TV & External HD

retsbed

Hello Tech Savvy MSE'ers, I need to pick your brains.

I have a Logik L24DVDB21 TV and would like to start watching movies on it via my 250gb external HD (Iomega MDHD250-U).

The TV's manual says that the format of the HD needs to be FAT32 whereas my hd is NTFS.

Q1 - can I convert the hd to FAT32?
Q2 - If so, am I able to store 250gb worth of movies on it?

Thanks in advance :beer:

Toxteth_OGrady

Yes you can reformat it to FAT32 in Windows but it will wipe anything that's on it, so copy anything you have stored on there to somewhere else.

You'll be able to store 238GB of movies on it.

Rodders53

1. Yes. Usually re-formatting and destroying data on disk but may be possible to do so retaining data with paid-for software utilities. Google will find them.
2. More or less... remember disk drive manufacturers' capacities and formatted capacities use different numbering systems so may be circa 234GB... Also remember FAT32 has single file limitation of 4GB so big movies may not fit in one file but have to be split.
3.Be careful - the TV will be limited in the codecs (video and sound) it supports and not all .avi type files will be playable,

retsbed

Thanks Toxteth_OGrady & Rodders53.

I have just received the hd via ebay so it is currently empty, I wanted to convert it before loading my movies.

Rodders53 you say that a single file limitation is 4gb....how does one go about splitting the file and does that mean that one will have to switch between files mid movie?

I have just found out that the tv can only play mpeg1/2 files so I'll have to spend some time converting my films as they are all mkv...sigh why can't everything just be universal?!...or maybe I should have done my homework!

custardy

retsbed wrote: »

Thanks Toxteth_OGrady & Rodders53.

I have just received the hd via ebay so it is currently empty, I wanted to convert it before loading my movies.

Rodders53 you say that a single file limitation is 4gb....how does one go about splitting the file and does that mean that one will have to switch between files mid movie?

I have just found out that the tv can only play mpeg1/2 files so I'll have to spend some time converting my films as they are all mkv...sigh why can't everything just be universal?!...or maybe I should have done my homework!

well to be fair. its a fairly budget model and these sort of features are just little add ons
personally I have found TVs a bit clunky for this type of use
My own 'smart' TV is still not great using drives or streaming over the network
I stream via XBMC on the main TV and via 360/PS3/WDTV & serviio on the others
you have a size limit. so its up to you whether you chop the film up or recode them to the smaller size

Avoriaz

You should consider buying a media player.

TVs usually have very basic and limited recording and playback functions. My Panasonic will record and playback via a USB socket but I never use it as it is fiddly and messy compared to a media player, Sky+, PVRs etc.

There are some very good and relatively inexpensive media players that come without a disk and use external disks. One of those would mean your purchase of that external disk is not wasted.

Something as basic as this for £21 or this for £27 would probably be ok. I haven't looked at them in any detail so do plenty of research.

There are many different models at all price ranges on Ebay, Amazon and elsewhere.

I have a Ryan PlayOn HD player. It is a small box but very big on functions. It is very easy to use and gives high quality sound and vision.

Here are some more media players for sale on Ebay.

retsbed

Thanks, I think the media player is by far the easier option!