External Hard Drive to playback files on TV Needed

[dangalf]

Hi all,

My brother-in-law is looking for an external hard drive that he can copy his DVDs/Music to and plug into his TV via HDMI to browse and playback the files. In an ideal world this hard drive would be expandable or upgradeable to a higher capacity if he feels it's necessary at a later date.

Most of his files will be AVI and MP3 which I assume is compatible with most devices on the market. He would be looking for a minimum of 1TB of storage. Live features like Spotify or Youtube are a bonus but hardly vital.

I actually own the WD TV Live Hub 1TB which I have 'expanded' by plugging a WD Elements 3TB drive into. This arrangement would work for him but it seems WD have discontinued the Live Hub and its replacement the Elements Play. We could pick a Live Hub up on Ebay but I'm wondering what other options are available to him

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

 

[MajorFubar]

TV upstairs has a WD TV Live attached to it. They're definitely still available cos i've only just bought it. Pretty sure it will do what you want, it has a USB socket on it. I haven't tried streaming from a directly-connected drive though, we just stream wirelesly from the NAS.

http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

 

[dangalf]

Hi MajorFubar,

Unfortunately the WD TV Live is different from the Hub in that the Hub has internal storage of 1TB. Possibility that he could get a TV Live and connect a drive to that but it seems like a roundabout way of doing it. What puts him off the idea of a NAS is that his internet isn't great, otherwise a NAS and TV Live would probably be a good solution.

What he needs is a WD TV Live with internal storage or equivalent device from another manufacturer. Anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers

 

[daveh75]

What puts him off the idea of a NAS is that his internet isn't great, otherwise a NAS and TV Live would probably be a good solution

What do you mean By his internet not being great? The quality of a b/band connection has no bearing on the NAS or a LAN.

 

[dangalf]

Hi Dave,

I thought that you streamed stuff from your NAS to another network attached device such as your TV or WD TV Live to play them back. If his internet suffers drop outs wouldn't that interrupt the streaming?

 

[bigboss]

Depends on what's causing the internet to drop out.

 

[bigboss]

Check this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009L505OG/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B002R03ZDU&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1FMBK0ADXYZW62N7F5BW

 

[bigboss]

Also check out products from Popcorn Hour and Dune HD:

http://www.popcornhour.com.ph/pages/products.php

http://dune-hd.com/eng/products/full_hd_media_players

 

[The_Lhc]

Hi Dave,

I thought that you streamed stuff from your NAS to another network attached device such as your TV or WD TV Live to play them back. If his internet suffers drop outs wouldn't that interrupt the streaming?

Stop and think for a moment, why would it do that? The internet is what comes into your house from outside, if you're sending stuff from one device on your network to another device on your network why would you think that data would go outside of your house? It doesn't, it stays entirely within your own private network, so your broadband internet performance has no bearing on your internal network performance.

I'd have thought though that a simple USB drive connected to the USB port on the TV (if it has one, most do these days but got no indication of how old the TV is) would do the trick.

 

[kikiso]

He could be suffering from an issue with his wireless network. Could be a week signal, too far from the router, interference from a neighbours WiFi or another electrical or wireless device. Could just be a poor quality router, there are many around these days. I used to have an old gen Virgin Super Hub, pile of poo. We need more details. Also, a good way of measuring the quality of a WiFi signal is to use the freely available Inssider 3. This will also show what other WiFi signals are up to so that you can change your frequency if need be.

 

[dangalf]

Hi all, thanks for the input

@BigBoss - thanks for those suggestions, will take a closer look at them

@The_Lhc - Ok I guess the problem would be with his network in that case, but as he's not looking to make improvements to his network I would assume a NAS is a bad idea. In regards to using a simple USB drive I'm not sure how you would then browse and select the files? Presumably the TV will display all your files and folders depending on how you've arranged them on the USB drive. I will check to see if he has a USB input on his TV

@kikiso - as mentioned above he's not looking to improve his network performance at the moment. Ideally a device wired to the TV is what we're after.

Thanks for all the replies

 

[The_Lhc]

@The_Lhc - Ok I guess the problem would be with his network in that case,

But you don't know that, there might not be anything wrong with his network if it is actually his broadband connection at fault (most people would want to find out one way or the other).

but as he's not looking to make improvements to his network I would assume a NAS is a bad idea. In regards to using a simple USB drive I'm not sure how you would then browse and select the files? Presumably the TV will display all your files and folders depending on how you've arranged them on the USB drive.

Yes.

 

[dangalf]

Hi The_Lhc

True it would be useful to find out. What's the best way of testing this? Apologies for my complete lack of knowledge - I'm the perfect example of someone who regularly reads the forum but has very little know-how

Cheers,

 

[Trefor Patten]

Sounds like Lacie Fuel might fit the bill.