I'm a Tablet noob

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I've never owned a Tablet or even a smartphone. I still have my old flip-phone. This is mostly because I was on a college student budget the last few years and didn't feel the need to Text or play with apps or even pay for a data plan.

My primary interest in tablets at the moment is for portable video media. Mostly having it perched on the treadmill at the gym with some headphones hooked up(This might be a good way for me to stay active when the Winter gets freakin' cold here). My gym does have Wifi, so maybe I could get setup with Netflix, streaming news, or random YouTube stuff.

I wondered if it's fairly easy to watch my own movie files if I rip my DVDs using Handbrake. Currently, I have some movies ripped to .mkv format. Would they need to be in .mp4?



Finally, having a Linux background, I'm leaning towards Android. Do Droid devices connect easily to Linux computers? Would I see it appear in Thunar or PCMan? Also, should I try to get 4.4 Kit-Kat?
 


Yes whey would need to be a mp4 file to run(on Android/iOS) or wmv (Windows Tablet). I would recommend a Android for that because:
  1. They are cheap
  2. It runs linux
  3. It can handle any format if you have the app for it
You could use a online conversion tool like zamzar. I don't know of any offline conversion tools.
 
For some reason, I'm not seeing mp4 as an option in Handbrake. I wonder if VLC could convert them.
 
Well.... instead of getting a full tablet, I decided to upgrade to a Smartphone. I got a nice sized LG phone. In the future, I could splurge on a Tablet, but for now this will work nicely.

So far, my main noob issue is connecting the phone to my Linux computer to transfer files. Somewhat ironically, Android seems built to more easily connect to Windows machines.

From a quick Google search, it seems like the most common work around is to connect to the phone over the LAN instead. Maybe use FTP like FileZilla or an App like AirDroid?
 
Well.... instead of getting a full tablet, I decided to upgrade to a Smartphone. I got a nice sized LG phone. In the future, I could splurge on a Tablet, but for now this will work nicely.

So far, my main noob issue is connecting the phone to my Linux computer to transfer files. Somewhat ironically, Android seems built to more easily connect to Windows machines.

From a quick Google search, it seems like the most common work around is to connect to the phone over the LAN instead. Maybe use FTP like FileZilla or an App like AirDroid?
I have a BlackBerry smartphone and there are no problems to connect it to my Linux machine but if you have an Android phone, you may want to try Ubuntu Touch.
 
If you use Arch or another bare-bones Linux OS, you may have to install extra software in order to recognize your phone depending on model. However, if you're running Ubuntu, Manjaro or other firmware/driver-bloated distro, there will hardly be any connectivity problem.

As to watching videos on android devices, you can play virtually any codec, all you need is the right app. You can try out a few from google play. If no one works, you can always seek different software on the web/alternative app stores.
 
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The issue may be more with the phone then. It keeps wanting to connect with an Installer Mode. It appears briefly under Thunar with Folders and EXE files. Presumably, the phone defaults to this wanting to connect with a Windows based program. I keep trying to change the connection type and it keeps reverting back to the Installer. It has two "Media" modes that should work if I can overcome this issue.
 
A guy at Verizon turned on debugging mode. That seems to have stopped it from going back to Installer mode.

As Yesyesloud said, my bulky Linux Mint seems to connect fine now. On my Arch Netbook, I installed a package called gmtp.

I've tried playing Edge of Tomorrow on it in both MP4 and MKV formates. The video plays, but not steady. It's like watching a movie that Pauses on and off. Maybe I need to fine tune the Handbrake settings when I encode movies or tune down the quality setting to give me a smaller file size.
 
I've tried playing Edge of Tomorrow on it in both MP4 and MKV formates. The video plays, but not steady. It's like watching a movie that Pauses on and off. Maybe I need to fine tune the Handbrake settings when I encode movies or tune down the quality setting to give me a smaller file size.

Installed the app for VLC and now I'm good. Video played smoothly.

Watched Edge of Tomorrow on the phone at the gym and it was a great way to fend of boredom on the treadmill.
 
Installed the app for VLC and now I'm good. Video played smoothly.

Watched Edge of Tomorrow on the phone at the gym and it was a great way to fend of boredom on the treadmill.
I'm happy you like it..... :) Meanwhile, I'm hoping to ONE DAY get a non-locked-down version of Android running on my Nook (which is SAD, really, since Nook runs LINUX, for God's sake.....) >-<
 

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