Connect External Hard Drive To Samsung Device USB Port, Play Videos
SYSTEM
Samsung Devices: Blu-Ray, TV, Phone, Tablet
Hard Drive: 500 GB in wall-socket-powered external enclosure, formatted as extFAT
BACKGROUND
I want to play videos on my Samsung devices. The videos are stored as ISO files, but I can convert them to Video_TS folder, VOB files, if necessary. I have them stored on a 500GB drive that is mounted in an external enclosure. The hard drive has been formatted as extFAT.
PROBLEM
When I connect the USB cable from the external drive to the Blu-Ray, it is not recognized. The Blu-Ray says that there is NO USB device connected. However, when I connect a thumb flash drive to the Blu-Ray, it is recognized and I can view the photos on it.
QUESTION
Please help me figure out how to connect the external hard drive to the USB input of the Blu-Ray device (or any of my other Samsung devices).
Samsung Devices: Blu-Ray, TV, Phone, Tablet
Hard Drive: 500 GB in wall-socket-powered external enclosure, formatted as extFAT
BACKGROUND
I want to play videos on my Samsung devices. The videos are stored as ISO files, but I can convert them to Video_TS folder, VOB files, if necessary. I have them stored on a 500GB drive that is mounted in an external enclosure. The hard drive has been formatted as extFAT.
PROBLEM
When I connect the USB cable from the external drive to the Blu-Ray, it is not recognized. The Blu-Ray says that there is NO USB device connected. However, when I connect a thumb flash drive to the Blu-Ray, it is recognized and I can view the photos on it.
QUESTION
Please help me figure out how to connect the external hard drive to the USB input of the Blu-Ray device (or any of my other Samsung devices).
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
After further research, I have found a more elegant solution that I will post here for reference. One of the sales people at Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale directed me to the "USB hard drives". WD Elements and WD My Book are two such devices (2TB) that are "Plug-n-Play" for my Blu-Ray and Android devices. These are working well and I do not need to worry about the formatting. (My understanding is that a problem with FAT32 is you cannot use a drive larger than 32GB and files cannot be larger than 4GB each. There may be ways around these limitations, but the USB pnp drive will be a good solution for now.)
By the way, the Samsung Blu-Ray player (BDP-F5900) DOES play the VIDEO_TS folder VOB files. (Happy Dance). Unfortunately, the Samsung Note 8 tablet and the Galaxy S4 phone do not. I may post another question about this issue if I cannot find a solution.