How to watch MKV, Xvid, DivX and many other video files on your iPad

by Ross McKillop on September 20, 2010

iPad

This tutorial will show you how to download, install and use VLC for the iPad so that you can watch Xvid, DivX (.avi) MKV (.mkv) and many, many other video formats on your iPad.

UPDATE: this no longer works. The App at the heart of this tutorial, VLC, has been pulled from the App Store.

We do have tutorials that shows you how to convert .MKV files to a format you can play on your iPad using OS X, and another how to convert .MKV files to a format you can play on your iPad using Windows.

For those of you who downloaded it while you could, congrats. Hopefully it will somehow find its way back into the official App store.

Though the screenshots used in this tutorial are from OS X, the steps are identical if you’re running Windows.

Though VLC has been around for quite a long time – and is an outstanding video player for Windows, OS X and Linux – it has recently been approved by Apple as an iPad app. This is wonderful news for people who like to watch movies, TV shows and other video files on their iPad, but have grown tired of converting them in order to do so. VLC for the iPad will play dozens of different video formats, including the popular Xvid and DivX formats.

  1. First up – download VLC for iPad (iTunes Store link). Install it as you would any other iPad app.
  2. Launch iTunes and make sure your iPad is connected to your Mac/PC. Select your iPad from the left navigation pane (see #1 in screenshot below). Then select the Apps tab across the top of the iTunes window (see #2 in screenshot below). Next, select the VLC entry in the list of Apps (see #3 in screenshot below). Finally – click the Add… button to ‘upload’ a video to your iPad (#4 in screenshot below).


    click to enlarge

  3. Navigate to the video you want to upload to your iPad, select it and click the Choose button.


    4. click to enlarge

  4. Give iTunes a minute or 5 to upload the video to your iPad. The amount of time it takes will depend on the size of the video file.

  5. Once completed, your movie will be displayed in the VLC Documents section.


    6. click to enlarge

  6. On your iPad, launch VLC.


    7. click to enlarge

  7. On the VLC “bookshelf” you’ll see your movie. Tap it to start playing.


    8. click to enlarge

  8. As with the default video player on the iPad, if you tap the screen while a movie is playing the controls will appear. You can skip through the movie, adjust the volume, pause/fast forward and rewind.


    9. click to enlarge

  9. That’s it! Just repeat the above steps to continue adding movies to your iPad to watch using VLC.
  • Didou

    And how about subtitles ? it works on \VLC for iPad ?

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  • @cath_lewis

    Thanks, this is very helpful and will save me a lot of time and converting. Going to try it right now.

  • @cath_lewis

    Hi, I am in the process of copying movies from an external HDD to my ipad using the guidelines above. One question: in doing so, are the movies also being saved on my mac hard disk in the Itunes Library or are they only being saved on the ipad?

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross

    @cath_lewis –

    Just your iPad :)

  • drnealaggarwal

    deleting files: Do it in the app on the iPad – click on the edit button at the top right and then click the red X on the video you want to delete.

  • Engrpedro

    is this app FREE?

  • drnealaggarwal

    yes this app is free

  • Spluftin

    This is ridiculous! I cannot believe what good news this is…i run out of movies on here occasionally cause i just get sick of converting stuff or forget to. *shwing*

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  • Dacio

    you can also use handbrake in your desktop then add to your library in itunes and sync to your idevice

  • Vinnie

    Hi, the link is not available anymore, do you have another solution please? Thks.