[larrykubin]

Really? This is the first review I've seen that claims the iPad is difficult to use. It's really not very hard to buy the Big Lebowski from the iTunes store for 9.99, rent it for 2.99, or to stream it from Netflix. I'd much rather do these things than load biglebowski.avi from a disk.

[ZeroGravitas]

You'd rather pay again than watch existing content you already bought? Is this just video or is it not worth your time to rip CDs or import live FLACs either?

His point about .avis is interesting. At first I thought he was playing dumb, but on second thoughts why should people understand that file A is part of Apple's blessed ecosystem and file B isn't.

It's basically the same reason I don't have an Apple TV (though my friends with them have "hacked" them in some manner to allow this). And I've never figured out why I can't even find a good step-by-step guide for getting mpeg-4 part 2 video plus mp3 audio in an .avi container onto my iPod. It can play the video and audio if presented in the right manner and I understand that remuxing might be required but it appears everyone just gives up and re-encodes.

[GHFigs]

You'd rather pay again than watch existing content you already bought?

Where did anybody buy movies in AVI format?

[jsz0]

It's trivial to rip a DVD into a high quality mp4 with Handbreak or similar tools. At this point AVI containers are actually not as well supported as mp4/h264. I can't think of any good reason to encode to AVI.

[ugh]

You could also just open the damn movie in QuickTime and export from there. Apple supports a limited range of video formats in their mobile devices (and Apple TV) – which is a problem, but a fairly well known one.

[blagooey]

or you could watch it on a netbook

[ugh]

Sure. Either way, you don’t have to buy the movie again.

[elblanco]

Gimme your credit card so I can do that. Since you don't think my money is worth anything I don't think yours is either.

I swear, I'll only use it for media I stream to my iPad

[AndrewDucker]

I already have a lot of movie files. Why do you want me to pay for them again when they're on my hard drive?