# USB Hard Drives for a Smart TV



## peejay (May 10, 2005)

I've just bought a new fangled 22in Samsung smart TV, unfortunately you can't record to a USB dongle thingy on it so I'm looking for a portable USB hard disk drive.

Samsung stipulate it must be usb2, 5400rpm run speed, read 34mbps and write 52 mbps minimum spec.

Its just to record a few films and other programme off the telly to view in the bedroom so I was thinking about 500gb would be more than enough space.

As usual the market is awash with them, are they all much of a muchness or should I be looking at anything else spec wise?

Only want to spend around £40 if possible.

Thanks in anticipation....

Pete


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

If I remember correctly, this means that you will have to record whatever channel the TV is running.
If you have Sky plus can you not copy from that box.

cabby


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Haven't got Sky and you're right it will only record on a single channel.

Her indoors will be looking at the tv guide in the morning and recording what she wants throughout the day from the EPG, then will be banshed to the bedroom to watch her progs when I want to watch something like F1 on the big screen in the lounge.

At least that's the plan. :? 

Pete


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Yeah in your dreams I feel coming on. :lol: :lol: 

cabby


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## Devonboy (Nov 19, 2009)

Freecom produce this: http://www.freecom.com/Products/External-Hard-Drives/Mobile-Hard-Drives/Mobile-Drive-Sq-TV

Cheaper on Amazon.


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Thanks Dave.

I like the look of that one, very neat and attaches behind the TV, its a bit pricey but looks a quality product. Unfortunately my TV (Samsung UE22H5610AK) isn't on the compatibility list though.

Pete


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## boringfrog (Sep 22, 2006)

Is this one any good Currys


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Yes, thanks, seen that one, I've got a few I've seen on ebay as well.

The only thing I'm not sure about is whether all these cheap ones will work with my TV. I suppose i'll just have to bite the bullet and try one to find out.

Pete


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## Wizzo (Dec 3, 2007)

I may be a bit confused here, but if it wont record to a USB stick how will it record to a Hard Drive?

Would not a USB 3.0 Flash Drive stick be a cheaper solution? I am using a SanDisk Ultra for recording and playback on a Avtex. It has a 64GB capacity, more than enough for well over 100 hours of programmes and is certainly fast enough for your TV (up to 100MB/s read speed). Backwards compatible with USB 2.0.

JohnW


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

If you have a Smart TV, then you could use the wi-fi dongle to talk to your Computer and record to that, then download onto a usb stick should you need to.

cabby


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Good question Wizzo, all I know is that Samsung don't support recording to flash drive.

I can view stuff like photos using a flash drive, just not able to record with them.

I tried a 4 gb stick that I already have, it prompted me to format the stick and it failed the test stating that it didn't support usb flash drives and recommended using a usb hard disk drive.

I have heard that some do work but afaik its all a bit hit and miss.

Pete


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## camallison (Jul 15, 2009)

> I may be a bit confused here, but if it wont record to a USB stick how will it record to a Hard Drive?
> 
> Would not a USB 3.0 Flash Drive stick be a cheaper solution? I am using a SanDisk Ultra for recording and playback on a Avtex. It has a 64GB capacity, more than enough for well over 100 hours of programmes and is certainly fast enough for your TV (up to 100MB/s read speed). Backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
> 
> JohnW


John,

Samsung specifically say that recording CAN'T be done to a usb stick - soemthing to do with the formatting. With a usb hard drive, you still have to format the drive with the TV.

I have a Samsung Smart TV and tried (didn't believe Samsung) and sure enough, it didn't work. So I got an old hard drive I had laying around (Samsung, would you believe) and put that in a cheap enclosure. I had to supply power externally because the cheap enclosure took more than the 1amp that the dedicated usb socket on the TV provides.

The slim ones should do the job as the hard drives in them are 2.5 inch, meant for laptops and hence low consumption.

Colin


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Peejay, can I ask what format did you use on the usb stick when you first formatted.Or did you try both, really is what I am asking.

cabby


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

> *cabby wrote :=*Peejay, can I ask what format did you use on the usb stick when you first formatted. Or did you try both, really is what I am asking.
> 
> cabby


When I bought it a while back I don't remember having to format it, just copied a load of photo's across to it from my laptop.

The Samsung TV prompts me to format it when I try to record something to it from the EPG, it then runs a test and fails to format as previously mentioned.

Pete


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## Devonboy (Nov 19, 2009)

Have you tried asking the same question on the DigitalSpy forum: 
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=19

or the AV forum: https://www.avforums.com/search/6671399/?q=samsung+smart+tv&o=relevance

They are usually very knowledgeable & helpful, the TV world version of MHF.


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

Hi Pete,

Not a Samsung, but I had the same problem with the 19" Kogan LED TV we installed in the MH. I could look at photos and listen to music from the USB stick, but it wouldn't recognize it for PVR. 
I tried a 300Gb USB2 pocket HD and had no problem at all at recording. :thumbright: I can't remember the brand name though. 

Also, someone gifted us a Toshiba 1Tb USB2 pocket HD full of films and TV series, and no problem viewing those, although we personally haven't recorded onto that one yet.

HTH,

Jock.


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## spykal (May 9, 2005)

Hi Pete

We have both the UE22" Samsung Smart TV in the bedroom and a 40" Samsung Smart TV in the lounge.

I use a cheap portable hard drive on the 22" UE22 bedroom TV ....but read on !

When I bought the 40" TV about 3 years or so ago I could not find a fast enough usb memory stick to record onto, all the ones I tried failed the TVs speed test so gave up and I then bought a Core 125GB Portable Hard Drive. This worked perfectly. It is USB2 and obviously fast enough because it works! the specification is nothing special, the same as most cheap portable hard drives. So I would think any of the current ones will work. The Specs of the Core are :- 5400 rmp 8MB Buffering Average Seek time: 12ms. It was on a special offer and cost around £35.

There are one or two other things that you need to know...
Any portable hard drive you buy will need to be formatted by the TV . The TVs system is based on Linux so this means that once you have formatted it on the TV you will not be able to see the contents if you connect it to a Windows PC. This rules out using it to transfer stuff recorded on the PC or viewing TV recorded stuff on the PC.

BUT....Now back to the use of USB sticks with the TV...... although I have said that I could not find a fast enough stick to record with the TV I did then discover, as you have, that if I put recorded video, pictures or music from the PC onto virtually any USB stick both the 22" and the 40" would play it back. 

AND there is one more anomaly to mention... not that it will bother you if you only have the one 22" Smart TV.... but it bugged me when we bought the 22" about 9 months ago. The 22" UE22 seems to use a different hard drive format so stuff I have recorded on the bedroom TV cannot be played back by plugging the hard drive into the 40" TV..... I guess if I bought a new latest version 40" model it would work :twisted: 

As of now I don't even need to use a portable hard drive for recording on the 40" TV as we have added a Humax PVR to it ...and I have networked all the TVs and the computers together via powerline adaptors .... so we can now watch films, youtube, recorded video or listen to our stored music (mp3s etc) anywhere in the house.

Hope that has helped :wink: 


Mike

Edit
P.S. We are not TV addicts ....honest :lol: ...


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Many thanks Mike, great info as always.

I'll do a bit of googling for Core hard drives.

Reply to PM on its way.


Pete


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

I suppose what I should have asked is, did you format the usb stick as FAT32. 

cabby


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

Hi Pete

Told you so ( :wink: ) - glad you are getting nearer to a solution.

Dave


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

> *cabby wrote :-* I suppose what I should have asked is, did you format the usb stick as FAT32.
> 
> cabby


Sorry, haven't a clue wot you're on about and who are you calling fat. :lol:

Pete


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

When you put the usb stick into the PC to format it will ask which format to use, try it in FAT32.
then see if it does record for you on the TV.

cabby


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

It didn't on mine Cabby.

I tried every format available, but it failed on all of them. I tried three USB sticks too, and all the same.

Dave


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

> When you put the usb stick into the PC to format it will ask which format to use, try it in FAT32.
> then see if it does record for you on the TV.
> 
> cabby


Ahh, just tried that, formatted to FAT32, does the performance test but still no worky.

Pete


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Then I am at a loss.

cabby


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## spykal (May 9, 2005)

Hi

This thread got me testing more usb sticks on the tele ... I had read that some folk have managed to get a stick to record even though I now realise that Samsung themselves say a hard drive is needed.

Recently I had bought a Lexar Jumpdrive 8GB V10 USB memory stick so as it is rated "high speed" I tried it. Still no luck

So I went Googling again and found Samsung's advice :

http://www.samsung.com/global/article/articleDetailView.do?atcl_id=61618

I wish I had found that when I first started to try to record to a Stick!

If you read down the page you will see that Samsung say to record, you'll need an HDD that's USB 2.0/5400 RPM. It will also need to read 34 Mbps and write 52 Mbps.

So then I wondered how fast my Lexar V10 Jumpdrive was. I found this page which lists the specs of the Lexar Usb Memory Sticks.
My new Lexar V10 is still too slow!

So check the speed of your USB stick here:
http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/

As I now have the portable hard drive I don't really need to worry but it still bugs me that some folk manage to record onto a USB stick so my next try will be with a USB3 memory stick as they are reputed to have a fast enough read and write. One I have found on a special is :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Da...fkmr0&keywords=usb+3+Ultimate+G3+memory+stick

But will it work on the TV?...just £20 to find out.

Mike

P.S. I also found an explanation of why programs recorded from one smart tv cannot be played on another tv ...it all to do with encryption and protection rights ...apparently the recordings will only be seen by the tv that recorded them :roll:


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

As a matter of interest, would it be possible to buy a freeview box and record from that, providing it has a USB slot.

cabby


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Quick update, probably going for this one mainly because it says suitable for smart TV's....

http://tinyurl.com/ozr3dwh

Pete


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

You will be daft if you do Pete - in the nicest possible way of course. :wink:

Unless I have missed something (so please check carefully) you can get one with half as much storage again (750 GB) for just £1, one pound extra.

Same dealer, and in the blurb lower down the page it also says that it is suitable for Smart TVs. 

Hope this helps

Dave


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## spykal (May 9, 2005)

Hi Again Pete

Right I have made some interesting findings.

I have managed to get the Lexar V10 8GB USB stick and an older 2Gb stick that would not record earlier to record and playback on the 22" TV ... the same TV as you have I think Peejay Ue22 ( still can't get it to work on the 40" TV ...sorry Zebedee).

What I did was plug the USB stick into my PC then changed it's "policies". I really do not know why this works but it does ( for me anyway). I found that my USB sticks were set to "Quick Removal". The USB device policies can be set to a choice of "Quick Removal" or ""Better Performance". So now I have reset them both to "Better Performance".

When they are plugged into the Samsung 22" and I select "record" they test out OK and then when the format is completed they do record and playback.

So Pete if you have a USB stick to try give this a try.

To reset the policy on a usb stick in Windows 7 :

Plug the USB stick into a PC

If you have already tried to use it on the Samsung TV you may have to format it first. Do that without altering the format type which should be ( FAT) Default


When the format is done go to:

Computer > Right Click > Properties > Device Manager > Disk Drives > Choose the USB stick > Right click on its name > Properties > click Policies tab > choose "Better Performance"

Then remove the stick from the PC ( use the safe removal method) and try it in the TV.

Hope this works for you.....worth a try anyway :wink: 


Mike

P.S. to Cabby. My PVR, a Humax Freeview box that records can do that.


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

> *Zeb wrote :-* You will be daft if you do Pete - in the nicest possible way of course. :wink:
> 
> Unless I have missed something (so please check carefully) you can get one with half as much storage again (750 GB) for just £1, one pound extra.


Well spotted that man, never thought I'd get larger capacity for that price so didn't bother looking - just ordered one. :thumbleft:

Cheers Dave

Pete


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

> *Spykal wrote :-*Hi Again Pete
> 
> Right I have made some interesting findings.
> 
> ...


Certainly was worth a try Mike and thanks for going to all that trouble, I tried it on that 4gb stick I mentioned earlier but unfortunately it still fails the speed test. Never mind it was worth a punt. 

Pete


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

Please let us know how you get on with it Pete . . . I'm sure you would anyway.  

At that price I may well be getting one as well, if yours works as you hope.

Dave


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Certainly will :wink: 

Pete


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

Thanks to Mike (spykal) and to Dave (Zebedee). 

My external storage and recording capacity has just increased by 782Gb. :thumbright: My PayPal account is a bit lighter though.  ........... :lol:

Cheers,

Jock.


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Quick update as promised.

Ordered on Thursday night, arrived first thing this Saturday morning. Comes with a naff storage pouch but I don't really need it as I have attached the drive to the back of the TV with those sticky Velcro dots. You can't see the hard drive once the TV is back on its shelf. The supplied cable has 2 x usb sockets but I only needed to use 1 and it works fine like this.

The unit passed its speed test with flying colours and formatted with no problems.
Been messing around with it today, and it works fine.

You can watch another channel while recording something else, something that the TV salesguy said couldn't be done and you can also watch a recorded programme whilst recording something else so that's a bonus.

Overall very pleased with it so far.

Thanks to everyone who helped with some great advice.

Pete


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks for the feedback Pete.

Now, how to prise open the wallet . . . . always a struggle!! :wink: 

Dave


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

Hi Pete,

Mine arrived today too, and I totally agree re the naff pouch. 

I'll be using the 32Gb Kingston USB stick for PVR recording, in the MH, but may use the HD for recording at home.

My thanks too, to those who gave advice and recommendations. :thumbright:

Cheers,

Jock.


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## Drew (May 30, 2005)

Hi all,

Thanks to those who contributed to an excellent topic, and most important, an extra big thank you to those who didn’t post and hijack it.

This was worth every penny of my subscription.

Thank you.


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