Playing videos directly from an external hard drive

06-05-2012 1:39pm #1

I was wondering if there are any tablets out there which can play videos/movies directly from a hard drive.

I have around 120GB of videos (for university) on a HD and need to be able to watch different ones at different times without going to the hassle of transferring them on to the tablet.

Does such a thing exist?

the_syco · 06-05-2012 1:53pm

Would the harddrive be in a PC? Or are you looking to directly connect the harddriveto the Android device?

Professey Chin · 06-05-2012 1:57pm

Ive an Iconia A500 which can play directly from a USB stick. Dunno about a full size HD though

Just tried to mount a portable and couldnt

06-05-2012 2:02pm

Its a direct connection between a standard external HD and the tablet.

Is it true that even if a tablet had a USB port, it probably wouldn't be powerful enough to power the HD? Any exceptions?

mossie · 06-05-2012 3:32pm

51533823 wrote: »

Its a direct connection between a standard external HD and the tablet.

Is it true that even if a tablet had a USB port, it probably wouldn't be powerful enough to power the HD? Any exceptions?

My Acer A510 powers an external HD (Seagate 500GB) no problem.

06-05-2012 4:13pm

mossie wrote: »

My Acer A510 powers an external HD (Seagate 500GB) no problem.

Great, can it play videos which are on the external HD?

ED E · 06-05-2012 5:46pm

Firstly, if its 120GB then I guess you're using uncompressed footage, unless there is a LOT of it. Try compressing it all to h264 so its not so huge.

Next I'd say, yes, you can do this, but depending on where you're using it DNLA would be a much cleaners solution. If its around the house, hook the drive up to a PC/laptop and set up a DNLA server, done. You'll be able to just stream over wifi.

If thats not possible, you need something with USB OTG capability, like the Iconia. BUUUT, powering the drive off USB may or may not work, and will drain battery like a fúcker. I'd try compression + a USB key, smaller profile and less power draw.

06-05-2012 6:29pm

ED E wrote: »

Firstly, if its 120GB then I guess you're using uncompressed footage, unless there is a LOT of it. Try compressing it all to h264 so its not so huge.

Next I'd say, yes, you can do this, but depending on where you're using it DNLA would be a much cleaners solution. If its around the house, hook the drive up to a PC/laptop and set up a DNLA server, done. You'll be able to just stream over wifi.

If thats not possible, you need something with USB OTG capability, like the Iconia. BUUUT, powering the drive off USB may or may not work, and will drain battery like a fúcker. I'd try compression + a USB key, smaller profile and less power draw.

Great, thanks.

Yea there's a couple of hundred hours of footage (its a review course). Its all in .f4v format at the moment so it will have to be converted anyway. So while I'm doing that I might try to compress too.

ferrigan101 · 06-05-2012 9:19pm

my asus transformer prime powers and reads from a 1tb drive no problem.

edit - I should say that's only been tested while it's going through the keyboard dock.

AntiRip · 06-05-2012 9:25pm

You can get USB /SD adapter kit for SGT 10.1 that can connect USB sticks but mixed reviews on hdd's. For the ac powered drives a powered hub did the trick.