iPad YES! Transfer comics to iPad from USB thumb stick and read them no sync required

[stustaff]

Im a very happy chappy

After getting Stanza working it was time to get comics working to my liking.

Lots of good readers but I wasnt really feeling the syncing comics and the fact that Comic files are pretty big! so if I were going away it wouldnt be that easy to take lots of comics and films etc on my 32GB.

So there are a couple of pretty simple thinks you need to do but as 'hacks' go its pretty easy.

1st jailbreak your iPad using Spirit, lots of guides on internet please read up on them

2nd download 'iFile' through Cydia

3rd Download teh free cloudreaders app from iStore( I have not found any other comic reader that will work for this!)

4th buy a camera connection kit... yeh the only expensive part...

5. Connect USB stick or SD card with comic .cbz or .cbr on it to camera connector

6. ignore the 'USB not recognised' message

7. open i file and navigate to /var/mnt/mount1 where you will see all of your files, copy the files you wish to transfer then go to /var/mobile/applications/Cloudreader now you will need to play a bit to find the right folder within Applications they are allnamed with gobblegook so keep looking in the folders till you see one with 'cloudreaders.app' inside. then click on documents(you can bookmark this in iFile to save time next time)

8. then paste in your files... and exit

9.open cloud reader and select comic

10. Read it.

I think that sounds straightforward but any questions let me know.

Next I'm going to workout how to do it with video... oh ebooks are pretty simple but so small that I can carry hundreds anyway so bit of a non issue.

[lilman]

That comics trick also works with ComicZeal. Back when I had my iPad jailbroken I would use iFunBox to copy .cbz files directly into ComicZeal's file share, then when I would start ComicZeal it would unpack and organize the imported comics as usual.

Not sure why you would need an external drive for comics though. I have a lot of manga and I can fit all I want on the iPad no problem. You must have a crazy large digital comic collection.

You don't need to jailbreak to copy videos from an external drive through the camera connection kit. All you have to do is create a DCIM folder in the root of the external drive and place all video files in there. Of course the imported videos are placed in the Photos app instead of the Videos app, but I think that if you wanted to import directly into the Videos app on a jb iPad it would take more than just copying the video to the correct folder... you would probably have to update a toc file as well.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by lilman

That comics trick also works with ComicZeal. Back when I had my iPad jailbroken I would use iFunBox to copy .cbz files directly into ComicZeal's file share, then when I would start ComicZeal it would unpack and organize the imported comics as usual.

Not sure why you would need an external drive for comics though. I have a lot of manga and I can fit all I want on the iPad no problem. You must have a crazy large digital comic collection.

You don't need to jailbreak to copy videos from an external drive through the camera connection kit. All you have to do is create a DCIM folder in the root of the external drive and place all video files in there. Of course the imported videos are placed in the Photos app instead of the Videos app, but I think that if you wanted to import directly into the Videos app on a jb iPad it would take more than just copying the video to the correct folder... you would probably have to update a toc file as well.

it didnt work with comic zeal. copied them in there and restarted app and nothing, I believe due to them changing how you can get files onto the apps (iTunes file sync) that this no longer works.

Well for example one folder of a series could Easily be 500MB. so I would rather have the ability to add and remove at will when I'm away for a few weeks.

Yeh I want to be able to get video in and play them in a 'proper' video app as I havent hadmuch joy with playing them the way you described with none of my videos being recognised.

VLC is currently in beta by Zodttd who makes some good emulators so I'm hoping that will hit soon and allow me to play more video choices.

[lilman]

Originally Posted by stustaff

it didnt work with comic zeal. copied them in there and restarted app and nothing, I believe due to them changing how you can get files onto the apps (iTunes file sync) that this no longer works.

Are you sure you were copying them into the correct folder? .cbz archives should be copied to the parent of the "imported" folder. I tried this less than a month ago and it worked fine. Since my iPad isn't jb anymore I can't reverify.

Originally Posted by stustaff

Well for example one folder of a series could Easily be 500MB. so I would rather have the ability to add and remove at will when I'm away for a few weeks.

I have like 7gb of manga on my iPad right now, and more on my computer that I haven't bothered to process in Canti yet. Even reading every day it would take over a year to read all the manga currently on my iPad. I don't see the need for external storage for comics, but definitely for videos.

Originally Posted by stustaff

VLC is currently in beta by Zodttd who makes some good emulators so I'm hoping that will hit soon and allow me to play more video choices.

VLC with external storage would be awesome. I don't mind accessing Apple formatted imported videos through the Photos viewer... it's only temporary anyway.

I just got a usb y cable so I'm going to be working on getting a wd passport to connect to the iPad.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by lilman

Are you sure you were copying them into the correct folder? .cbz archives should be copied to the parent of the "imported" folder. I tried this less than a month ago and it worked fine. Since my iPad isn't jb anymore I can't reverify.


I have like 7gb of manga on my iPad right now, and more on my computer that I haven't bothered to process in Canti yet. Even reading every day it would take over a year to read all the manga currently on my iPad. I don't see the need for external storage for comics, but definitely for videos.


VLC with external storage would be awesome. I don't mind accessing Apple formatted imported videos through the Photos viewer... it's only temporary anyway.

I just got a usb y cable so I'm going to be working on getting a wd passport to connect to the iPad.

I believe so I will double check.

isnt manga much smaller? in 1gb i can get roughly 32 comics which i could easily read in an afternoon relaxing by the pool. so 7Gb is only say 35 hours worth.

[lilman]

Originally Posted by stustaff

isnt manga much smaller? in 1gb i can get roughly 32 comics which i could easily read in an afternoon relaxing by the pool. so 7Gb is only say 35 hours worth.

I don't have any western comic scans for file size comparison. When you say 32 comics is 1gb, are you saying 32 individual chapters or 32 complete series. If it's individual comics then I can see why you were looking for external storage.

For comparison one of my manga series is about 280 chapters, 3.6k image scans, and takes up about 260mb. A longer series with over 8k image scans can take up to 1gb. I would assume manga has smaller file sizes since almost all pages lack color.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by lilman

I don't have any western comic scans for file size comparison. When you say 32 comics is 1gb, are you saying 32 individual chapters or 32 complete series. If it's individual comics then I can see why you were looking for external storage.

For comparison one of my manga series is about 280 chapters, 3.6k image scans, and takes up about 260mb. A longer series with over 8k image scans can take up to 1gb. I would assume manga has smaller file sizes since almost all pages lack color.

Yeh 32 chapters if you like, I'm classing a comic as about 30 pages of colour a4 print. Basically like an actual comic marvel or dc from the comic store, a normal story arc could easily be 200mb+ that single 30 pager is usually between 10 and 20mb.