Using external HDD on Panasonic TVs

[alexanderfc]

After reading a lot about how to do this around the web I have kept to what Panasonic require to play videos from an external HDD.

Firstly, I have a WD My Passport Ultra 2TB

I formatted the drive completely so it uses FAT32 with a cluster size of 32K.

But to no avail, the TV is recognising the presence of a USB but the Media Player still says "No Device Found"

Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[legokill101]

Does this drive have a power brik? or is it run off of usb alone?

 

[alexanderfc]

Does this drive have a power brik? or is it run off of usb alone?

It gets its power from the USB

 

[legokill101]

ok what is likely is the usb port does not provide enough power your options are either to get external drive that plugs into the wall or to get one of these http://www.amazon.com/PCD-Universal-Adapter-Female-Connector/dp/B0041CFFBM/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1429202393&sr=1-2&keywords=usb+splitter plug one of hte conectors into the TV and another into a usb charger that runs at 5V

 

[alexanderfc]

Surely if it says 'USB Device Detected' and the light on the front flashes, there is enough power going to the HDD.

 

[legokill101]

nope not nessasrly it just means its enough for the chip the is responible for comunication to turn on rember hard drives can consume up to an amp or so at 5v at the instant of stratup and a lot of TV usb ports are limited to 100 mA

 

[alexanderfc]

According to threads around the web my HDD is compatible with Panasonic TVs, where others have successfully had them work. And these are on older models of Panasonic TVs to mine.

 

[legokill101]

Well I am assuming that you can see it if you conect it to your computer?

 

[alexanderfc]

Yes I can.

 

[legokill101]

one last trick try partitioning the drive into smaller partitions lets say two 1TB partitions. Also How big are the files? I almost forgot that FAT cant do files larger then 4gb

 

[alexanderfc]

That did just spring to my mind. I'll give that a go now and let you know...

It's saying "Initializing Data Area" and has been for a while, what does this mean and does it normally take this long?

 

[legokill101]

no clue but let it finish

 

[alexanderfc]

So, after all of that... It works! shame the videos (avi) don't play well AT ALL!

Any suggestion on this?

 

[legokill101]

Try converting them to a lower overhead format like MP4

 

[alexanderfc]

I've given up! MP4s don't work. Just have to play via a laptop.