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Resolved Question

External Hard Disk Drive Doesn't play in DVD player

Jun 27, 2018 9:31PM PDT

Hi All,

A friend of mine bought an external hard disk drive from a computer shop and it doesn't play on a DVD player and the computer shop where she bought it, told her that some DVD players are not powerful enough to play external hard disk drives, is this true?

Shouldn't a DVD player play an external hard disk drive? First time I heard that a DVD players aren't powerful enough to play external hard disk drive. She tried to play hard disk drive on different peoples DVD player and it doesn't play, yet her old external hard disk drive did play on DVD players.

Please advise?

Best regards,

Yanni

Discussion is locked

Code7526 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Re: DVD player
Jun 28, 2018 12:40AM PDT

DVD players are guaranteed to play DVD's, that's sure. Everything else is a bonus.

It's not an unlikely story. Two things you can do:
- try to play this new disk on a PC (the PC she used to put movies on it would be fine)
- copy a movie from the DVD to a USB-stick and try playing that
Please tell the results.

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Movies on external hard disk drive
Jun 28, 2018 2:48AM PDT

Thank You all for your help.

She has movies on a external hard disk drive that she is trying to play from her external hard disk drive by plugging it into a DVD player. Her old external hard disk drive which she dropped and broke was able to play movies through a DVD player. Her new external hard disk drive she has plugged into numerous DVD player and it doesn't play. It will work on a computer but not on any of the DVD players she tried.

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Re: player
Jun 28, 2018 3:17AM PDT

Could it be that this new drive has another type of file system than the old one?
Say: NTFS, FAT32, exFAT? Check what the DVD-player need (should be in the user manual) and what the drive now has.

And what exactly is "doesn't work"? She connects it to the player and then ... For example: it makes strange clicks and noises, the TV doesn't see there's a disk inserted, the TV sees an empty disk (no files).

The work-around is to play the movie on a PC/laptop and use the TV as a monitor only, connected via a HDMI cable. Most modern TV's have hdmi input.

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Thank You
Jun 28, 2018 3:59AM PDT

Thank You Kees_B for your help.

I told her friend to convert her hard drive to FAT32 file system and then plug it into a DVD player and see if it works. I have been told as well that a hard disk drive bigger than 2TB won't play in a DVD player but I think her hard disk drive is smaller than 1 TB.

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Answer
Player
Jun 27, 2018 10:43PM PDT

Can I assume that you have some file on the ext and your trying to use some player/app to read and display it?

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Videos
Jun 28, 2018 2:45AM PDT

No it would be videos.

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Just guessing
Jun 28, 2018 3:42AM PDT

You have an ext hdd with a video on it.

You connect the ext hdd to a dvd player via usb.

You set the player to use usb as the source.

What happens?

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Thank You Bob_B
Jun 28, 2018 6:10AM PDT

Thank You Bob_B for your reply.

I don't know what it says, it is not my external hard disk drive, it is a friend of mine(ex-girlfriend), I am assuming when she plugs it in it says "format not supported" as she says it doesn't play.

I told her friend who is I.T to convert her external hard disk drive to FAT32 file format and then plug it in a DVD player and see if it works. I am guessing it is Western Digital 750GB external hard disk drive that doesn't play in any DVD player she tried because she bought it from CNA shop here in Cape Town, South Africa. I don't want to get too involved if you know what I mean.

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Wag
Jun 28, 2018 6:33AM PDT

Without knowing what happens it's just a guess.

Your guess of trying a different format is worth a shot.