How to Watch TV and Movies on Your iPad

Your iPad can play television shows and films wherever you are, using apps you download once and then open whenever you fancy something to watch. There is no aerial, no cable box, and no extra wiring involved. You need three things: the iPad, a Wi-Fi internet connection, and an app for the service you want to watch. This walkthrough takes you from a blank screen to playing a show, step by step.

Everything here is safe to try. Downloading an app cannot break your iPad, and the free apps below cost nothing to install. The only thing you might pay for is a subscription to a service like Netflix, and you choose whether to do that.

What you need before you start

Make sure your iPad is connected to Wi-Fi, because streaming video uses a lot of internet. Look at the top of the screen for the curved fan-shaped Wi-Fi symbol. If it is there, you are connected. If not, open Settings, tap Wi-Fi, and tap your home network's name, typing the password if asked.

You will also need your Apple Account password, the same one you use for the App Store. This is what confirms it is really you downloading an app, and it stops anyone else installing things on your iPad. If you cannot remember it, that is a common hiccup and can be reset, so do not let it stop you.

Step one: download a streaming app

A streaming app is the doorway to a particular service's shows and films. Here is how to get one:

1. Find the blue App Store icon on your home screen, with a white letter A made of drawing tools, and tap it.
2. Tap the Search magnifying glass at the bottom right of the screen.
3. Type the name of the service, such as Netflix, Disney+, or YouTube, then tap Search on the keyboard.
4. Find the app in the results and tap the blue Get button beside it. If you see a small cloud icon instead, it just means you had it before; tap that to reinstall.
5. Confirm with your Apple Account password, your fingerprint, or your face, depending on your iPad. The app then downloads on its own.

When the word Get changes to Open, the app is installed and a new icon has appeared on your home screen. Downloading the app is always free. A subscription, if the service needs one, is separate and you have not paid anything yet.

Step two: sign in or sign up

Open your new app by tapping its icon. Most services ask you to sign in or create an account the first time. If a family member already pays for Netflix, ask them for the email and password, and simply sign in; many plans allow several people to watch.

If you are starting fresh, tap Sign Up and follow the prompts to enter your email and a password, and to choose a plan. Read the price before you confirm. Netflix runs about $7 to $25 a month depending on the plan, Disney+ around $10 to $16, and many services offer a cheaper option with a few adverts. You can cancel any time, and cancelling stops future charges.

Step three: find and play something

Inside the app, you browse a wall of show and film posters. Tap any poster to open its page, then tap the large Play button, the triangle pointing right, to start watching. To find something specific, tap the magnifying glass inside the app and type a title or an actor's name.

While a show plays, tap once anywhere on the screen to bring up the controls. You will see a pause button, a bar you can drag to skip forward or back, and a volume control. Tap the screen again to make the controls disappear so they don't cover the picture. Turning the iPad sideways into a landscape position gives you a bigger, wider picture, which is far better for films.

Watching on a bigger television screen

If the iPad screen feels small, you can send what it is playing to a television, as long as the TV is a modern smart TV or has a small streaming gadget plugged in. On an Apple TV or an AirPlay-friendly television, tap the small rectangle-with-a-triangle icon inside the playing video, choose your TV from the list, and the show jumps to the big screen while the iPad becomes a remote control.

If your television is not the smart kind, an inexpensive gadget fixes that. An Apple TV box costs around $130, while a Roku or Amazon Fire TV Stick is roughly $30 to $50 and plugs into the back of any television with an HDMI socket. With one of those, you can install the same streaming apps directly on the TV, and you may not even need the iPad for watching at home.

A few comforting reminders

You cannot break anything by tapping around inside these apps, so explore freely. If a show stutters or freezes, it is almost always the internet rather than your iPad; closing the app and reopening it usually clears it up. To close an app fully, swipe up slowly from the very bottom of the screen and flick the app's picture up and away.

Once you have one streaming app working, every other one follows the same pattern: download, sign in, tap a poster, press play. Start with a free service to build your confidence, then add a paid one only if there is a particular show you cannot get any other way. Before long, choosing what to watch will feel as natural as it once did with a remote and a printed listings guide.

Subtitles, audio, and other handy touches

If dialogue is ever hard to follow, turn on subtitles, the words that appear at the bottom of the screen as people speak. While a show plays, tap the screen once, then look for a speech-bubble icon or the word Audio & Subtitles, tap it, and choose English subtitles. They make a real difference for fast or mumbled speech, and you can switch them off just as easily.

To make the picture larger or the sound clearer, two more tricks help. Turning the iPad sideways and holding it a comfortable distance away gives a cinema-shaped picture. For sound, a small Bluetooth speaker or a pair of headphones connects wirelessly and is far louder and clearer than the iPad's own speakers, which is a blessing for anyone with some hearing loss.