External Hard Drive > TV?

[jason]

Is there a device for this? A box or something, connecting your external hard drive to a television. It would have to have a usb connector, of course. Just wondering, if not it should be the next invention!

[jagabo]

Lots. Here's a few:
http://www.tvixbox.com/
http://www.mvixusa.com/
http://www.popcornhour.com/

[TooLFooL]

Xbox 360

[jason]

Xbox 360 has an input for something like an external hard drive? I never knew that.

[TooLFooL]

yes... USB ports!
as long as you format a drive to FAT32, it will be a 'portable storage' device on Xbox 360

[jason]

The hard drive is already in FAT32 format. You mean format the xbox so it will read?

[TooLFooL]

NO NO! format the external drive as FAT32.. (the xbox won't read NTFS, it won't show up.. only FAT32)

[jason]

I was looking for a cheaper route. Anything I can pick up at a Best Buy store? If it's over $100 it's cheaper just to put my movies on a blank dvd. Been looking into those as well, Verbatim is the best that I can see.

[jagabo]

You can get external USB 2.0 hard drives for <US$100. You won't find any that can also act as a media player though.

[poisondeathray]

Cheapest one is probably the Mediasonic HM2-U2TV, it's basically an HD enclosure but you need to buy an IDE laptop drive (2.5 inch) separately

It doubles as an external HD, and can play common media formats like mpg, photos (jpg), DIVX/XVID (not x264)

$50 + cost of HD (you can get a cheap 80GB 2.5 IDE HD for about $60)

[jason]

I already have an external hard drive, loaded down with movies. Just looking for a media box, connecting the hard drive to the tv.

[TooLFooL]

a 100-pack of Verbatim's can be had for $25.. you won't find a media player that cheap!

[jason]

I want the DL media, but everyone has problems with them. Too many coasters, wasting money. What's a good site for buying blank dvds? Thanks for the help folks!

[jason]

I found a cheaper way, my PS2 has 2 usb ports. I had no idea until I checked. Thanks for the help guys.

[peter06]

There are special HD-Cases for this.

[TooLFooL]

the ps2 won't work as a media player, will it? oh, and a good site for blank media is www.rima.com

[boonebaker]

For people using the XBOX 360 as a media player, I think FAT32 is limited to 250 GB or something, so if your hard drive is bigger than that I suggest getting a program called MacDrive 7, format the hard drive to HFS+, and go from there. I've got two 500 GB hard drives formatted that way and it works beautifully.

[TooLFooL]

For people using the XBOX 360 as a media player, I think FAT32 is limited to 250 GB or something, so if your hard drive is bigger than that I suggest getting a program called MacDrive 7, format the hard drive to HFS+, and go from there. I've got two 500 GB hard drives formatted that way and it works beautifully.

not true.. i have a 500 gig external hooked up to mine. it's formatted as one big partition.

[jason]

The PS2 doesn't work as a media player for the usb ports. So now I'm back to square one. I would use my labtop but it only has S-Audio out, instead of S-Video out. Which is pretty stupid to me. My external hard drive is 320 GB.

Would the Xbox 360 Arcade work?

[jagabo]

For people using the XBOX 360 as a media player, I think FAT32 is limited to 250 GB or something,

XP's format program can only create FAT32 partitions up to 32 GB. But other formatting programs can go higher. There is a 4 GB file size limit on FAT32 drives.

[jason]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8251465&type=product&id=1169512521675

Would a DVD Player with usb ports be able to read my external hard drive? Let me know, thanks.

[jagabo]

I don't know about that player but some, like the Philips DVP-5960, can play video off an external USB drive. But most are limited to less than USB 1.1 speeds and won't play high bitrate files like DVD VOBs (they max out around 4000 kbps). Most require FAT32 (no NTFS support) and have filename issues (munged 8.3 filenames).

[jason]

Would a flash drive work better?

[jagabo]

No. Except for power. The USB ports on most set-top DVD players don't supply enough power for the typical 3.5 inch hard drive. Flash drives need much less power so that's not a problem.

[jason]

Is there anything I can purchase at Best Buy or Circuit City? A media player of some sort that will do the job. Something other than the Xbox 360.

[Krispy Kritter]

If you want something under $100, then you are looking at a DVD player with USB supprt as noted above. Your next choice would be a modded XBox or XBox 360. Above that would be the dedicated media players which are typically in the $200 range.

[jason]

If you want something under $100, then you are looking at a DVD player with USB supprt as noted above. Your next choice would be a modded XBox or XBox 360. Above that would be the dedicated media players which are typically in the $200 range.

I wouldn't mind spending more if it was from a retail store like Best Buy. What are these "dedicated media players" you speak of? And where would they be located in the store?

[Richard_G]

Why not get one of these http://svp.co.uk/product/sumvision_aquaplus_multimedia_player_enclosure_4482 and put your hard drive in it? You've then got an external hard drive that can connect straight to your TV.

This one http://svp.co.uk/product/sumvision_zengo_multimedia_player_and_recorder_55286 can record direct to the hard drive or for a little more money you can have one of these http://svp.co.uk/product/freecom_network_mediaplayer_minus_35_(no_hd)_4198

I'm sure they must be available in the US.

[jason]

There's all kinds of media players with usb 2.0 intake, but you wont find any of them in a well known retail store liike Best Buy or Circuit City. I also like to slap an extended warranty on everything, especially my external hard drives. If any of these media players make it to a retail store, let me know and keep me updated. Thanks!

[Richard_G]

You're a salesmans dream! Pay over the odds in a retail store AND buy the extended warranty? They can see you coming a mile off!

Unless the law is different in the US, which I doubt, anything that is faulty within the warranty period will be replaced by the retailer, if it fails after the warranty period but still in a period less than you would reasonably expect it to last, it can still be replaced. With an extended warranty all you are doing is giving away money. What you spend on extended warranty would usually allow you to pay for any repairs and have some money left over.

Remember the bathtub curve for electronic items. The likelyhood of it failing is greatest in the first few days of use and then rises again when it reaches the end of it's life. By which time it is obsolete and you've probably replaced it anyway.