I have a large selection of DVDs,photos etc that I wish to store on a hard drive.I also would like to be able to connect a unit to my TV so I can access the stored DVDs,photos.Can someone recommend which WD system would best suit my needs.Hopefully this post is in the correct section,new member in Ireland.
It mostly depends on the TV…
But, most of the Smartware-equipped, password-capable drives (such as the My Passports and the My Books) tend to only work when connected to a computer, not to other USB-capable devices.
So, with the exception of the “Passport AV” which should work, you’d pretty much be looking at one of the “Elements” line, although even then the formatting on the drive has to match what the TV expects – you might have to reformat the drive before you start filling it.
Thanks for the reply.My TV is a basic Sony flat screen not HD ready.Would this make a differance in what I get.My plan was to upload my DVDs etc to my laptop and then tranfer them to a WD unit,connecting this to my TV via a HDML cable.
Hi There, I bought a WD 2tb external harddrive to back up all my movies and pics and be able to watch them on TV. I have had to copy each movie 1 by 1 on the computer using a programme called DVD SHRINK or another one called DVD FAB. Save the movie into a new blank foder then back that folder up straight to the external harddrive and it plays back on the TV. If you need anymore info on how to just call.
Hi , I am in Australia and just bought a WD 2tb external harddrive for the same reason. I backed up all my movies and pics to play back on the TV and all is well. Because my TV does not have a USB port I had to buy the harddrive with a built in media player in it and plut it into the TV using the red, white and yellow cables. Any DVD player is also a media player so you can plug the external harddrive straight into that. I used the programme DVD SHRINK to copy each movie 1 by 1 and save into a folder which is named the same name as the movie. Then I backed that folder up to the external harddrive and watch the movies.
I bought a 1TB LiveHub in February and went through the laborious task of converting to MKV files using MakeMKV (its free and very good). The Hub can be connected usuing analogue connections to your TV (as it is not HD ready). Assuming each DVD is 3Gig you can hold over 300 of them.
As well as storing your DVDs the Hub is a media player and can play them as well. In addition you get access to on-line content . At the moment most of the TV is pretty average (You Tube, Facebook etc) but in the future you’ll be able to get Netflix and Love film and fingers crossed BBC i-player (maybe not applicable to ireland). Note that if you upgarge in the future to bluray/ HD you might find the 1TB storage is not enough - an hour of home HD video takes up about 7Gig. You can however bolt on additional storage - I added a 1TB Elements box last month and that should keep me going for a while.
