Just been issued an iPad for work, but they're allowing personal use. How do I get mkvs and other video/audio on it from a PC without iTunes and without using a LAN (which I don't have)?

I want the equivalent of Android where I can send something over USB and then install a 3rd party player to watch/listen.

Is it possible?

Yes.
http://hobbyistsoftware.com/vlcstreamer
That'll handle your movies.
As for music, I'm happy with iTunes, it does a very decent job IMHO.

That doesn't allow usb though. Only streaming. I want to be able to store a video file physically on the ipad and then watch it locally.

I thought VLC Player was available for iPad.
If it is, then instead of copying the .mkv file to a USB something, upload it to Dropbox or some other online storage, then download it to the iPad.

Mark

Problem is, i,m reliant on wifi in bars and hotels for both upload and download. I don't have a normal home network whilst i'm here.

So looks like it will remain a work tool!

The only way I can transfer files from PC to ipad is via wifi. Have a router at home, use Files Pro app and log on using browser. Files can be uploaded. Because it's my home network I can transfer gigabytes in just a few mins. There is no way to do this via USB unless you have iTunes on the computer and use an app to enable the transfer.

Doesn't Windows treat an iPad as a storage device and let you open up it's folders in My Computer? Or are you using an iMac of some description? VLC as Mark suggested should work once the files are transferred.

I'm totally vague on this, but if the above doesn't work, I seem to recall something called MediaMonkey for PC when this sort of problem arose

Apple devices only expose the camera roll to the host. Everything else needs to be copied over with iTunes.

Can't you create an adhoc wi-fi network with your PC and copy that way?

This isn't strictly true any more. If you have an iCloud account, any app on the device that supports iCloud Drive exposes it's store as a folder on that service. So if you want to get a certain app to access data and it supports iCloud drive, you can just copy stuff into that folder from your PC (via the sync client or the web interface) and it'll be synced across to the iPad automatically, assuming a wifi network is available. And if the app supports the new 'file selector' thing, you don't even need the folder, just copy it to iCloud and you can open it like you can on a PC.

I don't know if, for example, the inbuilt music app supports that (I suspect not, to be honest) but iOS 8 is actually much more open than the previous versions were. if you can find a movie player that supports iCloud drive, even the free version of iCloud has enough space to transfer a few hours of video.

It does allow you to copy movies to your device.
You need to install the streamer helper on your computer, and you can fine tune some settings and copy it to your device, where it's viewable from inside the app.
I do this all the time of I'm travelling somewhere, on the train to London for instance.

Every solution above (and others I encountered) required some sort of wifi component.

Finally last night, I bit the bullet and installed iTunes (gah!). Found a program called iFunbox for windows which uses the iTunes drivers but allows me to drag n drop movies onto the iPad. However, due to the gay way that Apple won't handle DTS on mkvs, I have to convert my mkvs in Handbrake before OPlayer HD Lite on the iPad, will play them.

Massive time suck, but the HD quality in bed with bluetooth speaker is nice!

which is why I have an Android Tablet - Find file, drag and drop, play

Yeah, but with your android tablet, you don't get to play the "Which password did I use when I set up my Apple account" game every time you want to install an app...

Oh, wait... that's a good thing

I don't either. Finger print recognition .

Darn It I knew I was missing out on something