Hard Drive that connects to TV

fatboyonadiet

A friend is after a hard drive but wants one that will connect to a TV, is it possible and can anyone recommend one? Thanks

BillScarab

Are they after a hard drive based video recorder?

fatboyonadiet

Nope, he's after an external hard drive he wants to back-up his photo's and files onto but also wants to connect it to his TV to view the pics/films.

Conor_3

Western Digital TV HD Media player - llows you to connect any USB2 Hard drive or USB stick to your TV - £79.99 from Play.com
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/7977460/Western-Digital-WD-TV-HD-Media-Player/Product.html

Review:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/18/review_media_player_wd_tv/

fatboyonadiet

Am I understanding it right in that he'd need that as well as an external hard drive?

Conor_3

fatboyonadiet wrote: »

Am I understanding it right in that he'd need that as well as an external hard drive?

Yes. Good thing is that you can plug any USB2 media into it.

Woby_Tide

Or buy something like http://svp.co.uk/product/sumvision_cyclone_multimedia_enclosure_player_mte063

and just put a spare Hard drive in it

jamiecreek

Freecom do a host of multimedia drives that do what you want..

http://www.freecom.com/productsubs.asp?CatID=8020&sCatID=1146197&s=ja

They also do LAN based ones I think, so you can hook the drive up to a router, use it as a NAS (network attached storage) and watch movies from it on tv.

Avoriaz

Not only is it possible, there are plenty of boxes that do exactly that.

I have been using a Rapsody RH-100 and a Dvico Tvix multi media jukebox for a few years. I use them to play music files through my TV and Hi-Fi.

Not all of then will successfully play all types of files so your friend needs to research and find one that can handle the type of files that he has.

Most will play mpeg and avi videos and display jpeg pictures but might struggle with other formats.

Your friend also needs to ensure it has decent connectivity. Some only have S-video and composite video outlets. I suggest component video (if his TV accepts that of course) as an absolute minimum and, if he has or will have a HD TV, a player that has the newer HD type output. HDMI or whatever it is called.

madmum33

My son just bought this one from Maplin - 500gb hard drive/media player with remote control.