Play Shows Off Hard Drive To Television????

[GlamMetalChild]

I've been reading that WD TV Live is a good way to watch shows off a hard drive to watch on TV. Is WD TV any good? Is there anything better to use? I'm sick of buying blank discs and just want to watch from the source.

[JackDog]

I've had a WD TV Live for a while now (after having it recommended to me here) and I like it a lot. I haven't done anything with it besides use it to listen to flacs and watch downloaded videos and I typically only use it on the weekends, so my only problem with it is that I have to restart it most of the time when I first start using it (and by restart, I mean unplug and plug back in). Other than that small problem I recommend getting one.

[Silver Stallion DVDs]

You probably already have a tv, so this won't be of any immediate help. But for future knowledge - there are HD tvs out there that allow you to plug a hard drive into a USB port and then you use the remote control to search the hard drive for the show you want to watch. Short of streaming the video from your computer to your tv - it doesn't get much more direct than that.

[saltman]

Problem with that is the player in the TV is limited to certain formats. i.e. won't play mkv, flac, etc. only plays mp3, mpg, etc. This varies by manufacturer. I have seem some that play mkv but trip up if they have 24bit audio in them. Some don't do it at all.

[Silver Stallion DVDs]

Problem with that is the player in the TV is limited to certain formats. i.e. won't play mkv, flac, etc. only plays mp3, mpg, etc. This varies by manufacturer. I have seem some that play mkv but trip up if they have 24bit audio in them. Some don't do it at all.

I kind of figured that it goes without saying that you need to do your research before you buy and better yet - after doing your research - go to a store and test that TV model out to make sure it does what the manufacturer claims it can do.

[Homebrew101]

I play DVD VOB files thru my Sony Blu-ray player via USB drives. It isn't seamless when switching from 1 file to the next like it would be if you burned to DVD, it takes a second or so kind of like the 8 tracks switching tracks

[Unidecker]

i play everything off my hdds via my samsung smart tv and a few cool apps =)
who needs all that mess..

[spidergawd]

I use my PS3 for most things, but as already stated the files need to be in supported formats. hdmi cable from 'puter to tv, and spdif from 'puter to stereo works even better (I'm still using 1980's amplifier technology -- no hdmi input -- spdif goes through Tascam CDR700 -- did someone mention 8-tracks?).

[Homebrew101]

i play everything off my hdds via my samsung smart tv and a few cool apps =)
who needs all that mess..

^ I originally did the same on my Samsung plasma except that had less functionality = I couldn't fast forward/rewind the files but that works flawlessly through the BD player.

[shakey234]

I play DVD VOB files thru my Sony Blu-ray player via USB drives. It isn't seamless when switching from 1 file to the next like it would be if you burned to DVD, it takes a second or so kind of like the 8 tracks switching tracks
You can merge all the files into one big VOB with VOBMerge:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOBMerge