Question: Can I connect and External Hard Drive Enclosure to Television to watch movies?

General Hardware Forum Discuss, Can I connect and External Hard Drive Enclosure to Television to watch movies? at Hardware forum; I have a Cooler master xcraft 350 Lite External Hard Drive Enclosure and am wondering if I can hook it up to a television using usb to watch movies. Sure I can try and find out but I haven't bought the tv yet so if this is possible then I

Posted: 08-08-2009

Elephant789 (New on Forum): Posts: 7

I have a Cooler master xcraft 350 Lite External Hard Drive Enclosure and am wondering if I can hook it up to a television using usb to watch movies. Sure I can try and find out but I haven't bought the tv yet so if this is possible then I will look for a tv which will allow me to do this. Is it possible?

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Today (MyCE Staff): Posts: 15,596

Posted: 08-08-2009

geno888 (Senior Moderator, Editor and Guru): Posts: 27,962

Welcome to the forum

If your television contains a player, then the answer is yes. Otherwise, you need a separate player like this one.

Also a standalone player with an USB port can be used in this way, but if you can afford it I suggest to get a player like the WD one: it is able to play almost everything, also H.264 encoded files

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Per favore, non chiedete consigli o suggerimenti tramite PM. Usate invece il forum (che serve proprio per questo).

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Posted: 08-08-2009

B2G (New on Forum): Posts: 29

This can be done via your computer or a stand alone player but not with an external Hdd enclosure by it's self.

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Posted: 08-08-2009

~Soul~ (MyCE Resident): Posts: 865

I have the Phillips dvp5982 with USB interface and it is great ... only issue... The external HAS to be formatted to FAT32 in order for the player to recognise it... they will not recognise NTFS as of yet that I am aware of. ...

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Posted: 10-08-2009

Elephant789 (New on Forum): Posts: 7

Thanks for the answers.

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Posted: 10-08-2009

Elephant789 (New on Forum): Posts: 7

I went out and bought the WD media player and took it to the
electronic store along with my hard drive. I hooked both up to
the TV I want to purchase and, well, it didn't work. This is the
TV.
http://translate.google.com/translat...76nt%26hl%3Den

I connected the media player to the tv with the rca cables and it read no
supported media or something like that. This was the TV I
wanted to purchase so I went out and bought the media
player figuring it would work but it didn't. Then the salesman
hooked it up to an LG tv and it worked without the media
player. Just hooked up the external hard drive into the usb
port on the TV (this was my original question on this forum).
Did I buy the wd media player for nothing? Granted, the LG
was much more expensive so it must have had it built in as Geno888 said.
Anyways, my question is what if I connected the media player
to the TV using an HDMI cable instead of the rca cables?
Would it work? Should I buy a cable and go back to the store
to try it out?

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Posted: 10-08-2009

geno888 (Senior Moderator, Editor and Guru): Posts: 27,962

The WD player is able to play almost every video format available.

If it says "not supported" it must be something really unusual.

What video files are stored in the HDD? How the HDD is formatted (FAT32, NTFS-or whatever)? Is the HDD recognized by the player?

Per favore, non chiedete consigli o suggerimenti tramite PM. Usate invece il forum (che serve proprio per questo).

KTPHTT

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Posted: 11-08-2009

Elephant789 (New on Forum): Posts: 7

It was an avi file. Actually, now that I think about it it might have said "no media detected", not "not supported". The hard drive is in NTFS format.

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Posted: 11-08-2009

pipemanid (MyCE Resident): Posts: 5,360

In the event that nobody noticed Soul's post, let me clarify it for you...

"The external HAS to be formatted to FAT32 in order for the player to recognise it... they will not recognise NTFS as of yet that I am aware of. ..."

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Posted: 11-08-2009

~Soul~ (MyCE Resident): Posts: 865

Quote:

"The external HAS to be formatted to FAT32 in order for the player to recognise it... they will not recognise NTFS as of yet that I am aware of. ..."

This applies to any USB interface that has to do with externals going to players or TV's ...

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Posted: 11-08-2009

Elephant789 (New on Forum): Posts: 7

Ok, I went out and bought the TV and just am waiting for the delivery. I formated the drive to a FAT32 and will try it out. Thanks.

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Posted: 11-08-2009

Elephant789 (New on Forum): Posts: 7

I only have the option for exFAT. Would that format be ok?

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Posted: 11-08-2009

geno888 (Senior Moderator, Editor and Guru): Posts: 27,962

Quote:

Originally Posted by pipemanid

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~Soul~

This applies to any USB interface that has to do with externals going to players or TV's ...

As reported in specifications of the WD player:

Quote:

External Drive Formats Supported
FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ (no journaling)

So, I wonder if what is not supported is actually the external drive chipset.

Can you try to use a different support? Maybe you can copy that single avi into an USB pendrive (this should eliminate any chipset incompatibility issue)

A possible cause of that AVI not being displayed is that it has a not standard resolution. Maybe using an HDMI cable will solve everything

Per favore, non chiedete consigli o suggerimenti tramite PM. Usate invece il forum (che serve proprio per questo).

KTPHTT

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Posted: 12-08-2009

Elephant789 (New on Forum): Posts: 7

It was my HDD. Like I said, I used and old hard drive from an old computer with a casing. So I went out and bought an 2.5" external hard drive and everything works great. geno888, maybe it was the chipset.
One last question, is it worth buying and HDMI cable. Would I get a much better picture over the rca cables?

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Posted: 12-08-2009

DiiZzY (MyCE Resident): Posts: 3,676

It's most likely caused by wrong/incorrect filesystem...
Format it using FAT32 it'll work fine, there's also support for ext2 and ext3 using third party firmware.
..and it's much worth getting an HDMI cable.
//Danne

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Posted: 12-08-2009

~Soul~ (MyCE Resident): Posts: 865

$129.99

Seems it's been an expensive solution, for a very simple problem...

Quote:

Phillips dvp5982

* note: I was refering to DVD players not Media players as they are a completely different device with much more processing ability... as it stands dvd players that are USB interface use FAT32 , (and I see now some Tv's have got the built in processor to read other file systems), but as Elephant789 said, they are somewhat more costly. The majority of USB interface Tv's will only work off a FAT32 file system and are cheaper. Heck I've seen USB dvd players for as little as 30$ that will run on virtually any TV that has A/V input rca's ... which is a great option for many people in these lean financial times.

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