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Network HDD accessible by USB?

M

Midsman

Newbie
Hi all,

I have recently got my AV set up pretty much how I want it and am now running a ZGemma for free to air satellite, Now TV for Broadband, the Plex client and the free to air Digital TV and a Plex server running through a PC on my network that I use for back ups. The actual films that are stored are on a WD 4Tb Network HDD and all of it is hard wired together using TP Link 1Tb mains line adaptors.

It all works exactly as I want it to BUT, none of the equipment that I have can stream 4K movies. If I try to run a 4K movie through Plex via the NowTV box it just dies which comes as no surprise as it is not rated for it.

I do have a solution in mind but not yet a way to implement it, this is where I hope you can help. My TV has an inbuilt media player that can and does happily play 4K films from any Hard drive that is directly connected to it via USB. The pain with this is that if I want to watch a "new" film I have to download it onto my network, unplug my TV USB HDD, transfer the film to that USB HDD and then plug it back in to the TV.

What I would ideally like is a Hard Drive that can stay permanently plugged in to my TV via USB but that can also be seen as a Network Drive by my PC so that I can download films directly to it. I.E. it is a permanently connected Network Drive and a USB drive simultaneously. I have a hard wired Network point for the HDD at my TV location.

I thought this would be easy but it is not! My WD MyCloud just will not do it (the USB port on it is for connecting another external HDD only), I have an old Iomega NAS that is either / or but not both and every time I Google it I just cant seem to get a definitive answer. I don't want to order one only to find out it will not do what I want.

Hopefully one of you guys has come across this before and can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

Dave
 
I would try getting a raspberry pi 2or3 installing Linux on it to act as a network point, plug USB hard drive directly in or via a USB3.0 hub and then connect it to the TV either with y cable of via USB hub

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Cheers for that. A friend of mine had suggested something similar using a modified Network to USB print server which would in effect do the same, give the HDD an IP address via a USB Y which could then theoretically be recognised by the TV.

Surely though, for eases sake, there must be a Network HDD that can also be read by USB "out of the box". If possible I would like to use the tested rule of "Keep It Simple Stupid" :)
 
Is your TV networked because you could eliminate the USB part all together

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Yes it is but it will not stream 4K over the network, only through it's USB 3.0 connection. It will quite happily stream 1080 but not 4K. Looking at the instructions for the TV that is to do with the TV's OS, not the network speed.
 
Is your TV viewable on your network?, if so, when you access it from a pc is the attached USB3.0 drive viewable through it? If so, files could be loaded up from the TV ip address to HD then played through USB3.0 cable to tv

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I thought you were on to something then but alas, the USB is NOT viewable through it :( The TV is discoverable as a Media Device but the only thing I am able to do with that is rename it or stream to it.
 
Other than the pi idea with the USB3 hub, I'm out of ideas

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A massive USB3 cable
 
Midsman said:
Yes it is but it will not stream 4K over the network, only through it's USB 3.0 connection. It will quite happily stream 1080 but not 4K. Looking at the instructions for the TV that is to do with the TV's OS, not the network speed.
Click to expand...

Sounds odd that it'll play 4K content from an attached HDD but not when streamed. Are you using plex on your TV to receive the 4K stream?


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