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Can I plug a portable hard drive into TV? (TV has a USB port)

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vicx
vicx Posts: 3,091 Forumite
Hi all,

I am thinking of purchasing a portable hard drive to store all my photos, music and films on. My TV has a USB port which I use to plug in my USB flash drive/memory stick so I can watch films, listen to music and view photo's which I have saved on there.

I am just wondering if it would be the same with a hard drive or does it depend on the hard drive having this feature?

Thanks :)
A home without a dog is like a flower without petals.

Comments

  • scottishblondie
    scottishblondie Posts: 2,495 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It should work, but there may be a limit on the size of drive which your TV will recognise. You will also have to format it to the correct type for the TV to recognise it. Best check the TV manual :)
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    RTM

    What does the maker's manual say you can connect to it?
  • vicx
    vicx Posts: 3,091 Forumite
    I read the manual before posting here. It doesn't mention plugging hard drives into the USB port or the maximum size of the drive which it will recognise.

    What is does say is that is supports FAT16 FAT32 and NTFS. I've read that hard drives need to be formatted to FAT32 but with my TV supporting NTFS, I may not need to do this?!

    I was looking at the 500GB hard drive which is more than enough memory for me but the 160 - 320gb hard drive seem to be priced around the same price as the one I want to purchase so it is a good offer and has very good reviews.
    A home without a dog is like a flower without petals.
  • Apples2
    Apples2 Posts: 6,442 Forumite
    edited 23 May 2011 at 3:24PM
    Nothing wrong with formatting a HDD with NTFS at all.

    I have a Samsung PS50C680 Plasma TV which will take an external HDD plugged in to watch movies no problem.

    Some TV's only have a USB port to enable you to update the firmware of the TV though so it is worth checking the manual. It is a fair guess if it reads movies from a stick, it will work fine with a HDD.

    My TV is hard wired (Cat5) via a Router to my Win7 64bit (NTFS) PC. I then use Serviio on my PC to automatically download the DVD Cover Art (from IMDB). Just press Media on my remote and browse my library of movies by Genre, year, Actor etc. via the TV remote (fantastic function).
  • pledgeX
    pledgeX Posts: 527 Forumite
    You also need to make sure the tv can read the file format of the movies you have on your hard drive (.avi, .mpg, .mkv) etc
  • vicx
    vicx Posts: 3,091 Forumite
    I've just received my portal external hard drive today, transferred a few files over to it (films, music & photo's) plugged it in to my TV USB port and it works as it should :)
    A home without a dog is like a flower without petals.
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