How does the USB connector work?

[maxxDV]

I've seen many Divx DVD players out there that have a USB port on the front. My question is, is this just for connecting to flash drives? Or can you just hook up an entire external hard drive to them?

If so this would be AWESOME!!!

[JohnnyMalaria]

OOPS...didn't read the question properly.

[Bodyslide]

You can hook up an external drive as long as it's formatted for the player to read and has it's own power....

[MOVIEGEEK]

You can use keydrives or harddrives,unfortunatly most players require the drive to be FAT16.
Another caveat with DVD players that use the Mediatek chip is they only support up to 700 files or folders.

[maxxDV]

what I'd really like to do is be able to plug a usb cable from my DVD player to my computer, and then run some software on the computer that simulates a FAT16 device, that way I could put whatever I want into that device at any time from my computers and over the network. Is there such a piece of software?

also do these players support multiple partitions? as in, it will let you select which "device" to mount?

[Krispy Kritter]

It won't connect to a PC. You will need to connect it to an actual HDD.

I haven't seen a player yet that can read multiple partitions on a HDD. They can only read/access the primary patition. Many players often also have a max HDD size that they can recognize.

[Bjs]

The correct answer is = it depends on the unit involved and how it was implemented .

The unit I use , wintal dvdrx250 , will allow external hd's to be connected , formatted as fat32 ... don't know the limit as the info dose not exist , but the kicker being .

250 gig hd built in : 10% used for recordings , 80% used for timeshifting , and 10% for storing user crap .

If they could get rid of timeshifting , I'd be happy ... it only supports 60 minutes ... a waste .

Mostly , units supply only enough power for usb keys and flash drives ... external hd's , if supported , should have their own power source , and should only be connected after it has been confirmed as being supported , or risk damaging the unit .

Unfortunately this info is usually not included in the manual , a basic mention of drive types supported may be included and for what purpose it serves ... pictures as slideshow , and other .

The only way of knowing whats what , is to contact the manufacturer and ask them for a more accurate picture of what is actually the intended usage and the details ... and write them into the manual with a pen .

Pc to unit is not an option , directly that is .

[handyguy]

Search the forum for that 5960 USB topic, there are thousands of views to it & it explains everything.