Are you looking for a way to enjoy full-screen entertainment on the iPad with free movies and TV shows? Here’s our detailed guide on how you can break past the premium barrier and enjoy entertainment for free on the iPad.
The entertainment industry has flourished over the past few decades, with big-screen entertainment not only taking over cinemas, but our homes too. Over the years, movies and TV shows have become increasingly accessible online, all thanks to media streaming services. Premium subscription services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu are all the rage right now. They not only offer you a quick and easy way to access thousands of blockbuster movies and award-winning TV shows in a jiffy, but also bring apps to watch the content seamlessly on the Apple iPad.
However, you don’t have to shell out money on a subscription fee each month to enjoy good quality entertainment content online. The World Wide Web is home to several archives of free-for-all media content that can not only be enjoyed on the big screen from the comfort of your home, but also on the go when using the iPad. However, users always seem to have a hard time finding the right source to enjoy streaming content online, and we’re here to save the day. All you need to do is throw some popcorn in the microwave and check out the list of websites and apps to watch movies and TV shows on iPad.
Watch Free Movies and TV Shows on iPad with iOS Apps
Just a quick look, and you will be surprised by the amount of high-quality, free content is provided to watch online. The best part is the availability of official iPad apps to enjoy these movies and TV shows, most of which should work for you, regardless of the region you are in. However, to unlock the entire catalog of content, you may need to look towards a VPN service that can unlock the restricted content unavailable to you.
iPlayer is a catch-up service created by the BBC, which allows you to view all the movies and TV shows that have been recently played on the channel. With their free iPadOS app for free movies and TV shows, you can catch up on all the TV series, which have been aired on the channel in the past 30 days. With a wide range of brilliant British TV series such as Sherlock available for viewing, BBC iPlayer is among the best cable-free service available.
Crackle has become a popular entertainment portal with which you can watch TV shows for free, along with movies as well. This TV app was created by Grouper and is now owned by Sony Corporation. This free TV app from Sony, comes with advertisements at regular intervals, which is not a problem for most of us who are used to the dreaded YouTube ads. Crackle offers a wide range of features compared to other TV apps for iPad, along with an entertaining list of original shows and critically-acclaimed movies.
Netflix has been a recognizable name in the world of online TV shows and movies, but recently made its debut as a free-for-all content provider, with a limited list of content. The streaming service now offers a variety of free Netflix Original movies and TV shows to select from, spreading across the genre of dramas, thrillers, comedies, and even some kids’ shows. However, if you wish to unlock the complete arsenal of premium Netflix movies and TV shows, you can pay the monthly subscription fee that starts at $8.99 and enjoy complete access to the content library.
Even among a sea of options to pick from, it isn’t easy to forget the pioneer of video sharing, which is also home to a world of free movies and TV shows you can enjoy on the iPad. With millions of hours of content uploaded every month, YouTube is by far the most extensive collection of free to view the content you can find online, and there is plenty of premium entertainment content on it. A long list of independent and all-time classics can be found for free on YouTube, and if you’re quick enough, there is an ever-updating list of newly uploaded movies, all of which can be found on this subreddit.
It did not take this media streamer platform to establish itself as the industry standard, and the recent addition of Plex TV has made it only better. Plex released a free-to-use streaming service, which may be ad-supported, but brings a wide range of movies and TV shows, along with living TV for users to enjoy. The simplified user interface is a breeze to work with, and you will not only find a long list of indie movie titles and TV shows on there, but some award-winning masterpieces such as Ghost in the Shell, The Terminator, Lord of War, and several more.
Indeed, an old-timer among the best iPad apps for free movies and TV shows, Popcornflix offers a relatively small and concise yet worthy collection of entertaining content not just from Hollywood, but several high-quality motion pictures from all around the world. With more than 700 movie titles in its library that are forever being updated, new titles are added to Popcornflix almost daily, which includes genres spanning across comedy and drama, as well as horror and action thrillers.
Watch Free Movies and TV Shows on iPad with 3rd Party Websites
Whether you support it or don’t feel so soft about it, the internet is home to tons of premium quality content available for free, which may not always be legal to watch. From the latest blockbuster movies to long-running TV shows – there’s plenty of subscription content that can be found online and enjoyed on the iPad with the following websites.
A big name in the world of free movie streaming websites that have been around for ages, Movie4K, has changed domain names several times over, but it remains one of the most extensive collections of entertainment content online. Not restricted to just English, you can discover movies, TV shows, and even documentaries in multiple languages, harboring even 1080p Full-HD quality videos. The user interface may seem a bit barebone, but it is direct, and if you don’t mind a few pop-up advertisements here and there, multiple servers for each movie and TV show guarantees that you’re never left without a working link to use.
Matching the theme of premium video streaming services, this free service for movies and TV shows on the iPad is a crowd-favorite. Yes! Movies feature a search bar on the home screen that gives you a quick way to look up the latest content added to the library, along with the Featured Movies segment with IMDB integrated into it, making it easier to hover over the movie posters and content info. Some pop-up ads might bother you at times, but the overall user experience is considered satisfactory.
Meant to be direct and straightforward, GoMovies starts things off with a search engine right at the front and center. You can instantly find a movie title or even a particular episode of the TV show season you want to watch. If you aren’t too sure about what content to enjoy, this website makes suggestions using the Trending section. Top IMDB movies and TV shows based on titles, genres, and even the option to look up content based on the country of origin are also offered with GoMovies.
Providing a fresh and fluent user interface, efficiently categorized media, and an extensive library to pick from, 123Movies appears nothing short of a premium streaming platform. Compared to the other free movies and TV show websites for iPad, you will notice fewer pop-up ads at the beginning, but there is plenty of in-content advertisement when you begin playing and movie or TV show. 123Movies knows these ads can be intrusive at times, which is why the service also allows a premium membership for users who don’t mind paying a little extra for a completely ad-free experience.
Putting itself at the forefront as one of the few websites for free movies and TV shows on iPad that comes with “no ads at all” MoviesJoy indeed lives up to the hype. Entertaining a giant content library covering almost a dozen different languages, MoviesJoy leads the way with a lightweight and user-friendly interface where all the files are fetched from third-party servers. Although this decreases the reliability of the web service’s video content, it ensures you aren’t bothered by annoying ads at all.
Disclaimer: Some of the websites mentioned above may lie in the legally gray area and could be related to pirated copyright content distribution. We neither endorse, not advertise any of the websites mentioned, and request you to use them at your discretion. Additionally, we recommend using a VPN service when visiting either of these free entertainment websites from the iPad for added protection.
Watch Movies and TV Shows from PC on iPad with 3rd Party Apps
Apart from the apps you can find on the App Store and websites that allow you to stream entertaining content directly to your iPad, there are other ways around it. Whether you’re looking for a way to directly download and save YouTube content to the iPad for offline viewing, wish to save DVD content directly to the iPad, or sync video files from the computer to the iPad and enjoy them when you’re out and about, here’s all that you will need.
YouTube to iPad
Although the official YouTube app for iPad comes with the feature to save offline viewing content, the amount of content that allows it is relatively limited. To break these barriers set by the video-sharing app, Softorino has developed a YouTube Converter 2 that makes video downloading and transferring to the iPad for offline viewing, a breeze.
The YouTube video downloader tool offers seamless content syncing between iOS and iPadOS devices through iTunes and Wi-Fi so that you can live life cable-free. Going above and beyond in its capabilities, Softorino YouTube Converter 2 is capable of fetching 4K UHD quality content at 60 FPS, along with support for 360-degree VR content too.
DVD to iPad
The revered DVD player was once the center of entertainment in the living room, but is now a relic of the past. While our entertainment technology has evolved in the past decade, for all the collectors out there who host a library of DVDs, dumping them simply isn’t an option.
Fortunately, there is a way to convert DVD content into digital files, and then quickly move them to the iPad. We have done the hard work for you to create a step-by-step guide on how to play DVDs on the iPad and never miss a minute of video content you already have at your disposal.
How to Play DVD on iPad Air/Pro/Mini
Sync Local Video Files to iPad
Despite the restrictive nature of iPadOS and Apple as a whole, you can still add media files to iDevices with iTunes or Finder (for macOS Catalina and newer). However, if you find the entire ordeal of adding videos to the iTunes library and then syncing them to the iPad, a bit tedious, don’t sweat it. Since users are always looking to transfer data to the iPhone and iPad, iMazing has created the right tool for the job.
Designed to match the overall simplified and user-friendly interface of macOS X, iMazing gives you the ability to quickly hook up your iPad or even connect it wirelessly to the app. Packed with a range of features for Quick Transfer, Back Up, Restore a Backup, Manage Apps, and a whole lot more, iMazing is an all-in-one data management solution available for Windows as well as macOS.
Final Words
The rise of wireless streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video has changed the way we enjoy home entertainment. While these services have worked well and supported hundreds of regions worldwide, they don’t offer live TV services just yet. With online streaming more popular than ever, watching movies and live TV shows on the iPad is easier than you might think.
We’re here to help you cut the cord and ditch the cable company with some affordable and efficient TV services supported by the iPad, so let us know if you have any questions in the comments section down below.
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