I have two girls, 8 and 6, and I’m looking at getting a tablet for them. They are not with me but every other weekend so it doesn’t need to be too expensive. I would want to stick with Android and not the iPad.
I’d like one that they can watch movies on while there is no internet access, like in the car and such. I’ve looked at the Kindle Fire but it doesn’t seem you can download movies on to it. I have a Samsung and in order to watch movies I would have to make some changes to it other wise I’d just get another one.
We regularly burn copies of our DVD movies to our Kindle Fires (we have two versions). As long as a tablet has the ability to connect to a PC/laptop (USB connection) you can always copy a movie file to it.
Amazon makes a Fire HD for kids, that include one year free access, plus other things.
Yes: video content from DVDs can be ripped/copied onto a tablet—though you may need to get some additional software to do this. I linked to the software I use in this thread: What tablet/handheld device do I want?
I would imagine any tablet can be connected to a PC via USB; I know Fires can.
Of the movies and TV episodes that are available free through Amazon Prime, some can be downloaded and watched when you have no internet connection; others can only be watched via streaming. You can also buy or rent other non-free digital videos.
The Amazon tablets are overpriced for their power. I don’t know why people buy them.
I like Asus tablets. I’ve been playing with one for the last few days and it’s really good. (Except for the lockout feature that keeps me from doing things like deleting junk apps. Grrr. Too new for a reliable rooting method yet.)
Do not get those no-name ones. Sure, they’re cheap but they are slow, break easily, etc. If kids are involved, they won’t last a month. Spend $20 more and get a name brand.
If on-tablet storage isn’t that great, you can easily load up a memory card. A pack of 32Gb cards can hold a lot of video.
But how many movies can one put on there? With about 4 gigs of data left and no ability to add more it doesn’t seem like much. I already have Amazon Plus so I’m not sure if it really works that well for what I want.
There are video players on there that will play any video you throw at it and the restricted storage doesn’t matter as a simple usb OTG adaptor and 64gb flash drive won’t set you back too much.
You can drag and drop from PC to the usb drive, then plug it in and bingo. That’s what I do for my kids all the time (good battery life too)
And if it’s Android, you won’t need any really special software/apps to watch videos. I like MX player. It’s simple to use. It’s free with a no-ad “Pro” version that costs a few bucks. And possibly some kind of video conversion tool on your PC for you to use.
I highly recommend the Amazon Fire tablets, especially if you already have an Amazon Prime membership. I have a Fire HDX 8.9 that I bought mainly for watching video on long airline flights, and it’s fantastic for this purpose. It’s a well-built tablet with a very good display and excellent battery life.
Amazon Fire tablets allow you to download any Amazon Instant Video content that you’ve purchased, and many of the free Prime videos are also available for download. You can’t do this on regular Android tablets.
If you’re using the tablet mostly for downloading video, I strongly recommend at least 16GB, and preferably 32GB or 64GB. You can get an HDX 7" with for 64GB for $220 right now, which I think is an excellent deal. (The HDX-7 is technically “previous generation”, but it’s still faster than the HD-7, and has a better display.)
Looking at Google Play Movies on my phone, all of my purchased/owned content offers me the choice to download it, and the menu allows me to set my library view to “Downloaded only”. I don’t know if an internet connection is required to play downloaded movies (it’s possible there might be ugly DRM reasons to require it) and I don’t have enough free space to experiment.
Their high-end Fire HDX tablets are excellent. The HDX 8.9 has a 2560x1600 display, which is just about the best you can get on any tablet (same as Samsung’s high end Galaxy Tab S series). Its battery life is better than any Android tablet I’ve owned. HDX 7" display is still very good at 1920x1200 (same as the 2nd generation Nexus-7).
For the cheaper models, IMO, whether they are “overpriced” depends on whether you place any value on the ability to download Amazon Instant Video and Prime Video. If you have no use for these features, you are better off with a generic Android tablet.
They play games, minecraft is a big one, and things like that. I have a tablet, but haven’t really played around with getting movies to play on it. I’ve not been able to get Amazon to let me download the movies I have bought on to my tablet and was hoping to find one that I could do that with without having to screw with it too much.
I plan on taking one of my kids on an overseas trip this year so no access to the internet and such all the time. My kids have been pretty good with my tablet so I’m not too worried about them breaking it.
Get a USB stick with as much memory on it as you can, put movies on it, stick it in the tablet, have them play the movies from that. Or get lots of smaller USB sticks with just a few movies on each because they’re very young and the odds are they’ll lose some of the sticks. You don’t need to rely on internal memory.
There is no need for an internet connection to play movies that you have rented/purchased from the Google Play store. Just download and you are good to go. I’ve used this feature on my Nexus 7 several times.
Do all the tablets allow one to connect a USB stick to them? When I got mine, so I could transfer photos from my dSLR I had to look around for one. The other thing is that a stick sticking out could cause problems if they break the stick.
ISTM that that’s an unlikely event to worry about - and easily solved with a pair of needle-nose pliers if it does. (They probably have hardware stores wherever you’re traveling to.)
You can always use a micro USB OTG adapter for most (any?) android device. A quick 4 dollars and the USB plugs into a cord which connects to your micro USB port. Reduced chance of breakage and allows tons of storage. It is not quite as convenient as a micro sd card but nice for those devices that don’t have the slot.
I know it’s not exactly what your looking for, but i saw a dual-screen portable/car DVD player for $50. They strap around the back of the front seat headrests take maybe 2 mins to put in & less time to take out. This way each girl has her own screen (& separate volume controls if using headphones).
One thing to keep in mind is that the poster is asking for tablets for kids.
USB sticks and such are a really bad idea. They sick out, will get broken off, damage the socket, etc.
Any decent tablet will have a memory card slot. The card should be completely hidden inside.
Also, one problem with mid to high end tablets for kids is the expected short lifespan. Kids don’t need a Nexus 7, $250 for a 32GB model. You can easily get a great name-brand tablet for a lot less than that.
Warning about MX player: The company dropped support for AC3 and some other codecs. You have to install and configure them yourself. I use (the real) VLC player. (There’s a “Pro” malware version out there.) No ads!