What format is required to export a home movie suitable to be copied to an iPad without the necessity of going through the iPad conversion stage? When I export to MPEG-4 format it ends up as a MP4 Video file which requires the iPad conversion.
Meanwhile, have you tried exporting with settings that match the Apple spec for iPads:
The following video formats are supported by the iPad:
H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format.
There are variations in the .mp4 format and the iPad only plays some of the variations (those described above). In the Advanced tab in iTunes there is an option to "Create iPad or Apple TV Version". That may work on your videos. If not you have to find a converter for your PC.
The old greymatter is not what it used to be and trying to digest 280 pages of RTFM doesn't always work, especially when you don't see immediately the answer to what you are looking for in the manual. I now see the answer is there, all 4 lines of it!! And then exporting to video takes the best part of an hour for a 15 min file!!. Not perfect- start over again. I think it's called a learning curve. Ram - 4gb.