Would the 3.0 USB be a problem? I thought they were backward compatible. I have pictures in multiple folders that I’m trying to play as a slideshow and no tv or dvd player is recognizing the drive.
My Passport SSD 512
Hey @frankbama,
You should check compatible File Formats supported by your smart TV and make sure the drive is not formated to HFS+J (Mac OS Extended Journaled ).
Thank you. They are jpgs, supported by the TVs and DVD players. I’m using the drive straight out of the box, so I didn’t do any extra formatting or anything like that.
Things to check …
What format does your TV support ? … the drive is probably formatted exFAT if you’re using with a MAC/PC. Does your TV support exFAT ?
What partition table does your TV support ? … older TV’s only support MBR (Master Boot Record … up to 2TB) newer TV’s can support GPT (GUID Partition Table … up to and over 2TB)
So, which does your TV support … MBR or GPT or Both ?
Bottom line … Hard drive compatibility is hit and miss when it comes Smart TVs and DVD players. It will depend on the TV/DVD manufactuer what sort of hard drive storage / format/ capacity/ partition table it will support … as long as the Hard drive works with a PC or MAC that’s all that WD can do.
I will make a bet … if you have a 1GB or 2GB Flash Drive, format it FAT32 and making sure the Partition Table is MBR … it will work.
It’s formatting is new out of the box, so whatever it is out of the factory that’s what it is. I just dragged folders over from my laptop. The images are able to be seen on MAC and PC. This is a 512 GB Passport, just purchased 2 weeks ago. Any USB drive seems to work just fine, so in layman’s terms, is this passport likely “too new”? All the TVs are new within the last 5 years but not last year. DVD players who knows.
It’s most probably factory partitioned GPT and all your other drives are MBR.
But, can’t be 100% sure about that unless you actually check them yourself to try and find out what the difference is.
so if you actually check them … and discover the 512GB Passport is GPT partitioned and ALL your other Hard Drives are MBR partitioned … then that’s the problem. (which is easily fixed)
Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind. Of course the person who I bought it for now wants to return it.
