Browsing hard drive DIRECTLY with Patriot Box Office

[i am x]

Hello all. As of late, I've been d/lding a LOT of mkv files and having to convert them to avi to play on my DVD player. I had been watching the "wd live player plus vs. patriot Box office" debate, and lo and behold at fry's they had a sale on a new pbo for $74, so I went ahead and bought it. I must say that it's nice t be able to play mkv files on my tv without having to convert them, not to mention all the other files it plays without having to convert. The video quality is superb. I have a question though. Is there a way to play files right off the hard drive on my computer without having to transfer them to another storage device FIRST? As of late, I have been putting them all on a flash drive. It would be GREAT if I could just browse my computer's hard drive DIRECTLY, then play them right off the hard drive. There is a mini usb to usb cable that came with the unit, but every time I plug it in, it automatically goes into a mode called "OTG mode", which apparently stands for "on the go" mode. When it is in this mode, it does NOTHING. None of the buttons on the remote work, and there is no computer interface that syncs up with it or anything. In otg mode, it just sits there and does nothing. Can someone please tell me if there is a way that I can access / browse / play the video files on my computer's (internal) hard drive without having to buy another sata drive for the patriot (which it IS capable of fitting), or not having to buy an external drive? I was hoping that I could simply plug it in, and it would "see" the files on my computer's internal hard drive. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated!

[aedipuss]

umm... plug it into what? it is network capable, so if both devices are on the same network and you "share" your media folder the pbo should be able to find it.

[i am x]

umm... plug it into what? it is network capable, so if both devices are on the same network and you "share" your media folder the pbo should be able to find it.

I have no network on my computer. I plugged the mini usb side into the back of PBO and the other end into 1 of the usb ports on my computer. There is only 1 hard drive in my computer.

[Anonymous30]

umm... plug it into what? it is network capable, so if both devices are on the same network and you "share" your media folder the pbo should be able to find it.

I have no network on my computer. I plugged the mini usb side into the back of PBO and the other end into 1 of the usb ports on my computer. There is only 1 hard drive in my computer.

You have a some choices but the only way to stream the files from your computer is to have both the Units on a network, or option 2 is to buy a an external USB hardrive and copy the files from the computer to the external drive when done plug the external into the patriot box.

question about your internet setup, do you only use a modem to connect to the internet?

[i am x]

umm... plug it into what? it is network capable, so if both devices are on the same network and you "share" your media folder the pbo should be able to find it.

I have no network on my computer. I plugged the mini usb side into the back of PBO and the other end into 1 of the usb ports on my computer. There is only 1 hard drive in my computer.

You have a some choices but the only way to stream the files from your computer is to have both the Units on a network, or option 2 is to buy a an external USB hardrive and copy the files from the computer to the external drive when done plug the external into the patriot box.

question about your internet setup, do you only use a modem to connect to the internet?

Yes. I have the old raggedy Westell Wirespeed modem from many years ago. Got the internet a long time ago. Is it true that there are "mods" or "custom" firmware updates that allow PBO to stream Nextflix and whatnot? I would love to be able to do that. I know WD live plus does it. If there is software that would allow such, I'd love to be able to d/l it. Also, I guess I'm stuck buying an internal sata 2.5" for PBO (would rather do that than to buy an external). For right now, I'm just using a flash drive to play one movie file at a time, as the flash drive is only 8gb, so I can only fit one 720p or 1080 file on there at a time. I must say the quality is INSANE (low to mid level blu-ray, maybe)?

[Anonymous30]

umm... plug it into what? it is network capable, so if both devices are on the same network and you "share" your media folder the pbo should be able to find it.

I have no network on my computer. I plugged the mini usb side into the back of PBO and the other end into 1 of the usb ports on my computer. There is only 1 hard drive in my computer.

You have a some choices but the only way to stream the files from your computer is to have both the Units on a network, or option 2 is to buy a an external USB hardrive and copy the files from the computer to the external drive when done plug the external into the patriot box.

question about your internet setup, do you only use a modem to connect to the internet?

Yes. I have the old raggedy Westell Wirespeed modem from many years ago. Got the internet a long time ago. Is it true that there are "mods" or "custom" firmware updates that allow PBO to stream Nextflix and whatnot? I would love to be able to do that. I know WD live plus does it. If there is software that would allow such, I'd love to be able to d/l it. Also, I guess I'm stuck buying an internal sata 2.5" for PBO (would rather do that than to buy an external). For right now, I'm just using a flash drive to play one movie file at a time, as the flash drive is only 8gb, so I can only fit one 720p or 1080 file on there at a time. I must say the quality is INSANE (low to mid level blu-ray, maybe)?

You need a router either way to share you connection,once you have both computer and the pbo hooked up WIRED PREFERED THROUGHT THE ROUTER, then you can share the folder which has the movies on your pc over the network and the pbo will be see that folder and play them