Recording off Samsung Smart TV to USB?!

LONDON_SMOGGY

nice one baza yeah needs to be formatted to tv but how do I get ti to do that, I thought you just plugged it in, pressed record on your remote and the tv formatted it. When I click record it just says 'not available' even when it recognises the hard drive usb

almillar

The manual is here for your 40" TV:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/model/UE40EH5300KXXU
which should tell you what it needs for recording.
If you want to share a drive, you would have to have 3 TVs from the same brand, same age and even same 'line' to get lucky.
If you want to find out if a disk will work with a TV, you would need to connect it to the TV and allow the TV to format it. If that works, make a test recording. Then plug it into another TV to see if it works. Repeat...

LONDON_SMOGGY

Yeah I tried that yesterday didnt work from my new to old. What was more concerning was that my tvs from 2012 when you conenct a hard drive to it and it is recognised the tv does not format it when you press record, Im starting to wonder if they actually record tv at all

JJ_Egan

SETTINGS on your TV is the first place to look .
Usually RECORDING set up recording format HD .

LONDON_SMOGGY

Yeah gone through all that, no recording setup option anywhere in settings

S0litaire

How old are the TV's?

Newer "smart" TV's (Well I know some models of newer LG are doing this!) are encrypting all recorded items so they only playback on the TV that recorded them.

It might be the older TV's Operating system does not understand the File format of the drive used by the newer TV. So it won't see anything on the drive.

Another way to go might be is to pick up a cheap Freeview USB Dongle for your PC (if it's on 24/7)

Use that to record shows.
Then copy the Shows to the USB drive and play them back on the TV's that way.

LONDON_SMOGGY

Ah thats a good option on the PC I hadn't thought about. I might have to get a seperate hard drive for the two older tvs, they are both 2012 samsung models that could eb an option trouble is I have no idea if they are capable of recroding tv at all and I dont want to buy a hard drive which wont work on them. I think lookign impossible to have one hard drive between 3 tvs now of course. Resigned to just recording on upstairs tv and leavign that hard drive in. And getting a new hard drive for the two tvs downstairs.

I have another query if i record from my new tv with working recordable funtion and hard drive, if I set a series record, do I A- have to leave the TV permanently on standby, B-Is the series record wiped out and all timers should I ever remove the hard drive?

S0litaire

if you leave it on at the mains in standby and have a recording scheduled it should wake itself and record without the actual screen turning on. Power use on standby for modern TV's should be in the low single digits.

And recording schedules should be saved even if the drive is removed. You might get an error saying recording failed.

almillar

A set top box sounds like far less hassle than all of this. AND you can move it between TVs.
Why do you assume that these 2 TVs DO record to USB, where you should be assuming that they DON'T unless the instructions tell you otherwise?

LONDON_SMOGGY

has all share play function on both and a record tv button on the remotes and I've tried to google it and there are videos of the same model recording.

I liek the idea of a tiny hardrive, flash pen if possible, easy to transport and move from tv to tv and put on pc etc, plus not visible on a wall mounted tv. Using a set top box is going backwards in technology I feel and more hassle.

Also you dont need to use two different programme guides to record etc, one remote etc etc