External or Portable Hard Drive?

aDzii · 12 Jun 2008 at 18:44

Well, gonna reformat my pc soon and need to buy an external hardrive but i also thought about connecting it to my tv which (when i get it) will have a usb 2.0 slot, so do i need a portable hard drive because it will be used for view files on my tv and backing files up on my pc or do i just need an external one?

any idea?

thanks, adz

helmutcheese · 12 Jun 2008 at 18:54

Advise you make sure that TV can actually play Media from its USB Socket, most are only there to perform Firmware Upgrades.

aDzii · 12 Jun 2008 at 20:03

well you might be able to tell me, its the new samsung 6 series tv, the 40 inch model, im sure it can be used to view pictures so i was going to try it with other types of media since i was going to purchase a hd anyway

rpstewart · 12 Jun 2008 at 20:21

Portable = 2.5" HDD based USB interface and USB powered
External = 3.5" HDD based; USB, eSATA or Firewire interface; mains powered via a brick

Both provide the same functionality in different ways.

errata · 16 Jun 2008 at 12:55

I would be surprised if the TV could power a portable drive, they tend to be used for displaying jpegs from a flash drive or sometimes recording from an onboard digital tuner.

It may be worth looking for a media player enclosure if you realy want a guarantee on playback into the tv's AV sockets