Posted 1 day ago
Best way to watch hard drive on TV?
I have a hard drive with lots of films on it, but it’s not compatible for plug and play with my Phillips tv, my Xbox or my PlayStation (probably wrong format).
I can attach it to my laptop and play through that, but it’s difficult and a faff and my hdmi cables don’t stretch that far out of my built in tv unit.
Don’t particularly want to reformat 1tb of hdd as I don’t own the films anywhere else, so I’ll lose them.
Looking it up online I found a website saying the old Roku/now tv box has a usb port and can play it, but I can’t find any mention of that feature online when I look up the old models.
Aside from buying a small Pc unit, are there any other simple options I’ve overlooked?
I can attach it to my laptop and play through that, but it’s difficult and a faff and my hdmi cables don’t stretch that far out of my built in tv unit.
Don’t particularly want to reformat 1tb of hdd as I don’t own the films anywhere else, so I’ll lose them.
Looking it up online I found a website saying the old Roku/now tv box has a usb port and can play it, but I can’t find any mention of that feature online when I look up the old models.
Aside from buying a small Pc unit, are there any other simple options I’ve overlooked?
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19 Comments
sorted byWhen you say the drive is 'not compatible' how exactly is it failing to work? If it sees there's a drive attached but doesn't show any files then it may be something about the files that it's not compatible with, while if it doesn't see the drive at all then it's more likely to be an incompatible filesystem or similar.
Without identifying the specific incompatibility it's going to be hard to guarantee which option will be compatible.
Does need an internet connection though and might not be as smooth as just getting a dedicated unit for the films but might be the cheapest way.
If your TV has its own hard drive you should be able to transfer files over to it (filezilla?) - you may need to use VLC or whatever to convert the file format to one the TV will play.
if you get a firestick, sideload kodi and then you could stream the files from the drive connected to your laptop to your tv. plenty of guides to explain the processes. this is a popular method. plex is another option that works in a similar way
or get a cheap andriod box with kodi, connect the drive by usb and that will work. even a pretty old android box would be fine as long as you aren't playing 4k stuff. the type of old boxes that people like myself have sitting around unused after upgrading to 4k. checkout ebay or cex etc
main downside with firesticks is not having the usb option to connect the drive. the firebox things may do it, but even using a splitter cable i couldn't get my firestick to work that way
Try a jail-broken Firestick, maybe?
I've got one with a 500gb hd of films attached. It involved a bit of Linux command line kung-fu and a USB on-the-go cable, and I'm not sure if modern Firesticks allow the same hacks. (edited)
i have a netbook and set it up with media streaming and my tv (LG CX) can play the files directly
as can VLC on my fire stick
howtogeek.com/215…er/
for a chromecast i can open the file on my phone and then cast it to chromecast and it will open vlc on the chromecast
for firestick or the new chromecast with google tv you can get a usb2go dongle that will allow both power and access to usb
amazon.co.uk/ELK…8-1
firestick is more flexible
you could get an android box which will have usb port but most of them don't do netflix at good resolutions as don't have the rights
amazon.co.uk/And…-11
and often contain malware
a nokia box was one opton i was looking at that had licences and all the ports
amazon.co.uk/Nok…8-1 (edited)
I’m going to try the firestick usb option as I have vlc on my firestick already. Tried casting from my laptop, but the quality wasn’t great for some reason and it was really buggy.
If that doesn’t work, I’ll buy another hard drive as someone suggested, format it, and transfer the files over.
If all else fails, I’ll look into the Nokia box