External USB HDD Compatibility For Samsung TV

i agree with you Tony i have also tried recording from the tv on to a 64gb kingston flash drive with no luck tried changing the file formats fat32/ntfs/exfat no joy!
contacted samsung technical.......thick as s*it. they really dont have a clue. don't know who really can help

After contacting Samsung Support, first through the web site, they send me a "standard preformatted" reply (obviously without having read my message content...) stating to call the Support phone line in France.
Unfortunately, after calling them, impossible to have a USB HDD compatibility list for recording on my TV :o(
They cannot explain the problem I'm facing...
The only suggestion is to try another HDD.
But I replied how many HDD I have to buy before I found the one that is compatible?
Even if I buy a Samsung S2, the guy at the phone did not confirm that it will be certainly compatible!!!

In the meantime, I faced another problem: sometimes, not always, the TV loses the setting Anynet+ "Auto Turn Off" to power-off the connected HDMI amplifier. I have to set it to Yes again, it keeps its setting for a while, then for some reason, it gets back automatically to No...

Also no help from the Support...

For the moment, my conclusion is that the TV looks good, the image quality is good, the 3D is quite impressive, but the software is buggy... :o(
Hope next firmware updates will fix all this, but how many time to wait???

Tony

ive also just bought a 40 inch Samsung 3D TV(UA40C7000), had a 500GB WD External HDD that had files on it and worked, and recently bought a Seagate 1TB External HDD that i formatted for Recording TV, and that worked. The problem for me tho is that the HDD formatted by the TV cant be accessed by either a PC, a Mac or even my PS3 to store files onto it. Ive tried formatting it different ways, partitioning it and just about everything else i could think of so far but it still isnt working the way it should.
so is the go that i have to keep 2 HDD, one for recording and one for storage??

I have found interesting all posts lately published regarding RECORDING problems.
I took everithing into consideration before buying a usb hdd.
I bought a MY PASSPORT WD 500GB, My samsung UA46D6400UM (in Australia) formated it and tested it.
It recognised 466GB... Not bad I thought. Missing 34 GB which is considerable too.

Recorded a couple of tv programs, everyone just above 2 hours (including adds).

This USB HDD supports USB 3.0.

I purchased as Passport WD 500GB yesterday to use for recording on my Samsung. It is a 6400 (Australia also). I can't get it to format. Like you, the HDD has 466GB (I checked it on my PC). When I plug it into the TV it recognises that there is a new device, but that's about it. I can see it when I click on the 'source' button. I'm not very technically minded and have no idea as to what to do to get this to work.

Any suggestions would be so greatfully appreciated.
Tanya.

Hi guys,

of course I have a similar problem as all of you and after trying to squeeze out the customer support of Samsung, I could receive at least a recommendation which was the HX-DU050DB. This one should work according to them, nonetheless you can hardly find it anywhere. I also have no idea what to do, was very close to buy me the Samsung HXMU050DA (500GB), but did not want to waste again some money for something that will not work at the end. Does anyone have experience with this one?

regards,

My TV: Samsung UE 46C7000

Hi Erick,

You are right, the USB drive must comply to minimal specifications.
Unfortunately, when we speak about Samsung TV / HDD compatibility, this is far not sufficient...
Latest MSC specification 1.2 is dated June 2003.
And USB 2.0 is dated April 2000.
Absolutely all HDD we are speaking about here are USB 2.0 and MSC compliant.
At least, I'm sure this is the case with my Passport (http://www.wdc.com/en/library/portable/2879-701191.pdf).
My TV user manual specifies also a speed of 5400 rpm, which is also the case for my drive.
And it has a compatibility problem...
Also the compatibility problem might be not so simple as complying with a spec...
As explained in my previous post, my USB HDD is perfectly recognized by the TV for "reading": I can play videos.
But the "writing" fails: I cannot use it for recording or timeshifting...

BR,
Tony

i have the same drive. it was recognized but would just 'whirr' with a single usb into the TV, once i used a y-split cable..so two usbs go to the TV... it worked. see above. i would recommend getting the y-split cable

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the info. Did you let the TV format the Drive when it requests it or did you format it via your PC? Also can you record from the TV to the HDD?

Many Thanks,

Nick.

Hi Nick, thanks for the reply. Both drives came pre-formatted to NTFS. I have used Windows Vista to chkdsk the drive, and validate that the format is valid, and there are no drive errors. The files and folders on both drives are the same, and I can read the drive and files fine on any computer (tried 3 so far).

Basically it's a problem with the TV, which Samsung doesn't seem to want to admit to After searching for this problem on google, I found that other people are having the same problem with various brands of 3TB drives. It seems like the TV does not properly support NTFS, or has some arbitrary drive size limit which is less than 3TB. I asked Samsung what the drive size limit was, but they wouldn't tell me, and they insist the files are not a valid supported format. Yet the files display and play fine from the 2TB HDD, and are supported formats as listed in the manual.

I don't know if my TV has a feature where it can record to an HDD, but I'm not going to try it since it doesn't see the files on the drive, and I don't want it to end up over-writiing the drive.

As far as I'm aware, my TV does not have any ability to format the drive. As I said, it recognizes the drive, but says there are no files on it, and shows the drive size as 0KB, which says to me that the TV is not loading the NTFS partition and directory correctly on 3TB drives.

Hi,

TYhis is not caused by a file system problem. A 3TB drive would have to be a GPT partition, which the Samsung TV cannot see. A 2TB Drive would come with an MBR partition, which the Samsung can understand. MBR partitions can be no larger than 2TB, thus the GPT partition on all 3TB drives.

I hope this helps sort out the confusion.

That's interesting cetialpha3, you seem to know a lot more about this than Samsung support, who insist there is no size limit, so the 3TB drive will work.

The TV manual claims that the NTFS file system is supported, but says nothing about the partition needing to be MBR rather than GPT, and again doesn't list the size limitation.

Thank you for the first answer that makes sense I guess we're stuck with 1980s HDD technology for now. I won't hold my breath for a firmware update for 1990s HDD tech Looks like it's multiple smaller drives for now.

Thanks again for your answer!

Finally someone with some answers. So annoying how retards just ignore it and continue posting similar problems. I am going to reformat my 3tb western digital into 2 1.5 tb MBR partitions and see if it works. Thanks.

Well I have a Samsung UN46C7000 set I have owned for nearly 3 months now and extremely happy and impressed with it. However I cannot get it to record to a USB HDD or to a USB stick and do not even have any Format options anywhere in it's menus. My USB HDD (and USB Sticks) is recognised okay by the TV and I play back HD and 3D downloaded content (in mainly .mkv format) on the TV easily so is NOT a connectivity problem it seems. The HDD is formatted in NTFS to allow big movie .mkv files to be playable with no problems.

The user manual makes NO mention of recording TV onto a USB HDD or stick but my friend in the UK has just brought the same TV although a UE not a UN model as it has the European connection adapters and set for European terrestrial TV frequencies of course rather than my UN model which is for use here in Asia (I live in Thailand). I do not though use the terrestrial antenna source as the TV signal here is no good so just use Satellite TV access from my HD Sat receiver and of course BluRay, HDD and even LAN and Internet sources for my viewing.

Anyway my UK friend told me he is able to easily record onto a USB external HDD no problem by just hitting the record (Red Spot) button on the TV remote (his remote is the same as mine too), and I must say I did not realise this was a feature of this set and could be done. The basic set whether UE or UN should surely have the same basic features such as recording to HDD as this is NOT a regional isue of course. He is using a full size USB HDD enclosure with its own power supply whereas I am using a small Buffalo 500 GB drive powered form teh USB port and no problem with playing files off of it on the TV.

So can someone tell me whether the UN model does not have this USB recording feature as seen on the UE (and would like to know why not if that is the case) or is it something I am missing here ?? I do have the latest firmware update already installed as confirmed when I check via the Internet connection and that was the version already installed when I got the TV.

Any help gratefully appreciated as now spent about 2 hours trying to get this recording feature to work and on a different USB HDD too (also powered from the TV's USB port). Maybe I need to try one of my older physically bigger self powered external USB HDDs which I have stored away somewhere. Just do not want to waste any more time if this is not possible on my UN model, and I cannot find any answers to that question either from a full Google web search.

Whoops my mistake my model is NOT a UN but a UA. Was sure it said UN at the shop on the display. Still same problem exists of course and the UA Samsung advert does mention the model has Extended PVR feature but buggered if I can find it !!

I have Samsung UN55C6400RF & UN46C6400RF TVs
Both have the most recent Firmware v1035
Both work fine with WD MyBook Essential 2TB, IOMega Prestige 2TB & Seagate 1.5TB
USB drives
However, they DO NOT work with MyBook Essential 3TB drives (with v1015 firmware)
The TVs detect the drives but will not detect any media

Samsung support told me that the TVs do not have enough "power" to work with 3TB drives??
Give me a break
She did say that she would submit the problem to their engineers but I doubt it
I also submitted an eMail to Western Digital

I hope Samsung or WD fix the issue...

As the drive sizes go up there are changes to the host software. It could be the new 4K sector size, it could be the buffers (RAM) in the computer in the TV are not big enough but knowing what I know and seeing how such things are answered I'd not plan on it being resolved. Stick with sizes and things that work.
Bob

I agree with you. I spoke with a CSR Rep according to them it's Technical Support at Samsung. She states their tvs can only handle up to 1TB. Which I know is a crock.. I've noticed mostly every product out there can't handle 3tb or greater due to the file structure. This should of been noticed during beta testing. I'm sure down the road this won't be a problem since they will have their newer technology to handle it and the older one's to just deal with it. It all depends if they are going to waste time in doing another firmware update dealing with this.

Not sure how to make a new post without replying to someone elses....

Anyway, I recently bought a Samsung C535 and just a day ago I got a Lacie Rikiki 500GB USB 3.0 HDD. When I connect it to the TV I have to wait 1-2 minutes before the TV recognizes the HDD and when I try rewinding/forwarding movies it is awfully slow.

So my question is, is this a specific problem for portable HDDs (USB powered)? And if so, will a firmware in the future be able to alleviate this issue? I also have a 16GB cruzer and it's working very smooth with fast loading times and instant response.

I'd hate to be forced to buy 10 different portable HDDs before I find someone that works properly.