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  1. Member thecrock's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
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    england
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    I am wondering if any wise member can help me.

    Are there screens available that will play video straight from a usb memory stick. I want to be able to plug a usb stick straight into the screen and auto play the content on the storage device.
    If yes do members know anything about what makes and models there are?
    The player does not have to support HD but obviously would be better if it did.

    Peace
    “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
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  2. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    Freedonia
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    Most people who ask this question do so under the false assumption that such TVs basically give them a free "plays anything" device. In fact, you will find that what TVs will play is so restrictive that you might actually wonder they even bothered to offer the capability at all. Typically you'll find that AC3 is the only audio that is supported (maybe MP3 if you have Divx/Xvid video) and the video restrictions can be pretty severe as well. You're on your own here, but basically all the big manufacturers seem to make such HDTVs for sale in the UK. They're all pretty much the same in terms of restrictions on playback.
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  3. I've not used a large number of TVs, but my Samsung TV (PS51D450 plasma) will play AVI/MKV/MP4 from a USB stick up to 1080p. It'll play video with all of the standard audio types (mp3, ac3, aac, dts). If it supported aspect ratios in MKV/Mp4 files correctly (it just assumes everything has square pixels) it'd play pretty much all the video I own. (I encode using x264 High Profile, Level 4.1) It will also read and play the entire contents of a 2TB, NTFS USB hard drive.

    There's also a Samsung DVD player in this house and it's USB playing abilities seem to be identical to the TV, but of course these days Bluray players are being infected with Cinavia copy protection whereas I'm not aware of any TV media players which have been.

    I've not tested any Sony TVs, but I own a Sony Bluray player and it has all the abilities the Samsung Bluray player does, plus it supports aspect ratios in MKVs/MP4s correctly and the picture is better. Based on that, I'd consider looking at the abilities of players in Sony TVs.

    In my (admittedly limited) experience, if you buy a TV which advertises DivX HD you're more likely to get one with more limited playback abilities than a TV which simply advertises MKV/MP4 playback, but as manufacturers don't exactly go out of their way to advertise what their media players are capable of, it's probably a very good idea to put a few different types of video (containing different types of audio) on a USB stick and take them with you when test driving TVs in a store.

    I'm in Australia. Whether the rest of the world is a lot different, I don't know.
    Last edited by hello_hello; 15th Apr 2012 at 15:45.
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  4. Member
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    Aug 2006
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    United States
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    LG also makes some TVs that play video from USB sticks or USB 2.0 external hard drives. Some models can use drives formatted using NTFS as well as FAT32. You would need to check the manual for specifics about file types and A/V formats that can be played.
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  5. Member
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    Jan 2001
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    United States
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    I have the LG 42LD550 which plays movies via USB. I just hook up my external HDD. I was surprised it plays MKV x264 files. It definitely beats having to use a media player.
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