hdd for tv recording

Yoshii

I have a panasonic led tv bought in 2015. one of the usb inputs says USB HDD. Are ordinary external hard drives ok or do I need to buy dedicated ones. I just wish to record some tv progs.

Thanks for reading

Yoshii

wongataa

Does the TV actually have a record function? Most sockets labelled as you have seen are for connecting a disk to playback content on the disk, not record.

Yoshii

yes . it has a deicated usb slot saying HDD

Lakeuk

Any external HDD will be ok, if you use a traditional sized one then it'll come with a external power supply, with a portible sized one you tv may give enough power to supply the HDD otherwise you're have to purchase a power supply separately.

I don't know panasonic's but if it's like my samsung then it's reformat the HDD the first time you plug it in and probable encrypt any records made from the panasonic so you want be able to use the HDD anyway else.

wongataa

Yoshii wrote: »

yes . it has a deicated usb slot saying HDD

Just because it has a slot saying HDD does not necessarily mean the TV can record to a disk. My Panasonic TV has a USB port labelled HDD but it does not record. It is just for plugging in a disk to with media already on it to play.

Are you sure your TV does actually have a record feature? Not many televisions do. I'm not aware of any Pansonic sets that do. I know some Samsung sets do.

enkoda

We need the model number of your TV to help you more.

wongataa wrote: »

I'm not aware of any Pansonic sets that do. I know some Samsung sets do.

There's actually quite a few, but like I said, without knowing which one the OP has we can't say for sure.

Strider590

A USB flash drive should function in the same way as a HDD would, try one first before you start spending money.

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't bother. I had one on my Samsung TV and it was very frustrating only being able to record one channel at a time, the series link was useless and after a while the USB hard drive just ceased to exist according to my TV. I strongly recommend you by a freeview recorder instead. Smart TV's are not really that smart. I use a sky+ box and a ps3 for all my recording and smart functions.