Portable Hard Drive Question

The_Devil

Hi All,
Firstly, I'm relatively clueless with these type of things so im just looking for some info or options regarding the above.

I got the WD My Passport portable Hard Drive for xmas and i just have a few questions to ask about it. Its working fine and i have been able to store all data etc on it, however, When I try to connect it to an external device like a TV, DVD player or Monitor via USB the tv doesnt recognice that anything has been connected? There are no buttons on the hard drive itself so how do I get to watch video's through the tv? Is there such a cable that goes USB to Scart? What options do i have?

Thanks,
D

JDxtra

You're doing it wrong. The WD My Passport you have is plain storage - it can only store your files. It cannot play them back on any device.

You are getting confused between this and a media player, which are generally connected to TVs to allow playback of media (videos, images and music).

A WD TV device will allow you to use the storage you have and connect it to your TV for playback.

tauruz_ie

The hardrive itself wont be able to play media you will need a media player to do that: Such as a WD TV live. Your tv, dvd or monitor wont play off the drive as I presume it has non standard drivers which you cant install on them but can onto a PC. I've the same trouble with my big ass HD tv i got it can play off a USB key cos it uses standard drivers but cant play off any of my HDDs.

Chet T16

Are you saying the TV has a usb port? My tv will play media from an external drive but doesn't supply enough power to some of them.

coylemj

The_Devil wrote: »

When I try to connect it to an external device like a TV, DVD player or Monitor via USB the tv doesnt recognice that anything has been connected?

How can you connect a hard drive to a monitor?

If your TV or DVD player has a USB socket and supports certain video formats it might be able to play direct from the disk. Otherwise you need to buy a media player, this will have a USB connection for your hard drive and a HDMI or SCART socket for a connection to the TV.

The_Devil

Thanks for the info guys, a little dissapointed to hear I have to fork out some extra cash to view the data but its my own fault for not checking first.

I have done some research and have norrowed it down to 2 media players, price is a factor here so i know that there is a new version of the below out.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-1080i-Media-Player/dp/B002KQ2JKQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1293824463&sr=1-3

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-1080P-Media-Player/dp/B002VAVR4A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293824463&sr=1-1

does anyone have any info or used either of the above and if so which would you recommend? Or where should i begin to look on this type of info? I basically just want to view the files i download on the tv and watch the various video viles etc.

Thanks again,
D

dunworth1

since price is a factor have a look at one of these
http://cgi.ebay.ie/NBox-HD-Media-Player-Watch-Downloaded-Movies-your-TV-/260587003540?pt=UK_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item3cac321e94

ok so the best format you can get is 720p but 720p is actually better then 1080i and for a third of the price of the wd one you linked to.

also just to note that both of these boxes only have onne usb port so if your hdd has two it might not work with any of these

I think I'm reading this thread differently to how others are?

TheDevil, are you not happy because your TV/DVD Player, etc say that they can playback from USB?

If your TV/DVD Player etc. advertise that they can play movie files (usually .AVI is advertised or Divx/Xvid) and the TV/DVD Player has a USB slot, then you might just want to pick up a cheap ass memory stick.


Generally, memory sticks will work with these devices and playback will be possible, but doing this obviously means you'll have to transfer things onto the memory stick everytime you want to watch them. So it's a cheaper alternative, but it's a more time consuming one.


However, If your TV/DVD Player, etc. don't advertise that they can do this, and you were expecting that the harddrive itself would be able to playback the films, then the guys above me have covered that.

Ironbar

Usually media players dont recognize NTFS. They can only handle FAT32 and there might be a limit of space that they can adress.

Like them DVD players with USB port from LIDL.They can handle external drives and USB sticks up to 20GB formatted in FAT32.

smjpl

If your using a laptop, buy a VGA cable. Since your tv has a usb port, it probably has a VGA port. This will allow you to use your tv as the monitor for the laptop. So instead of just being able to watch movies on the tv from hard drive, you will be able to use the tv for everything. VGA cable is about 20e. If you have an old desktop computer you will probably have one from that anyway. You may have to hook up speakers as well though.

Some tv's you can hook up your laptop headphone socket up to the three phono inputs (red, white and yellow circular inputs normally called AV3 or the last AV) For this you would need a "3.5mm jack to 3 phono lead". (5e) This isn't guaranteed to work. Worked on one of my tv's and didn't work on the other.