Guys, my standalone old Philips DVD player just died. Simultaneously, my computer's old and formerly trusty Plextor DVD drive seems to now behave erratically. Also, note that my laptop has no optical drive, so it is completely unable to use any optical media.
I could just go out and buy replacements units.
But it just dawned on me: maybe I can solve all 3 of my needs (play media on my TV, use data disks on my desktop and laptop) with just one drive: an external USB optical drive.
Such a drive will obviously work for reading/writing data disks using the computers. And it should also play all media on your computer as well, as long as you have the right software. Indeed, I want to use it to rip data from any formats (e.g. with AnyDVD). All these features make a drive very appealing over a consumer player.
But does anyone know if such a drive will be able to play media on my TV?
I have a LG 47LA7400 which is a smart TV. That TV has USB inputs which for sure work in playing, say, .avi files stored on a thumb drive.
I just need to know if my TV will work with an optical drive connected via USB. Anyone have any experience?
I realize that using a drive like this instead of a dedicated consumer player means that some things will have to be sacrificed (e.g. there is no remote control for drives, unlike players). Any other limitations that I should be concerned with?
My preliminary model research found these 2 promising drives:
1) LG BE14NU40 (External Blu-ray Writer)
2) BUFFALO MediaStation BRXL-16U3 (16x External BDXL Blu-Ray Writer)
The above 2 units are full size, I think because they have their own power cables and supplies. Some people have commented that this is good as it makes them both more powerful and also able work with USB 2.0 as well.
In contrast, there are also sexy slim drives like these:
a) LG CP40NG10 (Super Multi Blue Slim Portable with 3D Blu-ray Disc Playback and M-DISC Support)
b) LaCie 9000281 (Slim Blu-Ray 6x USB 3.0 Optical Drive)
But I have seen people complain that slim drives like these sometimes only work with USB 3.0 ports (maybe because some USB 2.0 ports/cables lack the power capabilities of USB 3.0?)
Any other models of external drives that I should consider? Any with not only USB 3.0, but also HDMI?