Play ISO or VOB Video Files on Samsung Galaxy S4 Phone and Note 8 Tablet

[Jerry22]

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
Windows 7 Desktop
ASUS T100T Convertible Tablet/Laptop/Windows 8
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4
Tablet: Samsung Note 8
Blu-Ray Player: Samsung BDP-F5900
USB Hard Drive: WD Elements 2TB (WDBU6Y0020BBK-NESN)
USB Hard Drive: Colorado MiniStation 1TB (HD-PZ)
OTG (On-The-Go) Micro-USB Adapter Cable
WinX DVD Copy Pro
Magic ISO
DVD Shrink
ES File Manager

BACKGROUND
I've read some of the posts in this and other forums, and I realize there are some roadblocks to what I am (and others are) trying to do. However, since it's mid-2015, I thought I see if there was any new information.

I have many ISO files of videos that I have saved to a USB hard drive. I connect the USB hard drive to the tablet or phone using the OTG cable. Using the ES File Manager app, I can SEE the files on the USB hard drive. Also, on the Blu-Ray Player, I was able to play the videos from my USB hard drive, after extracting the ISO to VIDEO_TS/VOB.

PROBLEM
I would like to be able to play ISO files directly on the Android phone and tablet. Is there any known method of doing this? I would also be happy to play VOB files on those devices since I am already extracting those for the Blu-Ray player. Using the ES File Manager from the Google Play Store, I am able to view the files (VOB or ISO) on the USB hard drive. Now, I need a way to play them. Has anyone been able to do this?

[Baldrick]

Have you tried VLC media player for android?

[Jerry22]

Have you tried VLC media player for android?

SOLUTION
Yes! VLC player on the android phone or tablet is a good solution. It plays the ISO files directly. I have a 64GB MicroSD card attached to a thumb drive reader with micro-USB on one end and standard USB on the other. So I'm able to load the SD card with ISO files from the computer, then plug it right in to the phone or tablet. I navigate to "Settings > More > Storage > Mount USB" to view the files when I launch VLC.

STILL UNRESOLVED
The phone is not recognizing the USB hard drive, however. So, I am still unable to play the files from that device. The option to mount the USB drive does not appear in Storage settings.

VLC Player is not "see'ing" the USB drive at all.

The Nexus viewer "sees" the USB drive but it cannot play them.

ES File Manager also "sees" the USB drive and displays it in the "Fast View" sidebar, but reports an empty drive. This is inconsistent with what I reported in my first post. I'll have to confirm what's going on.

[Jerry22]

SOLUTION FOUND

Format 1TB (or Larger) USB Drive to work on Android Phone and Tablet
I was talking to the Samsung tech rep at the Best Buy store here in Mountain View, and he mentioned the 128GB size limit for MicroSD cards mounted internally. It make me think about taking another look at the format settings I had used.

It turns out, it has nothing to do with the size of the drive; the settings I used for Block Allocation Unit Size were wrong. When formatting as exFAT using the Windows 7 "Format" tool (in Windows file manager, right-click on the USB drive, select format in the context menu), I was using 1MB. When I lowered it way down to 64KB, it works: The 1TB USB hard drive files can be seen and played on my Android devices. It may be possible to use a larger Allocation Unit Size, such as 128KB, or 256KB, or even 512KB, but I have not tried it.