USB slot on TV questions

kraggy

Hey,

Looking to buy a 32 inch tv and was wondering if I should pay the extra few bob for a tv with usb slot.

My first question is, if I have a movie of size 700mb on a usb, and stick it into the tv, will the quality be as good as if I played the movie on my laptop?

i.e. Does quality decrease with the greater the size of display?

Secondly, do tvs with usb slots play all formats such as mpeg/mpeg 4/avi or just a particular format?

Thanks.

kirving

On one TV I have you can't play movies from a USB key.
On another you can only record to the USB device if it's over 120Gb in capacity, and you can't open files above 4Gb at all.

If the screen is the same size, the quality should be the same, or better then your laptop in some cases if the TV has the ability to enhance the picture quality, or has a good upscaling engine to bring a "HD Ready" picture up to "Full HD". Obviously when the resolution stays the same and the screen size is increased, the pixels will be bigger.

My Sony TV doesn't play .mkv files. I'm fairly sure this is because Sony own movies studios, and there is one reason .mkv files are used. :cool: Plays most other stuff however, and I can convert a .mkv file on the computer in minutes. I think Samsungs are more open as regards file formats.

In short, the various things you have asked will depend on the particular TV you are looking at, as a USB slot can be used for a multitude of things. If you are unsure, post up the model number and you'll get an answer here.

coylemj

Download the spec. sheet from the manufacturer's website, that should tell you what movie file formats are supported.

If they're not listed in the spec. sheet you'll probably have to download the user's manual, it should be listed in the 'Specifications' section.

kraggy

Ok thanks guys.

Will have a look for the model no. when I'm in the shop at the weekend. It's a not-well-known Korean make so will have to ask instore as well.

But in the meantime, would you say that in general, more tvs with usb slots don't play the main formats than those that do? Or vice versa?

Thanks.

ednwireland

my new 46" samsung plays hd dts encoded mkv files off an external hard drive plugged into it (wont play mp3's from my home server :mad: )

coylemj

kraggy wrote: »

Will have a look for the model no. when I'm in the shop at the weekend. It's a not-well-known Korean make so will have to ask instore as well.

Do not ask a technical question like that off a sales guy on the shop floor, he will tell you what you want to hear and if there's any argy bargy later on he will deny telling you what he did.

If they're selling oddball brands, chances are that they won't have a clue anyway. Product education for sales staff is probably very poor compared to LG, Samsung etc., the shop is probably buying them direct from a distributor in Dubai or India.

Get the model no. and check the specs. on the manufacturers website.

Dazzling D

Format support is very flaky on all manufacturers. There are no hard and fast rules and not one brand supports all files across all their sets. You are better off getting a media player or using something like Freemake to transcode so your TV understands the file.

Dazzling D

Kevin Irving wrote: »

My Sony TV doesn't play .mkv files. I'm fairly sure this is because Sony own movies studios, and there is one reason .mkv files are used. :cool:

My Sony BDP-S480 supports mkv through USB.:cool: