Stream from hard drive directly to TV

[From A Buick 8]

Is there any way to load movies on a hard drive and stream them to a TV. I know i can do this through iTunes using an atv. Is there any other way, my daughter at school was asking. Are there any hard drive players with HDMI out.

 

[warvanov]

There's lots of ways to play content on the TV, but as far as I know it's not really possible to go directly hard drive to TV. You need some sort of device connected to that hard drive, or a device with an internal hard drive (like a Mac) to actually decode and play the content.

 

[From A Buick 8]

There's lots of ways to play content on the TV, but as far as I know it's not really possible to go directly hard drive to TV. You need some sort of device connected to that hard drive, or a device with an internal hard drive (like a Mac) to actually decode and play the content.

I was thinking the same thing, is there a box that you can hook a drive to that has an HDMI out. Thinking something with the footprint of a roku or ATV ( also same price point).

 

[fridgeymonster3]

I was thinking the same thing, is there a box that you can hook a drive to that has an HDMI out. Thinking something with the footprint of a roku or ATV ( also same price point).

WD TV Live HD does exactly that. It doesn't have the nearly as nice an interface as an ATV, but it'll play basically any file you throw at it.

 

[Mrbobb]

WD TV Live HD does exactly that. It doesn't have the nearly as nice an interface as an ATV, but it'll play basically any file you throw at it.

Does OP wants exactly that, or was it un-precised communication?

HD directly hooked up to player = would be like a static library and any update requires one to unplug... update, re-plug, unless the HD is accessible through the LAN.

 

[From A Buick 8]

Yes just load the hd with stuff and let her take it to school

 

[From A Buick 8]

WD TV Live HD does exactly that. It doesn't have the nearly as nice an interface as an ATV, but it'll play basically any file you throw at it.

Thie WD TV Live does look like what she was asking for, of course now she said it would be nice if it also streamed Netflix. Looks like the WD TV will stream you tube, but not Netflix

 

[waw74]

the top of the line roku (still only $99) has a USB port, you can plug an external hard drive into there, the big thing to keep in mind is file formats, you're going to be limited as to what will play.

USB Media Formats

Video: MP4 (H.264) MKV (H.264)
Audio: AAC, MP3
Image: JPG, PNG

-----

Looks like the WD TV will stream you tube, but not Netflix

we must not be going to the same WD live page, as the first thing listed is netflix

it does look like the western digital supports more file formats for local video.


also big thing to keep in mind, if she's buying these videos from iTunes, they will only play on an apple device.

 

[Mrbobb]

the big thing to keep in mind is file formats, you're going to be limited as to what will play..

Yikes.

That limited codec why my "semi-smart" TV can already do those. They want $99 from me, they gotta do better.

 

[From A Buick 8]

This will be a 2 tb ext drive filled with movies and TV shows from my personal collection of DVD's. I allready have these ripped an encoded for play through itunes on our home Apple TV's.

I have a roku device, i was not aware i could attach an ext drive to it. I may just give her that. I did not see a way to play movies from local content on the roku menu.