multimedia external hard drives

[Gerry Melon]

Hi folks, i'm looking for a external hard drives to store movies on and that will also play them through my telly. I've had a look around but don't really know what i'm doing. I have around £80 to spend so any advice would be tip top. Cheers Peeps.

 

[My Name is URL]

Check hotukdeals.... always loads listed on there.

 

[tek-monkey]

Don't suppose you have an Xbox 360? They make good media centers. Otherwsie the cheapest solution is a divx DVD player with USB I reckon.

 

[My Name is URL]

Sorry. misunderstood - thought you meant your TV could play movies through USB and you just needed an external HDD for it to play them from...

Are you saying you need an actual player?

 

[tek-monkey]

We have one of these at my GFs, can use USB sticks or portable hard drives. Only the externally powered ones though, the ones powered through the USB port don't get enough juice.

 

[db]

to clarify, g-unit is after an external HDD that will also act as a media player, so he can plug the device into his TV via scart and play any media content on the drive..

i've told him the best solution would be one of those sumvision DVD players for £28 from ebuyer, that play anything under the sun (divx, xvid, avi, mkv, yourmum, mymum, etc.) and then just buy a regular ext. HDD (western digital or whatev's) to archive stuff on.. i think the sumvision players will play off SD card, and his laptop has an SD card reader built-in, so all he would have to do is drag the movies he wants to watch from his external HDD onto the SD card, then bang the SD into the sumvision player..

does this sound like the best/cheapest solution to y'all? i don't know much about these things, cos i just use my wii to watch all my media streamed over wireless from the mac upstairs..

edit:

We have one of these at my GFs, can use USB sticks or portable hard drives. Only the externally powered ones though, the ones powered through the USB port don't get enough juice.

in fact, yeah, that's exactly the "sumvision thing" i'm talking about! lol

 

[tek-monkey]

It does indeed play everything I've tried, wasn't aware it did mkv though. Not that it really matters, everything I get is DiVX anyway.

 

[Mr X]

Anyone have an experience of these?

Just plug in a hard drive (don't know if it has to be a WD hard drive).

Apologies for a link to PCWorld but incredibly they are cheaper than Amazon for this product!

 

[tek-monkey]

Not used one, but supposed to do the same as the sumvision thing (without the DVD bit). Although the sumvision does 1080p I think.

 

[Mr X]

There is a 1080p version available which costs more - PCWorld's range is here, but I'm sure other brands are also available.

 

[db]

It does indeed play everything I've tried, wasn't aware it did mkv though. Not that it really matters, everything I get is DiVX anyway.

mkv is a container, divx is a codec, so they're two different things.. as in, you can have an mkv file that is encoded with divx (although they tend to be x.264)..

i assumed this thing could handle mkv, but as i say i don't know for sure as i've never really looked into it..

 

[My Name is URL]

This just showed up on HUKD

http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=186127&partner=aw&awc=2959_1284759904_31513f3d0350270c023a765f03a0a6da

 

[tek-monkey]

Heard good things about them, not used one though.

 

[tek-monkey]

This is meant to be alright too.

 

[tek-monkey]

I just ordered one of these, but they're out of stock at that price now. Didn't expect it TBH, play are crap with misprices, but its status now says posted

 

[Dawz]

there's one called popcorn hour. There very good but not cheap. Alternatively If you have a laptop, PC, Xbox or PS3 they will all do the job. You could probably get a 2nd hand xbox 360 rather cheaply now. Will give you a media streaming ability and double up for gaming. Win win situation.

do you have a 360, PS3, laptop or an old PC?

 

[tek-monkey]

The seagate thing I got rocks, not tried an mkv yet but seems happy enough with everything else we've thrown at it. Amazing price for a network streamer.