The iPad or iPad mini can perform many wonderful feats. One of our favorites — its ability to stream television shows, movies and even some live broadcasting on a high-res screen, and we don’t even have to tote around a heavy laptop. In this article, we have researched and sorted by category, here is a comprehensive list of best free entertainment ways to download and watch free movies on iPad or iPad Mini.

IMPORTANT NOTE, if you already own the DVD or Blu-ray, you will find the separate guide on How to Play DVD Movies on iPad or How to Watch Blu-ray Movies on iPad.

Free Movies and TV

You’ve probably already heard about Netflix and Hulu, both of which have compatible iPad apps. These popular options are only accessible though paid subscriptions, which cost $7.99 per month.

If you don’t want to shell out the cash, you can access other platforms to stream movies. Crackle, for instance, may be more limited in terms of available content, but it is free to download and easy to navigate. The service offers movies and TV shows, as well as originally produced programming, such as The Unknown, a horror series starring Dominic Monaghan, of Lost and Lord of the Rings fame.

For another free option, try TV.com. The app includes shows from CBS, The CW and Showtime, searchable by channel, title or popularity.

Free YouTube Movies

YouTube Movies offers a wide range of free content – and we’re not talking snippets either. Each movie is full-length and the quality is great considering some of the content. You can point Mobile Safari to www.YouTube.com/movies or get the built-in YouTube app. Now YouTube is officially back and fully optimised for use with iPad and the iPhone 5. The design of the app is definitely an improvement and the new iPad-specific app is much cleaner and fresher. The iPad version offers a fully optimised view, with sidebar menu and video previews in landscape mode. You can add and remove videos from their playlists and there is also improved accessibility with VoiceOver. The search functionality is probably the most improved aspect, it’s easier and more intuitive. You can search using voice or text and subscribing to users and channels couldn’t be simpler.

Free Movie Guides

Sleek and simple in design, NextGuide is a personalized program guide that aggregates information across multiple video apps and keeps you informed about when and where your shows are playing. You can customize notifications for certain actors or even your favorite sports team.

Similarly, use BuddyTV to select your favorite shows and personalize your viewer preferences. Soon enough, the service gives you suggestions based on what you chose. An in-app TV guide allows you to select your favorite channels and see what is airing at that very moment. Additionally, you can view previews, recaps and opt for reminders when your favorite shows are about to air.

Free Movie Channels

If you want to search for a movie by channel, chances are there’s an app for that. Most channels offer digital viewing of full episodes via their platforms, as well as added features and bonus material, such as schedules, social fan interaction and video clips. Check out ABC, ABC Family, The CW, Discovery Channel, Disney, NBC, PBS, TBS, TLC and TNT.

Free Movies Download Sites

With a click of a mouse, or a tap of your touch screen, you will have access to 500 great movies. The collection hosts many classics, westerns, indies, documentaries, silent films and film noir favorites. It features work by some of our great directors (Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Andrei Tarkovsky, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Luc Godard and David Lynch) and performances by cinema legends: John Wayne, Jack Nicholson, Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, and beyond. On this one page, you will find thousands of hours of cinema bliss.

Conclusion

Overall, the simple fact that the iOS platform can finally stream video is a feature that many users are happy to have. Not only does the iPad applications whet the appetite for this newly acquired feature, but also some 3rd-party DVD to iPad converter software  and iPad video converter software format the various video to ipad-compatible. Happy watching!