External Hard Drive For TV: Why Can't The TV See It? How Can I Connect Via USB? How To Choose?

2024 Author: Beatrice Philips | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-18 12:09

Modern TVs support a lot of peripheral devices, including removable media (they are: external drives; hard drives; hard drives, and so on), designed to store a huge amount of information (text, video, music, animation, photos, pictures and other content). Here we will talk about how to connect such a device to a TV receiver, in addition, recommendations will be given in case the TV receiver does not see or has ceased to see an external medium.

Which ones are suitable?

For use as an external storage device, 2 types of hard drives can be used:

• external;
• internal.

External drives are hard drives that do not require additional power to start up and operate - energy in the required amount is supplied from the TV receiver after connection. This type of disc is connected to the TV set via a USB cable, which is usually included in the kit.

Internal drives are drives that are originally intended for a laptop or PC . To connect this device to the TV, you will need an adapter with a USB adapter. Moreover, for hard drives with a memory capacity of 2 TB and more, additional energy will be required. It can be taken from the 2nd USB-connector on the TV-set (by means of a splitter) or from an electrical outlet (by means of a charger from a mobile phone or other equipment).

How to connect?

It is possible to connect an internal or external hard disk drive to a TV receiver using 3 methods.

Via USB

All modern TV receivers are equipped with HDMI or USB ports. Therefore, it is much easier to connect a hard disk drive to the TV using a USB cable. The method is suitable exclusively for external hard drives. The sequence of operations is as follows.

1. Connect the USB cable to the drive … To do this, use the standard cable supplied with the device.
2. Connect the hard disk drive to the TV receiver . Usually the USB socket is located on the back or side of the TV device.
3. If it has more than one USB port , then use the one with the HDD IN mark.
4. Turn on your TV and go to options to find a suitable interface . On this item on the remote, press the Source or Menu button.
5. Specify USB in the list of signal sources , after that a window will open with all files and folders on the device.
6. Work with catalogs using the remote control and include a movie or any content you like.

Certain brands of television receivers only work with specific file formats.

For this reason, even after connecting the hard disk drive to the TV, some music tracks and movies may not be played.

Through adapter

If you want to connect a serial drive to the TV receiver, use a special adapter. Then the hard disk drive can be connected via a USB socket. The features are as follows.

1. When it is supposed to connect a hard disk with a capacity of more than 2 TB , then you need to use an adapter with the function of additional power supply (via USB or through an individual network cable).
2. After the drive is mounted in a specialized adapter, it can be connected to a TV set via USB .
3. If the railway is not recognized, then most likely, it must be formatted first .

The use of an adapter can significantly degrade the signal strength. In addition, it can provoke problems with sound reproduction.

In this case, you need to additionally connect the speakers.

Through another device

If you want to connect the drive to a rather old modification of the TV, then it is much easier to use an additional device for this purpose. Let's describe all the possible methods.

1. When there is no USB jack on the TV set or does not function, it is possible to connect a hard disk drive via laptop via HDMI .
2. Use a TV, SMART or Android receiver … This is a specialized device that connects to a TV receiver via an AV connector or "tulips". Then you can connect a USB flash drive, hard drive or other removable storage device to it.

All external devices are connected via HDMI or via AV jacks. In this regard, the presence of a USB socket on the TV receiver is not very necessary. In addition, TV receivers can be used to receive IPTV and DTV.

Why doesn't he see?

When the TV receiver does not recognize the hard disk drive connected via USB, the reasons for this may lie in the following:

• the disk has insufficient power;
• old software for the TV receiver;
• the TV does not support the media file system;
• there are viruses.

Remember! It is necessary to start diagnostics by finding out the operability of the TV-receiver connector to which the external device is connected. To do this, you need to disconnect the hard disk drive and insert the flash drive.

If it is detected by the TV receiver, and the files on it are read, this means that the socket is working.

Insufficient power

Usually this appears when the railway does not have enough power for correct operation, therefore, the TV receiver does not see it. This is typical for older versions of TV sets, in which the necessary voltage required for the disk to function is not supplied to the USB connector. Modern drives are divided into 3 classes, each needs a different amount of electricity:

• USB1 - 500 mA, 5 V;
• USB2 - 500 mA, 5 V;
• USB3 - 2000 mA (according to some information, 900 mA), 5 V.

It is possible to eliminate the problem of low power by means of a cord for connecting a drive with a Y-shaped divider. However, this decision is timely when there is more than one USB socket on the TV. Then the disk is connected to 2 USB connectors - power from 2 sockets is enough for the normal functioning of the hard disk drive.

Recommendation! When there is only one USB port on the TV panel, the Y-shaped divider is connected with the first cord to the socket, and the second to the power outlet using a charger from a cellular or other technology. As a result, power will begin to flow to the hard drive from the mains, and files will be read from the hard disk drive through the USB socket of the TV.

Outdated software

The next known reason why the TV receiver does not see the hard media is this is an irrelevant version of the TV receiver firmware … When the user has established that the socket is normal and the hard drive has enough power, then he needs to install the latest software version for his TV. To do this, you should go to the official website of the manufacturer of the equipment and download the latest firmware for your TV receiver model. You can update the software from a flash drive.

Another way to update the firmware is to do it using the menu . This function contains different paths for different manufacturers. So, for Samsung television equipment, you need to open the menu, go to the "Support" section and select "Update software". Likewise, there is an upgrade option in LG hardware.

If the firmware did not give results, and the TV, as before, does not recognize the hard disk drive, the reason is possible in the size of the memory of the hard medium, which is determined by the receiver to the maximum . For example, a TV that supports media capacities up to 500MB will not see 1TB WD media because it exceeds the acceptable capacity. To find out exactly whether this is a problem, you need to use the instructions for use.

There, in all details, it is described what volume of hard drives this brand of TV is capable of recognizing.

Incompatible file system formats

Another point to pay attention to is the way the disk files are organized . Even nowadays, many high-tech TV receivers do not detect hard media if they are not formatted in FAT32 but NTFS. This situation is due to the fact that from the very beginning TV sets were designed to work with flash drives, the capacity of which was no more than 64 GB.

And since the amount of memory is small, the FAT32 system is practiced for such USB devices, since it has a small cluster size and allows rationally exploiting the available space. Today, when purchasing a TV receiver, you need to make your choice in favor of a device that recognizes hard drives with any file system. A number of television equipment from Samsung, Sony and LG have this option. You can find this information in the consumer instructions.

The advantage of the way NTFS files are organized is justified by such properties as high read speed, as well as improved security measures when transferring data to a PC or other equipment. If you need to copy large files to a medium, then you definitely need a hard disk with an NTFS system, since FAT32 functions with a volume of no more than 4 GB. Thus, in order to resolve the issue of format mismatch, it is necessary to change the file system on the media.

Attention! If the troubleshooter did not disappear after reformatting, then you will have to diagnose the media and the copied files for viruses that can harm not only the data on the disk, but also the file system.

You can find out how to choose a USB 3.0 external hard drive in 2019 below.