Movies from external hard drive storage to TV?

[TVQ1]

We have several old movies on an external hard drive storage. We'd like to be able to watch them while we are out and about. We don't want to stream them.

We have a TV and a DVD player, but the DVD doesn't have a USB. I'm happy to buy a new DVD player--but do they make one that has a USB port?

As you can likely tell--I'm pretty tech impaired! 😉

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks

[TenOC]

MrWizard wrote:
Yes just buy a $49 Blu Ray DVD player with USB port on the front
I have loads of movies on external hard drives and do this

VS

ford truck guy wrote:

TenOC wrote:
Check out WD TV Live.

I have a WD TV that I keep in my RV . . That along with 2 external hard drives, I always have 200+ movies at my finger tips...

I do not want to hijack the posting, but I would like a discussion of these two options. My WD Live that I have had for a number of years is getting "sick" I am looking for a replacement but the DVD player may be a cheaper way to go.

Does the DVD player play most common movie/tv format.

[TVQ1]

The tv is a Continu.us brand, model CT-3210 I don't know if it's "smart" or not! I'm sure it's a low end model.

I have movies in different formats, but most I have converted to the correct format to stream to our Apple TV--which is at home, not in our RV.

[AllegroD]

What format are the movies in? What model TV?

[TVQ1]

Thank you all for your help! My husband is off to see if our current DVD player and/or TV has a USB port. If not--Im thinking the simple solution is to buy an inexpensive DVD/Blueray player. We don't have a disc drive on any of our Macs--they seem be a thing of the past.

Now I just have to figure out which format to use--our movies are all formatted to stream on our Apple TV. But it's easy enough to re-format the ones we want to watch.

Thanks again,
TVQ1

[MrWizard]

Yes just buy a $49 Blu Ray DVD player with USB port on the front

I have loads of movies on external hard drives and do this

But understand if the movies came from a TiVo or cable DVR
They might be encrypted and not playable

If they are playable on your pc
You are probably safe and can play them on any new player with USB port

[ford_truck_guy]

TenOC wrote:
Check out WD TV Live. I know it will be an extra box. I like using the laptop connected to TV with HDMI better. Then use VLC a free program to play the movies.

My Son's smart TV plays movies by connecting a external HD to the USB port on the smart TV

I have a WD TV that I keep in my RV . . That along with 2 external hard drives, I always have 200+ movies at my finger tips... the WD box is really only about 3" square, and comes with all the connecting wires needed to hook up to the hard drive.

[Winnebago_Bob]

I use a 4TB HDD to store all movies and TV shows. I run them through an
LG BluRay player.

We also have a Samsung BluRay player that does the same thing.

The only 'problem' we ran into was formatting the HDD to FAT32. No problem really. Just use a disk utility and let her rip.

Also, any USB stick will work as long as it's formatted FAT32. ExFAT and NTFS are no-go. Windows 10 will tell you there is something wrong with the drive but will allow file management with no issues. It just doesn't understand FAT32.

[RoyB]

I suspect the storage device will have to be pretty large as a single two hour movie can be as much as a 1GB I think I have heard...

Just from my poor memory...

Something to ask the crowd here...

Roy Ken

[DancinCampers]

If you are only talking about a couple of movies, might be better to just burn a few DVD's, if your laptop is capable.

Our Samsung tv will play from a usb stick, which is what I do.

[Sandia_Man]

The easiest solution we found was to copy our movies from hard drive to USB memory stick, they will hold several movies at a time and are so small they can be carried on a keychain. As you stated you will need a device with a USB input such as a DVD player, and connect your hard drive as you would with your laptop.

[TenOC]

Check out WD TV Live. I know it will be an extra box. I like using the laptop connected to TV with HDMI better. Then use VLC a free program to play the movies.

My Son's smart TV plays movies by connecting a external HD to the USB port on the smart TV

[TVQ1]

The movies are on an external hard drive--not on my lap top. The hard drive doesn't have a spot for an HDMI cable. It plugs in to my laptop via a USB cable. I was hoping to be able to go from the External hard drive directly to the TV, WITHOUT using my laptop in any way. (Or external HD to DVD player to TV)

Am I explaining myself OK? As I mentioned--I'm not the most tech savvy old lady ;}

Or is what I'm wanting to do just impossible?

Thanks again.....

[horton333]

TVQ1 wrote:
We have several old movies on an external hard drive storage. We'd like to be able to watch them while we are out and about. We don't want to stream them.

We have a TV and a DVD player, but the DVD doesn't have a USB. I'm happy to buy a new DVD player--but do they make one that has a USB port?

As you can likely tell--I'm pretty tech impaired! 😉

Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks

Even a lot of the older DVD players can play from the USB, almost all the new ones do. Check the local store, they can show you lots.

[gemert]

Plug hard drive into laptop. Run HDMI from laptop to TV. Or did I misunderstand?