can we connect external hard drive?

[nbourbaki]

The Passport Wireless Pro is not capable of transcoding video. CPU's just way too weak for that. When I installed Plex, it disabled Twonky so perhaps you can only have one of them running at a time. Right now, I only have 10 videos in the Passport's Plex library. As I mentioned earlier, I'm still in the process of putting it through its paces not to mention I still need to convert my existing library to mobile friendly format for Direct Play. Dumping 1.85TB in one shot may be too much for Plex to process on the dual-core ARMv7 CPU.

You're correct that it will only run Twonky or PLEX at one time. I didn't turn on Twonky until PLEX just didn't function anymore. It's funny that it didn't have a problem with the service when I transferred 1,615 video files which amounted to 1.74TB, it was when I loaded my music which was 4,890 files and 80GB that Plex stopped working. Maybe I reached a limit, but I'll put a incident ticket in with WD and see if I can resolve the issue. If Plex can't handle the media library with the current hardware, I'd rather know what the limit is. Even if Plex can't handle my library I'm still loving the Wireless Pro, Twonky has no problem with the library size and with InFuse I'm able to stream AVC Bluray quality video without stutter on my iPad Air 1. Now I'm able to take my entire media library with me for travel without needing to bring my laptop and external drives. Awesome!

 

[rui no onna]

You're correct that it will only run Twonky or PLEX at one time. I didn't turn on Twonky until PLEX just didn't function anymore. It's funny that it didn't have a problem with the service when I transferred 1,615 video files which amounted to 1.74TB, it was when I loaded my music which was 4,890 files and 80GB that Plex stopped working. Maybe I reached a limit, but I'll put a incident ticket in with WD and see if I can resolve the issue. If Plex can't handle the media library with the current hardware, I'd rather know what the limit is. Even if Plex can't handle my library I'm still loving the Wireless Pro, Twonky has no problem with the library size and with InFuse I'm able to stream AVC Bluray quality video without stutter on my iPad Air 1. Now I'm able to take my entire media library with me for travel without needing to bring my laptop and external drives. Awesome!

Honestly, the 4,890 small audio files was probably more difficult to process than the 1,615 large video files. It's not so much the storage size of the library but the number of files in it. Mind, this seems to be a common problem. There seem to be plenty of folks in the Plex forums having issues with the Passport when adding large music libraries.

Honestly, I'm guessing it's mostly just adding to the database and initial metadata retrieval that's the issue. You could probably get around that limitation by adding media in batches. That said, if Twonky+InFuse already work great for you, I don't really see much point in forcing Plex to work.

 

[elf69]

Why would you expect a modern device like the iPad to be compatible with a legacy deprecated connection format like USB? Please move into this decade.

iPad is designed around wireless and cloud storage. For legacy connections and storage, see the Mac lineup.

All android tablets and phones support this and they are just as new as apple.
I use usb a lot in my job and personal life.
I download a file on one device for use in another USB is more practical then a wifi drive.
without wifi/3g cloud is useless so I do not use cloud.
Plus wifi drives tend to use alot of battery and if out without power you could be in trouble.
Ipad has amazing battery so no probs there.

Technically, there's already a Lightning to USB camera adapter for transferring photos. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll get any official support for other types of usage as Apple seems firmly against providing traditional file system access.

Camera adaptor has limitations.
Has to have a DCIM folder and only data in that folder is seen.

 

[M. Gustave]

All android tablets and phones support this and they are just as new as apple.
I use usb a lot in my job and personal life.
I download a file on one device for use in another USB is more practical then a wifi drive.

If you use outdated tech like USB thumb drives and wires for everything still, then why buy and complain about an iPad, knowing it doesn't support them?

You seem like a perfect candidate for a pc/Mac.

 

[elf69]

I'm not complaining.

I have android tablets.
I like ipads as alot superior in alot of ways but the usb support is a deal breaker.

we all have our own likes and dislikes.
I would love to move to ipad/iphone in alot of ways they are better.

but usb and mhl is a must for me.