or forward in a video at different speeds, hold your finger over the Playhead slider until a Hi-Speed Scrubbing message appears underneath the Playhead slider, as shown in Figure 19-3. Slide your finger down away from the Playhead slider. As you move your finger down, the Hi-Speed Scrubbing message changes into Half Speed Scrubbing, Quarter Speed Scrubbing, and Fine Scrubbing. When your desired speed appears, slide your finger left or right to rewind or fast forward through your video.
Figure 19-3. Sliding your finger down lets you choose different scrubbing rates to change the speed that you can scroll backward or forward.
To see how to control a video, follow these steps:
Follow the steps in “Choosing a Video” on page 154 to find a video you want to play.
Tap the image that represents the video you want to play. A list of episodes appears in the left side of the screen, as shown in Figure 19-4.
Tap Play. Your chosen episode starts playing, filling the entire screen.
Tap the screen once to display controls at the top and bottom of the screen.
Drag the Playhead slider to view a different part of the video.
Tap Play/Pause to pause and play the video.
Tap and hold Rewind. Your video plays backward.
Tap and hold Forward. The video advances and then stops when you release.
Tap Full Screen. The video expands to fill the screen.
Tap Full Screen again. The video shrinks slightly.
Tap Done.
For those times when you want to watch something for just a few minutes, you can browse the massive selection of videos available on YouTube. On your iPad, you can access YouTube directly without going through your browser at all.
Before you start browsing YouTube's massive library of videos, make sure you have a reliable Internet connection. If you have a weak Internet connection, you may spend your time staring at a screen that appears frozen but occasionally lurches forward to display a few additional frames before grinding to a halt once more.
After you're satisfied that your Internet connection is reliable, you can browse through YouTube by following these steps:
From the Home screen, tap YouTube. The YouTube screen appears.
Tap Featured at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of videos that YouTube is promoting that day appear, as shown in Figure 19-5.
Tap Top Rated at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of the highest-rated videos appear.
Tap the Today, This Week, or All tab at the top of the screen to view just today's top-rated videos, the past week's top-rated videos, or all top-rated videos.
Tap Most Viewed at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of the most viewed videos appear.
Tap the Today, This Week, or All tab at the top of the screen to view just today's most viewed videos, the past week's most viewed videos, or all of the most viewed videos.
Tap History at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of the last videos you've seen appear.
(Optional) Tap Clear in the upper-left corner of the screen to remove this list of videos you've watched.
When you're watching a video file, you can display controls by tapping the screen once to display controls at the top and bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 19-6.
The available controls are as follows:
Playhead slider Drag this left and right to play parts of the video.
Bookmark/Add Tap to store this video in your Favorites list.
Rewind Tap to rewind to the beginning of the video or play the previous video in a list. If you hold your finger over the rewind button, you can quickly skip back through a video.
Play/Pause Tap to pause or resume playing of a video.
Volume slider Drag this left and right to adjust the volume.
Forward Tap to play the next video in a list. If you hold your finger over the forward button, you can quickly jump ahead in a video.
Full Screen/Shrink Tap to expand the video to fill the screen; tap a second time to shrink the video slightly.
To see how to control a video, follow these steps:
Follow the steps in “Choosing a YouTube Video” on page 157 to find a video you want to play.
Tap the image that represents the video you want to play. Your chosen video appears on the full screen and displays controls briefly (see Figure 19-6). After a few seconds, the controls disappear.
Tap anywhere on the screen to display the controls again. Notice that when the video appears on part of the screen, the Add, Share, Like, Dislike, and Flag icons appear at the top of the video.
Tap Shrink. The video shrinks to fill part of the screen, as shown in Figure 19-7. Tap the small screen, and you can Add, Share, Like, Dislike, or Flag a video.
Tap Full Screen. The video expands to fill the entire screen.
Since YouTube contains thousands of videos, you probably don't want to spend your time browsing through each one. To find a specific type of video, you can type a descriptive word or phrase and let YouTube show you only those videos that match your search criteria.
To search for a YouTube video, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap YouTube. The YouTube screen appears.
Tap the Search field that appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. The virtual keyboard appears.
Type a descriptive word or phrase, and tap the Search key on the virtual keyboard. (To clear any text in the Search field, tap Close in the far right of the Search field, or tap the Backspace key on the virtual keyboard.) YouTube displays a list of videos matching your search criteria.
By loading educational podcasts or iTunes U courses, you can improve your current work skills or develop new ones. For the intellectual challenge, download video iTunes U courses on topics that interest you so you can turn your iPad into a portable educational tool.
Bring along a pair of headphones or ear buds so you can watch a video on your iPad without disturbing others (although others will likely disturb you so they can see how the iPad works).
To avoid cramming too many videos onto your iPad, you can store videos on your PC or Mac and then stream your video to your iPad. This lets you watch videos on your iPad without having to store them on your iPad.
To stream videos, you need a Wi-Fi network. On your computer, open iTunes, click the Advanced menu, and choose the Turn On Home Sharing option. You'll need to get a free Apple ID to turn on this feature, but then you'll be able to watch videos on your iPad without going through the hassle of transferring those video files between your iPad and your computer.
Now on your iPad, tap Settings and when the Settings screen appears, tap Video. Under the Home Sharing category, type your Apple ID and password, as shown in Figure 19-8.
To get even more out of watching YouTube videos, visit YouTube's website (http://www.youtube.com/) and create an account for free. With a free YouTube account, you can upload your own videos (and view them using the My Videos icon), create video playlists (and view them through the Favorites icon), or subscribe to certain YouTube video creators.
