Question Best USB Flash Drive or other recommended storage media for movies ?

[willifer707]

I plan on going on trips, visiting, etc. (Camping) I like to store 4k resolution, or high quality movies on a Flash Drive, or whatnot and use on the TV or connect via Laptop.
Can anyone recommend me a good quality, high speed Flash Drive, or any other storage I can connect to the laptop or TV?

Currently have my eyes on the *SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO USB 3.2 Solid State Flash Drive*
However, I'd like to hear other options before I bite the bullet.

Thanks <3

 

[Lutfij]

You could look into a high capacity external SSD, as opposed to a pen drive. What sort of a budget do you have set aside and what is your preferred site for purchase?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Unless physical space is at an absolute premium, I'd say get a portable SSD. 1TB ones from Samsung and SanDisk go for around $60-$70 USD.

 

[Firestone]

Definitely SSD. Prices are falling a lot, you can get a SATA or M.2 internal SSD for a good price and then stick it in a USB enclosure. Super easy.

 

[Firestone]

use on the TV

be warned that TV's will rarely ever be able to play movie video files you downloaded on your computer natively.

Your best bet is to just use your laptop.

Honestly though, for travel purposes, I think you need to evaluate what size and weight requirements you have. If you can ditch the laptop completely, your luggage will benefit. What I have ended up doing, is just loading movies on the internal storage of my phone (Pixel 6 Pro 6.8" screen size) and just play movies on my phone. Bring a little phone stand to help hold it for viewing.

If you can bump up a little in size, a recent model iPad could be used instead.

In both cases, you could also use an "OTG" USB Flash drive (important that the drive is listed as "OTG" On The Go and rated as compatible with iOS / Android) and plug it into your phone; Android and iOS should both be able to play movies this way with something like the VLC app. Note that most "normal" USB Flash drives will not work with mobile devices due to their higher power requirements.

On previous trips in the past, I just dug up an older Android phone with a large-enough screen plus microSD card, and loaded that with movies and used it as a dedicated movie-player.

There are a lot of options, ultimately it depends on how exactly you want to watch the movies, what screen size is acceptable to you, and how much extra luggage you are OK with taking.

One other thing I do a lot for travel, is to bring a "Chromecast with Google TV" with me

https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv?hl=en-US

This device has an advantage in that you can set it up at home, log in to all your streaming services ahead of time, then when you reach your destination, you only need to plug it in and connect to Wifi and have access to your streaming content. Downsides include; requires a separate power cable that might not be long enough to reach the hotel TV, requires Wifi connection and streaming, not sure if its possible to play movies from USB drives. But, for the gf and I, this device has been perfect for a ton of AirBnb stays.