tablet - what to get

[Teamless]

to start, I have a Nook Color that my wife got me for Father's Day.
I can watch movies on it, but in order to do so, I have learned from Barnes and Noble how to covert my currently owned DVDs to MP4 or MPEG.
Not an easy task - very time consuming and once conversion is complete, you have to transfer the movie to the Nook Color and test it to see if it works.
All in all - about 2 hours or so, total time to make it happen and if it doesn't work, you have lost 2 hours.

I travel a lot and am on planes at least 1 round trip per week. During the flights, I either listen to MP3's or want to watch movies to kill the time.

I do not want to carry a DVD player and a ton of DVD's unless that is my last resort.

What tablet should I get to accomplish
1 - Easy transfer of movies or TV shows from DVD's (or possibly other sources like netflix (if they can be downloaded and not streamed, I haven't looked into this yet)
2 - Needs to have ear phone plug

is an IPAD the way to go? I do not think I would use a lot of the functionality that an IPAD brings, maybe just MP3 and Videos (movies or tv shows?)
Is there a better option, or less expensive option that still maintains easy transfer of movies or TV shows?

To keep this gun related even though it doesn't have to be for the Off-Topic, maybe the movies will have lot of guns in them!

Thanks for your insight

[Teamless]

Does she (or you) have any ideas on the easy transfer or adding movies to it?

[mamabearCali]

subbing in--would love a tablet--want to see what everyone reccomends

[Dave2]

HP just announced that they're pulling out of the tablet market, so once everyone puts their existing stock on clearance you'll be able to get one for real cheap. However, it'll be an abandoned hardware platform running an abandoned OS.

[The Annoyed Man]

iPad. Everything else is an attempt at imitation.

[Teamless]

TAM are there any Pros that should push me to IPAD (or IPAD2?) and what Cons are there?

thanks

[The Annoyed Man]

TAM are there any Pros that should push me to IPAD (or IPAD2?) and what Cons are there?

thanks

So far, the only "con" is that iOS operating system that runs iPads won't handle Flash video. The Android OS does. Steve Jobs thinks Flash is a waste of system resource (it is), and he and Adobe have feuded over it for a while. True or not, I don't know, but I've heard that Adobe has a new type of Flash in the works so as to get back into Jobs' good graces. I don't know if that is true or not. I only know that neither my iPhone nor my iPad will play Flash videos. However, that's about the only hassle, and it isn't that big of a hassle. Other video formats work just fine on it.

I bought my iPad a few months before the iPad 2s were released. I bought the one with the most storage, and both wifi and mobile access. At the time, ATT was the only vendor. A few months later, Verizon announced the release of the iPad.

Anyway, you can transfer your movies from your hard drive to your iPad, using iTunes. I haven't done that, but only because I use my iPad primarily for business reasons.

[Teamless]

Thanks TAM!``

[The Annoyed Man]

Thanks TAM!``

You're welcome. I forgot the pros.....

I own an iPad and an iPhone, and I have owned an Android powered phone, so I have some familiarity with the Android OS. It is good, but it isn't as good as the iPad's OS. Mac operating system products are so clean, elegant, and intuitive to use that there just isn't a reason for me to go back. I've been an apple computer user for a long time now, and I really do think they are the best for most users, most of the time. And the array of available apps is just staggering.

[MeMelYup]

A lot of the sites have digital copies of their movies that one can download to their computer or to the ipad and store them that way.

[The Annoyed Man]

A lot of the sites have digital copies of their movies that one can download to their computer or to the ipad and store them that way.

The problem with doing that is that most of the user plans are bandwidth driven. The only way to pull that off without huge bandwidth charges is over a wireless network.

[RottenApple]

Just a note about Flash on tablet devices. The reasons that Flash is not (currently) allowed on the iPad and the reasons SWMBO had issues with those Flash based games are one and the same.

1) Flash is not designed for touch screen devices. The platform itself is inherently designed for mice & keyboard operations.
2) Flash is extremely processor and memory intensive. Next time you're using Flash on a computer, bring up your Activity Monitor (Mac) or Task Manager (Win) and take a look at the processor & memory usage of the Flash processes. Mobile devices have limited processor and memory resources and there is no virtual memory available as there is on a computer.
3) Flash on mobile devices is a massive power hog. When using flash on portable/laptop computers you can practically watch the better drain. Imagine how much worse it would be on a mobile device which has even more finite resources.

NOTE: Flash-based movies, while still processor, memory, & power intensive, typically use less power, memory, & processor than Flash-based games.

BTW, you don't have to take my word for these things. There are tech blogs, magazines, and reviews galore out on the internet. And while many of them complain about the lack of Flash on iOS devices, the ones that are actually testing (instead of just kvetching) will tell you all of the problems above.

And finally, Flash was designed for the era of the mouse & keyboard. We are now moving into the era of touchscreen & voice activation. Adobe needs to make a decision: Either keep Flash as it and stick to computer usage only (because they'll just lose in the mobile market), recreate Flash from the ground up and design it for touchscreen & voice control, or split Flash into 2 separate products; one for mobile and one for computer.

[psijac]

Get an HP touchpad They are now having a fire sale you can get a brand new one for $100. WebOS is the only true multitasking tablet O/S out there. if you don't like it then you only spend $100. Tegra 3 quad cores for android tablets should be out late fall and iPad 3 (with retinia display) will be out early 2012 so waiting for those options is a good choice.

iPad 2 is not vastly superior to iPad 1 it has a camera and slightly faster processor. The software is so tightly designed around the hardware that most people won't think of the ipad 1 as being slow
if you wanta keyboard get an Asus transformer 2 its the cheapest honeycomb tablet at @399

[Dave2]

WebOS is the only true multitasking tablet O/S out there.

Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile also do this.