How to playback on TV...?

[MtheG]

Please forgive my ignorance...I copied/backed up some favorite movies from the DVD on to a WD External hard drive...I thought I would be able to play them back on my TV directly via the HD, I cannot...I converted the "Full Disc" files on the HD to MP4, still cannot play back on TV. Tried ripping from DVD straight to MP4, still won't play on the TV...
Is there a specific "system"/"method" for playing back on the TV from an external drive...is it just not possible?...or?
Thanks for any advice suggestions,
M

[october262]

You need to check the manual for your TV to see
What formats your TV will play, What do you have the
External hard drive formatted as ?? (NTFS or fat32)

[3dman]

Did you tune you TV to the Tv'S video input?

[MtheG]

You need to check the manual for your TV to see
What formats your TV will play, What do you have the
External hard drive formatted as ?? (NTFS or fat32)

Hi,
Well I just tried to play a movie again and it looks as though the WD external drive has decided to call it quits!! Perhaps it was going out for a while, that's why it wouldn't work...anyway I have to see if I can recover the files on there.

But can you tell me...if I copy movies via the DVDfab 'copy' 'full disc' utility, OR if I 'rip' from a DVD in MP4, on to an (good!) external drive, are they supposed to be able to play on the TV directly from the drive? (The TV manual lists all the formats that DVDfab has)
Thanks for your time
M

[MtheG]

Did you tune you TV to the Tv'S video input?

Hi,
I have a 'home theater' system, so there are several ways to set up to play USB devices etc., I tried playing it with the WD drive connected to a 'Roku' media player, and it DID see the folders and all the sub-folders and got all the way to the 'play' button...and that was it...there was an error message, but I don't remember it verbatim (I just went to refresh my memory and the WD drive has suddenly stopped working all together, wouldn't come on at all!) So now to try and recover the files
Thank you for your time
M

[cookiebuttercup]

May be is the power of your TV's USB port cannot supply enough power to run your WD HDD. Try copy it to a USB flash drive.

[cholla]

My TV has a USB port so I connect direct to it. Occasionally I get a message it doesn't support a certain codec but it plays most A/V files.
Try one of the .MP4's you have on a flash drive.
Plug the flash drive in where you had the external HD plugged in.
If it plays the problem is probably the HD .
I guess cookiebuttercup & I were typing the same advice at the same time.

The problem may be in the external case or adapter. There are different "chips" on some that don't work with all devices.
Try the WD drive on your computer & see if it works.

@cookiebuttercup , The external HD I use has a "wall wart" so power from the TV USB port is not a problem.

[MtheG]

May be is the power of your TV's USB port cannot supply enough power to run your WD HDD. Try copy it to a USB flash drive.

I guess whatever I did whilst trying to get the drive to play on the TV was not good! The drive doesn't even show up in W7....I just spent almost 2 days recovering almost 2.5TB's of files with EaseUS Data Recovery...

[MtheG]

My TV has a USB port so I connect direct to it. Occasionally I get a message it doesn't support a certain codec but it plays most A/V files.
Try one of the .MP4's you have on a flash drive.
Plug the flash drive in where you had the external HD plugged in.
If it plays the problem is probably the HD .
I guess cookiebuttercup & I were typing the same advice at the same time.

The problem may be in the external case or adapter. There are different "chips" on some that don't work with all devices.
Try the WD drive on your computer & see if it works.

@cookiebuttercup , The external HD I use has a "wall wart" so power from the TV USB port is not a problem.

Hi, I tried plugging the USB into the TV itself, into the blu-ray player of the home theater and finally into the Roku media player...which was the only thing that even came close to playing...the drive WAS working fine on the computer (before I tried it on the TV)
...now to get the recovered files on to another HD and try again...!

Thanks for responding

M

[cholla]

Hi MtheG ,

How did you use EaseUS Data Recovery on a drive that isn't working ?

I know you have already recovered the bad drive so that is good.
Did you install the bad drive in another hard drive enclosure ?

Also since the TV appears to have damaged the drive.
I suggest using an external drive enclosure with its' own power supply(wall wart).
Instead of letting the TV supply the power; if that is the type of hard drive enclosure you are using .
I have a hard drive that uses the USB port to power it but I've never used it on my TV.
I guess I will try it sometime & see if it works.
The one I use all the time for my TV is a Rosewill enclosure with a 500GB WD hard drive inside. It has a wall wart for power.

I also still suggest testing a flash drive to see if the TV can play a video from it.

[MtheG]

Hi MtheG ,

How did you use EaseUS Data Recovery on a drive that isn't working ?

I know you have already recovered the bad drive so that is good.
Did you install the bad drive in another hard drive enclosure ?

Also since the TV appears to have damaged the drive.
I suggest using an external drive enclosure with its' own power supply(wall wart).
Instead of letting the TV supply the power; if that is the type of hard drive enclosure you are using .
I have a hard drive that uses the USB port to power it but I've never used it on my TV.
I guess I will try it sometime & see if it works.
The one I use all the time for my TV is a Rosewill enclosure with a 500GB WD hard drive inside. It has a wall wart for power.

I also still suggest testing a flash drive to see if the TV can play a video from it.

Hi cholla,

I'm not too conversant with this stuff (as you can tell) but I did try backing a movie on to a flash drive and it did indeed play IN THE TV but after navigating to the VIDEO_TS.VOB files, it played them out of sequence, I guess in the order that DVDFab copied them...so that the first file played was actually one of the 'special features'...my Home Theater recognized the 'USB' device and allowed me to get to the individual VIDEO_TS.VOB files but at that point said 'cannot play this file'!

I removed the drive that I described as dead from the enclosure...removed the "board" etc. and attached it to the computer as a regular 3TB HD. (I use a "Universal Hard Drive Adapter" by Apricorn to connect the "bare" drive to the computer) and the it actually showed up in the EaseUS program as an empty, "unallocated" drive, everything was missing, the files and even the drive letter...

...so I followed the links to the "EaseUS Data Recovery" not knowing whether or not it would do any good and lo and behold it actually seems to have "recovered" everything (over 45 hours to do it but....)

...now to actually GET those files onto another HD is gonna cost me (at least) $69 (EaseUS Data Recovery is only free for a very small amount of data) and of course the cost of another dependable external drive...about $179.00 for a 6TB...my quandary is deciding if it's worth the money and the hassle...

...or would it be more cost effective and simpler just to back up my movies the "old fashioned" way... to DVD's...?

I haven't heard of your solution...a Rosewill enclosure with an independent power supply... but I'm certainly going to check it out...so thanks for that suggestion...

M

[cholla]

Hi MtheG ,
Thanks for the information on how you did the recovery.
The "Universal Hard Drive Adapter" by Apricorn looks like a good tool to have.
I looked for it online but overall it seems unavailable.
I can externally connect all my hard drives so I don't need it now but I could in the future.

Too bad "EaseUS Data Recovery" charges for over a small amount of data.
I've been very fortunate & never had a hard drive fail.
So I've never had to recover data from one meaning I have no experience .

I usually check https://sharewareonsale.com everyday . Today they just happened to have a "data recovery" software . The way the site works is they offer usually paid software for free for a limited time.
The software is "iCare Data Recovery Pro [for PC]".
As I have never use it or any other "data recovery" software .
It isn't a recommendation . It may or may not be a good software.
I thought it might give you a free alternative.

I've done a bit of testing & this is what I've found.
I tried my Samsung S2 - 250GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive
It gets power from the USB port.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-S2-250GB-Portable-Midnight/dp/B001IBI07K

When I tried it on my TV it would work for about 60 seconds on a video file then start over. I believe this was the power to it from the TV not being enough.It still works fine on my computer.

This is the Rosewill enclousure I usually use:
Rosewill Aluminum 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 External Enclosure RX35-AT-SU

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Aluminum-3-5-Inch-Enclosure-BLK/dp/B004K4TE5O

It has an independent power supply.
There are many brands of this type enclosure & this on is only USB 2.0 .
I'm sure there are USB 3.0 available if you need one.

Using DVDFab 10.0.39 DVD Copy I ripped a "Full Disc" to an internal hard drive .
I then used DVD Ripper to convert this to .MP4 .
I've tried several different settings on the .MP4s & none will play from USB on my TV.
This is from a flash drive or my Rosewill.
I get "Audio codec not supported" & "Video codec not supported" warning on my TV.
That is this TVs normal warning when it can't play a file.

Then I tried a .MKV conversion . The .MKV file worked with no problem .

This is information from Mediainfo.
This is the .MP4 video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L3

This is the .MKV video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1

Close but not exactly the same both are x264 core 142.

Audio .MKV
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Channel(s) : 6 channels

Audio .MP4
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Channel(s) : 6 channels

Again very similar but the Codec ID is different & I don't know what the difference is.

So you mught try to covert to .MKV & see how that works for you.