Playing AVI film files on a tv from a 1TB WD hard-drive

OXFORD_SMOGGY

Hi, I am looking at buying a new tv for around £200 which has a built in DVD player, min 22 inch max 32 inch, is full HD and is capable of playing AVI film files from a USB conection from a Western Digital 1TB harddrive.

Does anyone have any experience of getting films to play on a tv from USB and can recommend a tv to do so? What makes/spec of tv can do this as have read many conflicting reviews.

I was looking at buying this tv but am unsure whether it can play AVI files from a harddrive http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/tvs/logik-l24dvdb21-review-50003885/

Cheers

spike7451

I have the TV below & can connect my Seagate external HD to it & play my music,films & also look at the photo's I have stored on it.I've also got it connected to my surround sound system via optical out so everything (USB/TV/DVD/SjyHD) all comes thru the tv to the surround sound.Picture is bang on nearly HD even in SD & the built in speakers are almost surround sound quality too.
Although certain Movie file formats won't play thru the USB tho.

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-ps43d450-43-hd-ready-plasma-tv-10078456-pdt.html

OXFORD_SMOGGY

Thanks, what movie format do you use?

spike7451

OXFORD_SMOGGY wrote: »

Thanks, what movie format do you use?

It plays AVI/MKV/ASF/MP4/WMV3GPP/VRO/VOB/PS/TS formats,just took that off the on screen manual.Most of the films I have are AVI & they play OK.

Faysy

This post could really help me too as I am also looking for a suitable TV to play AVI files. I have an LG 42" TV with three USB ports in my living room but they can only be used for music and pictures. I have tried attaching my hard drive but it doesnt recognise movie files. I have tried using smaller USB devices but it still doesnt work so does it have to be TV specific? It doesnt seem to be wildly publicised of which TV's support USB/AVI files as I dont want a second TV that doesnt play AVI files via the USB ports.

I similarly would like a under 32" tv with DVD combi that can support USB devices. Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance

almillar

You've got 2 threads giving similar advice but I'll post here - Best solution is a computer. Built in DVD player is a bad idea - if it goes wrong, you're stuck.
USB - you need to be VERY careful about what a TV can play. If it only supports FAT32, you can't play files over 4GB. And AVI is a sort of container file format, so there could be umpteen different formats inside that your TV may or may not support or might just take a hissy fit over for some reason. I'd rather have a separate player, and if you're trying to be minimalist, try a hard drive with media player built in.

19lottie82

i expect if you connect your hard drive directly to the tv you may experience problems as the drive is just too big. however, if you copy individual files to a usb stick via your computer, and connect this to the tv, it should work no problem. it may be a bit tempremental (sp) with certain file types, but AVI's are fine.

spike7451

19lottie82 wrote: »

i expect if you connect your hard drive directly to the tv you may experience problems as the drive is just too big. however, if you copy individual files to a usb stick via your computer, and connect this to the tv, it should work no problem. it may be a bit tempremental (sp) with certain file types, but AVI's are fine.

My Seagate is a 500GB external drive & connects with no problems.

OXFORD_SMOGGY

Bought an Bush 24inch from Argos today, guess what the DVD broke the second time we used it so it is going back. The external hard drive was to big to recogise in the tv however we put a couple of films on a USB stick and they played fine in terms of picture quality however with no sound!!! Grrrr. They are all AVI files, the TV supports AVI movie files according to the manual with audio of WMA or AAC, how can I cange my AVI file to be one of these audios so that audio will play on the tv or how can I see what audio the AVI file includes?

We are going to have a go with the logik in the link above however according to its manual http://documents.knowhow.com/TV-Home%20Entertainment/L24DVDB21.pdf it only plays MPEG1/2 with audio of MP3. Is there a free software I can use to convert AVI files to MPEG files?

19lottie82

spike7451 wrote: »

My Seagate is a 500GB external drive & connects with no problems.

I guess it must depend on the TV? Mine won't accept my 1TB hard drive but will take a 16gb usb stick, OK?

almillar

Oxford, it's really not worth the bother of converting stuff all the time. Playing back only MPEG video isn't much use either, so I wouldn't buy that Logik either, as it WON'T play loads of film.
If a TV reads FAT32 it can go up beyond 2TB, but FAT would be less. NTFS can go way higher. Bottom line is that at the moment you have to dig really deep into handbooks for individual TVs to find out what they can or can't do, and you'll usually be disappointed and you'll have something that won't play. That's why my suggestion above of something external makes more sense, they usually have a much bigger range or file formats and codecs that they'll play.
DO NOT just buy a TV because it says it plays 'AVI Files' - there's a whole world of formats and codecs in there and it won't play them all!