External storage for tv? 9 December 2020 at 10:24AM in Phones & TV 14 replies 184 views

JJ_Egan

Double check that your TV does not require a mains powered drive .

thefirs

Medz said:

I would like to buy an external hard drive to record tv. I have a clash of programs I would love to watch on Sunday; that are unlikely to be repeated (and aren’t on Freeview catch up). 

I have an LG which I attached to an old 2.5" HDD in a USB caddy. It works fine, with no overheating noted.

Bear in mind though that you can't watch another programme simultaneously, it's only intended for recording when you're out, or for archiving a valued broadcast so you'll need to watch the clash programme on another TV. Nor can the recorded broadcast be viewed on any other device as the manufacturers have encrypted the output to defeat pirating. 

macman

Medz said:

missile said:

You can reformat any drive. Connect it to your PC to reformat. 

You have filled a ITB drive?

No. It is unused straight out of the box. 

I don’t have a PC; only a MacBook. 

So can't you take it round to any friend or neighbour who has a Windows based PC or laptop  (which should be about 90% of them) and reformat it to NTFS on that? Takes a couple of minutes.
Because you bought a WD drive version aimed at Mac users, it comes ready formatted as Mac OS Extended or APFS (probably the latter, if it's brand new and not old stock). But the drive can be reformatted any way you like, it's no physically different to one branded for the Windows market.

Medz

I’m really grateful to you that now I understand the difference between hard drives in a shop for Mac vs PC.  I didn’t realise they were the same under the hood and can be used interchangeably by reformatting. 

I missed my program but I will see if a neighbour has a PC and would be willing to help me. Thank you so much for saving me from buying a new device unnecessarily. You are a superstar. Best wishes.