Playing videos from USB stick doesn't work on Toshiba TV

[guy24s]

Hope it's okay to ask this question here.
I just bought a brand new Toshiba 55" QLED TV and one of the purposes for buying it was to watch videos from USB sticks.
However, I can't get it to work. When I insert my SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 stick into the TV, the TV recognizes the device and I get two choices, either browse or settings. When I select browse, it just lists the drives capacity (used and free Mbs) but no videos are being displayed. The videos are H.264 MP4 files and according to the manual, the TV supports those type of videos.
In the settings menu, the only choices are to either eject the drive, or format it to be used for device storage (for installing apps etc, when the TV runs out of internal storage space).
I've googled this problem and I find various posts where sometimes someone says that Toshiba TVs has a problem with USB 3.0 units, and sometimes that they don't like SanDisk media, and that when using a Kingston drive it suddenly worked. Well, I happen to like SanDisk products and I don't have anything but SanDisk sticks around.
I've watched some YouTube tutorials on how to use USB sticks with Toshiba TVs, or just how to use USB sticks in smart TVs in general, and something I've noticed is that they all instruct you to format the drive as FAT32. I don't use that format, it's utterly useless for videos, because of its 4Gb size limitation. Is this a thing, that Toshiba TVs can't play videos off of NTFS formatted drives? If so, this TV is going back first thing in the morning. Is it common for modern TVs with USB plugs to not support video playback from NTFS formatted devices? My mother has a LED TV that is probably 7 or 8 years old, of a totally unknown brand, and it plays my videos just fine.
I'd like some advice please, because I have a feeling I'm going to return this TV and get something else, and I don't want to end up with another TV that can't play my files.
PS: I've tried contacting Toshiba, but their support page for my country lists two phone numbers and one is invalid and the other one disconnected. Go figure...
Edit: Forgot to list the TV model number, it's Toshiba 55QA7D63DG.

[davexnet]

Have you tried formating your USB stick as exFat ?

Does your TV fully support native USB 3 or does it fullback to USB 2 speeds - this may may a difference
with big media files and the bitrate getting too high for the transfer capability

[guy24s]

Have you tried formating your USB stick as exFat ?

Does your TV fully support native USB 3 or does it fullback to USB 2 speeds - this may may a difference
with big media files and the bitrate getting too high for the transfer capability

I didn't, but upon digging further online I've come to find out that all it supports is FAT32. I started looking around for other TVs only to read that many of them do not support NTFS. Some do, but were too outrageously priced and some just didn't mention whether they did or not. One TV supported it but only was able to read USB devices that were so-called MSC units. I didn't even know what that was, so I had to look it up. Anyway, I don't have one. It's funny, it's like the TV makers don't want you to be able to play movies off USB devices. So I decided to just order a cheap media player and hook it up to the TV.

[davexnet]

Yeah who knows why the manufacturers do what they do? My old 2017 LG TV supports NTFS
but I only used it once or twice. For me streaming over the network and keeping the files on the PC
worked out better - first using the apps in the TV (DLNA, etc.) then I switched to Kodi on the cheap
media player once I got it.
Good Luck!

[dfisher052]

Do you have a DVD player connected to your TV? I play all my movies through my dvd (bluray) both from USB sticks and external hard drives. It also upscales them to HiDef. The only HD that doesn't work is the Toshiba.

[cholla]

I have a htpc but I usually play usb with my LG blu ray player.
I like it's media player better.
I can play usb to my Sharp TV also but I rarely use it because I don't like its media player.
I do use flash drives sometimes but most of the time I use a powered external hard drive.
They all play NTFS or FAT 32.

[johns0]

I have an xbox series x and it plays most files without issues with vlc as the media player,unless you want to spend a lot of money it's a great player.That's with a 512 gb usb stick.

[jagabo]

Is this a thing, that Toshiba TVsIs it common for modern TVs with USB plugs to not support video playback from NTFS formatted devices?

Yes. FAT32 doesn't require a license ($$$) from Microsoft. I believe NTFS does.

[guy24s]

Is this a thing, that Toshiba TVsIs it common for modern TVs with USB plugs to not support video playback from NTFS formatted devices?

Yes. FAT32 doesn't require a license ($$$) from Microsoft. I believe NTFS does.

Yeah I read later on that this supposedly is why so many of them won't support anything but FAT32 but I would think that this is an important feature that most people will want? I only collect files up to 1080p resolution and even tose look terrible if the files are small enough to fit on a FAT32 formatted USB stick, I can only imagine how compressed and awful a 4K movie must look if it's under 4Gb. I hope the media player I ordered will be good because my computer uses so much power to run all day long when using it to watch TV and movies.

[cholla]

I have a BD player &3 TVs that will play NTFS either on a USB flash drive or a powered external hard drive.(They also play FAT32).
The newest is 3 years old & the oldest 14 years old.
None are Toshiba.
None will play a USB powered hard drive.
I do not have a SSD drive to test them with but I plan to eventually get an external SSD & try it.

@guy24s,
Unless you bought a very cheap "media player" it should work unless it has also been limited by MS wanting to be paid to use NTFS.
The specs should say what a media player will play.
I have a very old mothballed media player & I believe it would play NTFS.
I used it for a TV that did not have a USB port & had to be wired composite.

My HTPC doesn't use that much power.
It is an older "small form" Dell but has HDMI out.
They only video it has problems playing are some UHD 4k files.