How to Watch Movies from External Hard Drive on TV

By Kelvin Jonas May 21, 2021 Info 0 Comments

Table of Contents

How to Watch Movies from an External Hard Drive on Your TV via USB

Majority of the population in the universe like to watch movies in TV. Generally, this process is taking place with the direct internal drive. That is with the data available in the internal drive. Other than that, it is possible to watch movies in the tv with the help of external devices also. External hard drive is a device that can connect to the TV or computer only if it does have a port for plugin.

It is possible to play movies from external hard drive on tv using USB and let’s check its processing. This helps the viewer to get a wide satisfaction throughout. This option is available in smart TVs only and do have some exceptions too. TVs manufactured during these periods mainly with the accessibility of almost important features.

How to Play Movies from External Hard Drive on TV through USB — how to watch movies from external hard drive on tv

In order to play a movie in the TV you should have a USB with downloaded movie.

Step 1: Download the movie onto your computer.
Plug the USB drive into the computers USB port.
Next step is to copy the downloaded movie file. In windows press the movie file select and copy it. In mac open the finder menu select the movie and copy it.
If you are using a pc, go to my computer or this pc open the USB drive, paste the movie file using ctrl+v On mac select the name of your drive under device tab open it and paste the movies. Don’t forget to unplug the device after completing the transferring process.

Check Before to Play Movies from External Hard Drive on TV through USB

Not every HDTV setting will allow you to play a video or movie that is stored in your external hard drive. Some sets do not have the access to display the video files. This gets enabled with the option available in the service menu. So, the first step is to find out whether your tv has the accessibility to playback movies from an external hard drive. This can be easily understood with the instruction manual provided with the television set.

If you found out that the television support the video playback from USB, ensure that the movie format is compatible. File format is another major factor that certify the ability to watch movies. Each HDTV set requires unique file format to work. Because all are not manufactured by the same company so that their model and capabilities were differing. MPG, MP4, XVID, DIVX are some of the file formats supported by various television sets. MKV, VOB, 3GPP are some formats which rarely get support with the videos.

It can make clear with an example; if you have a television that supports MP4 videos but the video or movie in the external hard drive as MKV file then you have to convert MKV into MP4 format to get work.

How can we do formatting?

For reformatting the USB drive some simple steps need to follow. Before formatting remember to relocate the needed files from the USB because formatting delete all the existing contents.

Make sure to connect the USB with the computer then locate it in the file manager.
Press right click in the USB drive click format. Under file system choose appropriate and required option then click start.

There may arise some problem in playing the movies or video, even if you are using the correct file format. The particular set that you deal with does not have the capability to show the files inside the drive. This is because the TV set may have limitation sin the length of filenames or not able to display the file names having unusual characters or it does have the capacity to support USB drives of a particular range. Check the instruction manual to make sure whether the television have any limitations in the video format.

If the TV and the USB are compatible the you are very close to the final result. If all the above-mentioned things are satisfied then the process is very simple. Insert the USB into the port of required TV where you want to watch the movie. Then navigate to the option saying browse media or something similar. In some other cases if this option is not directly displayed, press source button in your remote then navigate to the above-mentioned option or similar one available.

Why we need USB (universal serial bus)

USB stands for universal serial bus. This is the most common type of USB port found to be used by many of the computers. USB is recognized as the fastest port than serial and parallel port. These are data storage devices that are portable and removable.

It is very much convenient to storage data in a USB drive. As we noted above it is portable and easy to carry across. Since these devices are easy to handle, presentations, meetings and demonstrations find it easy. Here arise no worries about carrying a laptop because everything is kept inside a light weight device. Transferring of files from computer to computer made this device easier. Their power usage is negligible and does not have breakable moving parts.

The USB drives are very beneficial though have some disadvantages too. Very rarely it is found that some of the USB drives posses security issues. Its light weight feature may cause troubles in losing the USB drives. This loss itself found to be a huge drawback because of the data content in it. Another notable problem is that they are not free from viruses or infection. This results in the data corruption by way of transferring the virus from device to device. This may also lead to the loss of data forever.

About Author

Kelvin Jonas

I’m Kelvin Jonas, an electronics graduate from Tampa, Florida, with a knack for all things tech and home entertainment. I’ve always been fascinated by how technology can transform everyday experiences, especially when it comes to sound systems, projectors, and creating immersive home theater setups. Through Home Theater Nut, I combine my education and personal passion to share expert tips, in-depth reviews, and practical guides, helping others design the perfect home entertainment space that suits their style and needs.