Viewing Photos On Television Via Memory Pen

kah22

I recently bought the Sony Bravia KDL32EX403U and have found it a great television. But I'm stuck with one aspect and would appreciate advice.

Having returned from holidays I loaded all my photos, they are in jpeg format, onto a memory pen 'SanDisk Cruzer 8g' and plugged it into the Sony slot for usb devices only to find that it could not read it.

Here is what happens. I plug the pen in and receive the message 'usb device detected.' I then select Network/usb/documents/pictures/holiday but I then get the message 'there are no items to display.' I should add that the memory pen comes preformated so that when you place it into the computer it actually creates two drives: E and F. The latter comes with folders for Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos. While E comes with something called U3 System

The images are there ok for I can view them by plugging the pen into the dvd player and view them that way but I'm wondering why the television won't recognize what is on the memory pen? Would it have anything to do with the fact that this is a more advanced memory pen than the normal ones?

Unfortunately while Sony produce some very good televisions their manual are...well least said the easier mended:mad:

Kevin

kwikbreaks

The TV probably only supports a simple USB style pen which would appear as a single FAT partition device on a computer.

Here is some info about U3 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

Quite why anyone would think this an improvement escapes me. According to http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/243608-32-remove-smart-software-sandisk-flash-drive it seems to act just like a virus.

I'd get shot of U3 but what you decide to do is down to you.

Richie-from-the-Boro

It could well be in the the case of the U3 type Cruzer, there are 7 different Cruzer pens.

It will generally need to be NTFS or FAT32 to be seen by a TV, my TV will read a 2T NTFS [ 2x1G partitions ] with no problems, what is strange is the pendrive is read by a DVD player, but not by the TV. Can you confirm that the photo's are *.jpg and not any other last 3 letters - and not the JPEG you state above ?

You can ask a Sandisk question here

kah22

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Can you confirm that the photo's are *.jpg and not any other last 3 letters - and not the JPEG you state above ?

Confirmed. Here's an example: IMG_0082.jpg

kwikbreaks writes:

The TV probably only supports a simple USB style pen which would appear as a single FAT partition device on a computer.

I hear what you are saying and it certainly looks that way. However, I'd have thought that a major manufacturer such as Sony wouldn't be as restrictive as that. As far as the pen is concerned the reason I'm using it is because it was a free gift.

Thanks to both of you for the links.

Kevin

Richie-from-the-Boro

Try putting just one track in the root of [ each if it will let you ] the drive, I notice the file structure of your pen [ Network/usb/documents/pictures/holiday ] is 6 deep by time it finds the *.jpg to display.

almillar

I have the same problem as you. It's a Panasonic TV, but my dad has one of these sticks that we couldn't get to work and here's the problem, some of which you already know.
Both our TVs only seem to be interested in the 1st partition on the stick, nothing wrong with the TVs for doing that.
But the first partition is that stupid U3 one. Your pics are safe and perfectly readable on the 2nd partition.
So let's get rid of that 1st partition. This is where I get stuck. On Windows, MacOS and Linux, it is a Read Only partition, and they all pretty much assume that it's a CD. Therefore I have been unable to delete this stupid partition and use the full 16gb properly.
Any ideas folks?

tronator

almillar wrote: »

So let's get rid of that 1st partition. This is where I get stuck. On Windows, MacOS and Linux, it is a Read Only partition, and they all pretty much assume that it's a CD. Therefore I have been unable to delete this stupid partition and use the full 16gb properly.
Any ideas folks?

I'd be surprised if a Linux Live-CD couldn't do it. The partition(s) should not be mounted, then run GParted and delete the first partition. But double-check first which one is the U3 one. After this resize the other partition.

Richie-from-the-Boro

almillar wrote: »

I have the same problem as you. It's a Panasonic TV, but my dad has one of these sticks that we couldn't get to work and here's the problem, some of which you already know.
Both our TVs only seem to be interested in the 1st partition on the stick, nothing wrong with the TVs for doing that.
But the first partition is that stupid U3 one. Your pics are safe and perfectly readable on the 2nd partition.
So let's get rid of that 1st partition. This is where I get stuck. On Windows, MacOS and Linux, it is a Read Only partition, and they all pretty much assume that it's a CD. Therefore I have been unable to delete this stupid partition and use the full 16gb properly.
Any ideas folks?

Yes you can, but to do so needs the U3 tool to be running

see here

" Can I remove U3 technology from my USB drive?

Yes. To remove the U3 technology from the drive, simply go to the U3 Launchpad and, under Settings, select U3 Launchpad settings and click Uninstall. This will completely remove the U3 Launchpad from the drive. "

Hope this helps !

kah22

almillar hold back for a little while on deleting the U3. I've just sent a message to Sony explaining my situation and asking their advice I'll post the reply here when I receive one.

By the way have you tried an ordinary memory pen; I did this afternoon and nothing showed up. So it will be interesting to hear what Sony have to say.

Kevin

Richie-from-the-Boro

kah22 wrote: »

almillar hold back for a little while on deleting the U3. I've just sent a message to Sony explaining my situation and asking their advice I'll post the reply here when I receive one.

By the way have you tried an ordinary memory pen; I did this afternoon and nothing showed up. So it will be interesting to hear what Sony have to say.

Kevin

.1. You won't hear anything you want to hear. The whole point of U3 is it protects itself from everything .. .. .. including this nasty terrorist television that is trying hurt it by looking at what it is trying to protect from prying eyes. .2. A TV can not execute an *.exe file which holds the hidden "SYSTEM" folder with installed applications, so your TV will never be allowed past the ' barrier ' called U3.

BTW I'd love to be proved wrong, hartk10.

almillar

Richie from the Boro - thank you, I'll give that a go and it's exactly what I want to hear.
Sorry tronator, I'm no Linux expert, but I did try removing the partition whilst it wasn't mounted in OSX, but no dice. The 3 OSs were tricked into thinking it was a CD, which of course can't be tampered with!
kah22 - I'm not hanging around, I'm getting that crap off my dad's card. It's no use to him, is taking up (very little) space, and is stopping him from using it with his TV. Yes the TV works fine with other memory sticks.