DVD to iPad?

November 16, 2024 3:43 PM

Is there a way to play a dvd or blu ray and have the video appear on my iPad? I don’t necessarily need to control the dvd on my iPad, though pausing would be nice, and it would all be on my own home network. I know how to play stuff on my iPad and have it appear on my tv. I want, basically, the opposite of that, though the tv is not necessary.

Recently I have begun renting dvds from my nearby physical media institution. It is leagues better than aimlessly swiping and scrolling on streaming apps to decide what I want to watch. But I do also primarily use my iPad and only have a tv in one room of my house. I would love to be able to hang out or do chores in other rooms while a movie plays on my iPad nearby.

I have a ps5, and the most recent Xbox, along with a smart tv that I don’t really use apart from playing stuff on consoles, and my iPad is the newer usb-c type. I have tried setting up ps5 remote play, but when I finally managed that it blocked the dvd (an opera filmed in the mid 80s, what a fucking racket, i’m sure we are all so relieved I could not steal it) from displaying on my iPad and bounced back to the tv.

What I DO NOT WANT is to have to rip the discs and convert them into a digital format to then play directly on my iPad. The whole point of the disc rental is to make watching something fast and simple, and to create a little FOMO because I have only a week to watch whatever I rented. So that would defeat the purpose, and be endlessly fussy and annoying. My partner already has a plex server full of stuff we never watch, so I know this won’t work for this scenario either.

I am open to buying devices, like a separate dedicated dvd and blu ray player, or some kind of attachment for my tv that would cast its image to my iPad, or some kind of attachment for its port or whatever, or a remote control app between my (google pixel) phone and the disc playing device. I am not up on current tech wrt physical media, and honestly don’t care too much about the minutia. Stuff like image quality is nice but not my priority. If I need very good sound I have great headphones already, but if I want to really pay attention to the image and sound of a film I will sit down and watch it on my tv, which I can already do. This is specifically about like, watching stuff in bed or at the kitchen table or while I’m folding laundry in the basement.

Budget is variable - if I need to buy a whole device I am open to less than $1k if said device is likely to last me around a decade and is not chock full of bloatware and built in obsolescence. If it is gonna become unusable in a couple years, then my budget is way lower, but I’m still open to paying for something useful.

posted by Mizu to Technology (13 answers total)

I experimented a bit, and found something that worked, but it isn't a portable solution since the iPad is connected to a blue-ray player that is plugged into wall power. I connected an old Sony BDP-S6500 blue-ray player to a modern iPad using an HDMI cable and an HDMI to USB-C video capture adapter. To view the video captured by the adapter on the iPad I used the free Orion iPad app. Using the Sony remote I was able to load and play an old commercial DVD and see and hear the movie on the iPad. I don't know how HDCP copyright protection might interact with this chain of devices, or if a blue-ray might be different. I didn't need to do anything special, but for some content you might also need an HDCP stripper (this one might work? I haven't tried it).

The process was a bit fiddly, and seemed to depend a bit on the order of connecting the devices.
posted by RichardP at 5:08 PM on November 16, 2024

Response by poster: Yeah, it really needs to be portable.

I am also open to buying a portable disc player with attached screen that’s about the size of my iPad, so like 10-15 inches. The issue I seem to have with that is I can’t figure out what plays dvd vs blu ray vs 4k blah blah blah, I have access to a huge range of media at Scarecrow Video and weird eclectic tastes. And also all the products I’ve seen like that are aimed towards kids in cars with various design choices that don’t make sense for me, and also they break.
posted by Mizu at 8:41 PM on November 16, 2024

Blu-Ray players must play DVDs also, according to the spec. I don't think there are a lot of 4K discs out there, and I don't know what the nickname for them is (Ultraviolet?)
posted by TimHare at 10:09 PM on November 16, 2024

Another slightly janky solution idea: do you have a Mac computer? If so, I wonder if you could buy an external USB-C DVD/Blu-ray drive for the computer and then use Sidecar to wirelessly mirror/extend the display to your iPad. I don't have a drive to test with, but I can confirm that local video files play just fine. The only hiccup is that the audio source would still be on the computer, not the iPad, but if you're using wireless headphones or speakers that could work...
posted by btfreek at 1:01 AM on November 17, 2024

This is an impossible request.

Take it up with the MPAA and the DVD/Blu-Ray/HDMI standards teams -- your entirely reasonable use case is denied from everyone because of fear of piracy copyright infringement as the movie's data could just as easily flow from a disc player to your iPad as to an internet server for anyone to access.

The techniques needed to get around this are those your partner has adopted with the Plex server. Why isn't the infrastructure they've put together an option (whatever underlying thoughts you have about the 'stuff we never watch') for watching video discs from your iPad?
posted by k3ninho at 1:56 AM on November 17, 2024 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Why isn't the infrastructure they've put together an option (whatever underlying thoughts you have about the 'stuff we never watch') for watching video discs from your iPad?

Because I would have to first rip the video off of the discs, put those files onto the plex server, and then access the server to watch my movie. Too long of a process, so I will simply never do it, and also I don’t even have access to a computer right now with a disc drive except my partner’s computer which would mean me asking him to do it for me.

The problem I have now is not that I can’t access stuff I want to watch, although there are plenty of things not available for streaming that I want to watch. If I take like fifteen minutes and ask a few of my friends I can learn all about the ways of the high seas in 2024 (the last time I bothered was for some fansubbed anime around 2008, via an IRC channel, so I’d have to learn the new techniques, but I have no moral compunctions about such deviancy.) I also pay for a couple streaming services and watch tons of videos on YouTube and such. My issue is that I take huge chunks of time just scrolling trying to pick something to watch. If it’s on the plex server, it’s just a bunch of filenames, if it’s on Netflix or prime it’s a million deliberately obfuscating categories and recommendations I’ve already watched, if it’s YouTube or other video platforms it’s the same creators I’ve carefully curated my online experience for. But no matter what I’ll spend at least half an hour trying to decide on what to watch, if not more, and it will be something mediocre, and I will never end up watching anything someone else has told me I would enjoy. I have brain problems about it all.

So to try something to fix this, I thought back on when I last actually watched a lot of movies and enjoyed them, and it was when all my friends were film nerds in high school and college and we would rent a pile of movies every couple of weeks. Then it turned into Netflix mailing me four or five movies a month. I watched them because I suddenly only had a handful of things to pick from, and I knew they would all be interesting because past me had already thought about it. And then all I had to do was place the disc in whatever slot was compatible and press play. Turns out, this really is what I need to watch stuff that isn’t the same YouTube animal rescue videos and mediocre Netflix competition shows.

Anyhoo. I was hoping maybe there was some way to like, magically make my home network into a bubble where I would be allowed to watch stuff on my iPad that was also on my tv or something, but due to the horrors, I don’t have the energy to take on the MPAA, those rat bastards. If anyone has a portable blu ray player with built in screen that they think is really well made and isn’t paw patrol themed, that sounds like what I am looking for.
posted by Mizu at 5:20 AM on November 17, 2024

If you got a blueray/dvd player that would work with a Mac or a Windows PC you could try Duet Display, it can be more flexible than Sidecar.
posted by Wretch729 at 8:07 AM on November 17, 2024

Sounds like a standalone portable Blu-ray player, skipping the iPad, is your best solution.

https://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-11-4-Inch-Portable-Blu-Ray-Resolution/dp/B07DLF1VMD
posted by kschang at 8:36 AM on November 17, 2024 [3 favorites]

I’m on mobile so I can’t try it out, but this might work:

- put disc in Windows machine
- share disc drive on network (SMB)
- connect to SMB share on iPad (using Files app)
- use VLC app to play disc

Might also work with sharing on a Mac but it handles DVDs differently.
posted by neckro23 at 12:22 PM on November 17, 2024

Budget is variable - if I need to buy a whole device I am open to less than $1k

You could buy a Mac mini, hook up a USB BluRay or DVD player to it, and run the iPad as a second display.

This meets all your criteria: portable and cheap. You can get a refurbished Mac mini for $200 or so. A disc player is about $30 or so. You don't need a fancy new mini to play DVDs.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:00 PM on November 17, 2024

The only requirement is that a refurb is a 2018 or later Mac mini.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:08 PM on November 17, 2024

They sucked his brains out, I actually tried that, but unfortunately it doesn't work with DRM protected media. The media contents playing in the built-in Apple DVD player app "goes gray" as soon as a non-compliant display is connected, including Sidecar (the same thing happens with other apps with protected content, such as Netflix in Safari). However, you might be able to play the DVD using a non-Apple media player. I tried using the mac version of VLC, and it would play a DVD in Sidecar, but with several down sides: the audio still comes out of the Mac, not the iPad, and Blue-Ray is not supported.
posted by RichardP at 2:35 PM on November 17, 2024 [1 favorite]

I’m on mobile so I can’t try it out, but this might work:

It does, in fact, not work (using: an external Asus BW-16D1X-U Bluray drive, Windows 10 sharing the drive over SMB, an old iPad Air 2 running VLC app, and an even older DVD of Stargate). The drive is successfully accessed and VLC plays the file for a split second but then stops. Not sure why it's doing that.

That said, the Asus drive has been very good to me although I haven't tested its burning capabilities.

Also I should point out: VLC has its own SMB support so it isn't necessary to use the Files app.
posted by neckro23 at 4:12 PM on November 17, 2024