2015-08-12, 20:46
I've been blissfully ignoring tables for years, ever since the first ones arrived on the scene, but now I've found at least one good excuse to buy one. I recently bought a very nice, and very sophisticated new/used digital camera. Unfortunately, the manual for it is like 250 pages long. In the last day or two I've managed to figure out that there simply is no PDF reader available anymore for my my trusty old iPhone 3GS... probably by intent. (I'm sure that the world's most valuable company would love me to spend hundreds to buy a newer phone from them, but I am not interested. Besides, the screens are too small for good perusing of a big PDF.)
The good news, of course, is that most tablets have a PDF reader app available.
So anyway, now I'm looking at small (6 or 7 inch) tablets. But ideally, I'd like to find one that (a) can run Kodi at least well enough to play back (legal) SD DVD rips and that has some way of getting such things into the device in the first place. (And no, I do not wish to try transferring multi-gigabyte files to a device using Wi-Fi. I would rather watch paint dry.)
So, um, what are my options?
So far, just from googling around I've learned that the Amazon and Google tablets have been either intentionally designed or intentionally hobbled in a ways that (a) exclude SDHC card readers and that (b) make it impossible to use external USB sticks with these things. So far, the only possibility that seems to be viable, given my requirements, are Samsung Galaxy Tabs... like either the 3 or the 4, both of which sport SDHC readers, and both of which can be had for cheap, used, on eBay. But after having googled for some time, I'll still be damed if I can figure out whether or not Kodi is available (and works well enough for SD ISO playback) on, for example, The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, 7.0. I see people asking about this device here in the Kodi fora, but not getting any definitive responses. I may not have any better luck than they did, but I'll ask (again) anyway... Is there a version of Kodi available (anywhere) that will run well enough on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 to allow it to do smooth playback of SD ISOs?
Or alternatively, if anybody has any suggestions for different devices I should be looking at, I'm all ears. But whatever it is, it has to be small. Seven inch is already a bit bigger than I'd like.
P.S. As noted above, my primary motivation for even looking at tablets is just to have a nice (inexpensive) portable device that can let me read & search PDF documents. But if I'm going to be buying one anyway, it just seems sensible for me to try to pick one that can also run Kodi and do SD ISO playback well.
The good news, of course, is that most tablets have a PDF reader app available.
So anyway, now I'm looking at small (6 or 7 inch) tablets. But ideally, I'd like to find one that (a) can run Kodi at least well enough to play back (legal) SD DVD rips and that has some way of getting such things into the device in the first place. (And no, I do not wish to try transferring multi-gigabyte files to a device using Wi-Fi. I would rather watch paint dry.)
So, um, what are my options?
So far, just from googling around I've learned that the Amazon and Google tablets have been either intentionally designed or intentionally hobbled in a ways that (a) exclude SDHC card readers and that (b) make it impossible to use external USB sticks with these things. So far, the only possibility that seems to be viable, given my requirements, are Samsung Galaxy Tabs... like either the 3 or the 4, both of which sport SDHC readers, and both of which can be had for cheap, used, on eBay. But after having googled for some time, I'll still be damed if I can figure out whether or not Kodi is available (and works well enough for SD ISO playback) on, for example, The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, 7.0. I see people asking about this device here in the Kodi fora, but not getting any definitive responses. I may not have any better luck than they did, but I'll ask (again) anyway... Is there a version of Kodi available (anywhere) that will run well enough on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 to allow it to do smooth playback of SD ISOs?
Or alternatively, if anybody has any suggestions for different devices I should be looking at, I'm all ears. But whatever it is, it has to be small. Seven inch is already a bit bigger than I'd like.
P.S. As noted above, my primary motivation for even looking at tablets is just to have a nice (inexpensive) portable device that can let me read & search PDF documents. But if I'm going to be buying one anyway, it just seems sensible for me to try to pick one that can also run Kodi and do SD ISO playback well.
