Unsupported USB on DVD player?

flobadob | 21:56 Sat 03rd Jan 2009 | Technology

4 Answers

I bought a DVD player with a USB port on it so that I can watch my divx films on the tv. The DVD player works fine when I am plugging in a 2GB pen drive USB card and it plays the films. However when I try to link my Philips 500GB external hard drive up to the USB port on the DVD player it says "Unsupported USB" and I can't access any of the stuff on the hard drive. I know that I can copy and paste from the 500GB to the 2GB but would there be any way to sort it so that the DVD player can see what's on the 500GB hard drive?

keep my number

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ChuckFickens

Probably not...

A lot of the USB port on devices like that only support flash drives, not actual hard drives.

I've not checked for that model, but the general rule is to assume they will only support usb memory sticks unless it states otherwise

flobadob

Question Author

Cheers chuck. I had a wee look through the constructions there and it says it supports up to a 1GB memory stick but it is playing my 2GB stick so I suppose that's a bonus.

fo3nix

I'd check a few things:

1) Make sure the drive is powered. It probably can't get enough power from USB alone.

2) Check the filesystem being used with the drive. Make sure it's formatted to FAT32. Something else (may be NTFS for example, if you use Windows) may not be readable by the DVD player.

wideboy

I've had similar problems with lots of devices and external hard drives. As fo3nix says, the most common problem is that Fat32 has to be the filesystem on the hard drive (why the manufacturers can't come up to date with NTFS? Cost perhaps - licensing?).

One solution might be to download fat32format (see below) which allows you to format large hard drives in a format that might be recognised by your DVD player (you'll need to copy your files over to a computer before you do this of course).

My problem (with a Sony portable DVD player) is that it will only recognise so many folders and files so there is a limit to the size of the hard drive and what you put on it! (Annoying to say the least!).

Links:-

fat32format download

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk- Utils/FAT32format.shtml

help:-
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat 32format.htm

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