Panasonic TV and HDD. 21 January at 5:29PM in Techie Stuff 20 replies 393 views

SpudGunPaul

Good afternoon 

I have a Panasonic smart TV and a collection of media (dvds) on my PC. I wish to add the media to a HDD to play back on my tv. As I understand it when I plug the HDD into the TV is needs to format so that the HDD is exclusive to the TV. This process will then wipe any data held on the drive. 

My question is, how do I then add data to the HDD? Will it be a case of plugging into a PC and copying the MPEG-4 files and will the PC still be compatible to the HDD?

Thanks

SGP

debitcardmayhem

Smart tv tells us nothing , nor does Panasonic . What exact model is it? But I would guess that the answers are no and no, but there may be other options.

SpudGunPaul

debitcardmayhem said:

Smart tv tells us nothing , nor does Panasonic . What exact model is it? But I would guess that the answers are no and no, but there may be other options.

Do you know other options?

TV is a TX-50CX700V.

facade

If it works like most other TVs-

You only need to format the HDD if you want to record with the TV, or use it for timeshifting.

If you do format it in the TV it still works in a PC, but there will be a directory full of strange files that are the encrypted videos the TV made. You can write files to free space on the disc with the pc and the TV will play them if it can.

If you don't format it in the TV you can't use it for timeshifting, but the pc can just write & read files as normal.

So just copy the files on with the pc, and forget about formatting in the TV.

You might find that the TV can't read the disc at all if formatted on the pc, if it is so primitive that it can only read FAT32 or something, but I wouldn't expect anything this century designed to play files from a USB to be like that.

Try one or two files to see how it goes.

SpudGunPaul

I don’t want to record only play the media I already have. 

debitcardmayhem

We still need to know what the TV is , what type(s) of media it can read.

serpico100

As an alternative you may wish to consider using a media player. I purchased one a couple of years ago and tbh it’s one of the best things I’ve ever bought. Connect it to your tv with a hdmi cable, connect your external hdd via usb and away you go. I only have avi, mov, mp4 and divx files on my hard drives and have never had a problem playing them, but it will play much more. This is the one I have:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPTEK-Player-Full-HD-Digital-Drives-HA0053B/dp/B00TOAAHG4/ref=asc_df_B00TOAAHG4/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310767517131&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8646300909726614526&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006876&hvtargid=pla-493105751471&psc=1

SpudGunPaul

serpico100 said:

As an alternative you may wish to consider using a media player. I purchased one a couple of years ago and tbh it’s one of the best things I’ve ever bought. Connect it to your tv with a hdmi cable, connect your external hdd via usb and away you go. I only have avi, mov, mp4 and divx files on my hard drives and have never had a problem playing them, but it will play much more. This is the one I have:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPTEK-Player-Full-HD-Digital-Drives-HA0053B/dp/B00TOAAHG4/ref=asc_df_B00TOAAHG4/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310767517131&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8646300909726614526&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006876&hvtargid=pla-493105751471&psc=1

So it simply sits between the tv and hdd?

Belenus

I have a media player but I also use a long HDMI cable to connect my laptop to my TV to play video files on the TV that are stored on the laptop.

serpico100

SpudGunPaul said:

So it simply sits between the tv and hdd?

Yes it does

SpudGunPaul

serpico100 said:

SpudGunPaul said:

So it simply sits between the tv and hdd?

Yes it does

What’s the playback like? Some reviews say there’s a problem with audio and video syncing.