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I've always had Android smart things up till now, and I'm used to having that level of control - ie I can drag and drop movies and music from my PC, that kind of thing.
I'm acquiring an iPad tonight - can I do that with it? Or do I have to do everything through iTunes?
drag and drop movies and music from my PC
No sadly it doesn't work like that
iTunes is the primary interface although some apps allow you to add files via iTunes; select your iPad then select Apps and at the bottom there'll be a list of file-based apps (if you've installed any)
Note a lot of it is one-way traffic i.e. it's often not possible to transfer stuff from the iPad to your PC
There is software out there that let's you do this, but the better ones are paid for versions.
You can also use something like Dropbox, but it's probably easier to use iTunes if the videos you have are an acceptable format.
Cool, I thought it might be a bit more locked down.
Mostly it'll be used for online stuff anyway, but (for example) when we go on holiday it'd be nice to pop a few movies on there, that kinda thing.
There are quite a few iOS media players that let you just copy across files from a media server, FTP, HTTP, or shared drive. (They allow you to just stream video off other devices too).
I use Ace Player which seems to work fine, though there may be better ones out there by now, I haven't been keeping up.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/aceplayer-powerful-media-player/id463242636?mt=8
If you use dropbox you can link into the VLC app quite easily. Personally I am fully signed up to Apple (computer/phone/ipad) so I use iTunes as any purchases are available on all devices as is any content like movies I import. FYI I use handbrake (free) to convert to apple formats if required, it has various device format options eg optimised for iPad.
OP iPad is great for films when on the road/on flights. I have films like Strength in Numbers on my iPad as I can watch it again and again. I just downloaded the new Steve Pete movie likewise. If you care have a look at the HDMI out connector, very useful to connect up to holiday villa/hotel tv to watch stuff on the big screen.
AV Player does the trick.
Oplayer for me. Lite version is fine, especially offline as the adverts can't popup
I had the same concerns and initially used av player, with the wifi transfer it's pretty slick, but now I have atv's I convert everything to mp4 with handbrake