Playing movie files on TV

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Firefly

Registered User
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I know this has probably been asked a million times - how do I play mpeg/avi/xvid etc files on my TV?

Well, I bought one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclone-Mic...L3B8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322556772&sr=8-3

and it's fab. It came in at about 41 euro but doesn't include a HDMI cable for the tv (12.99 in Tesco). Simply plug a SD card/memory stick/external hard drive into the back of it and away you go. Quality is very good and I would highly recommed it.
 
12.99 for a HDMI cable, you were had! They're less than €2 on ebay? :D

** edit: agreed those media hardrives are the business though
 
You'd be a bit suspicious about what ownership of one of these might be taken to imply though.

Possession of compressed files which may be films could raise questions.

They'd never co-relate the purchase to your usage would they?

See what's happened to this guy
 
onq said:
You'd be a bit suspicious about what ownership of one of these might be taken to imply though.

Possession of compressed files which may be films could raise questions.

They'd never co-relate the purchase to your usage would they?

See what's happened to this guy
Click to expand...

Just as well I'm not with eircon.

Actaully, it's great for burning the kids DVDs so that they don't scratch them.
 
I bought a WD device off amazon a year or two ago and it was money well spent. My one has HDMI out and 2 USB ports.
 
They're great in fairness for looking at photos and home videos too. Now if I could just convince herself that we need a projector and a surround sound system!
 
Firefly,
Excuse my complete techo ignorance, but can you download files onto this directly or do you have to connect it to a laptop or hard drive? Can you store photos and movies on it?
Thanks,
Maxie
 
Maxie37 said:
Firefly,
Excuse my complete techo ignorance, but can you download files onto this directly or do you have to connect it to a laptop or hard drive? Can you store photos and movies on it?
Thanks,
Maxie
Click to expand...

Hi Maxie,

Some of the more expensive ones have a hard drive that you can store photos/vidoes etc on. The one I posted doesn't have this. You need to save your content to either an extrnal hard drive(suitable if you have a lot of content) or a memory stick (more useful for photos/short video files). You then attach either device to the media player via a USB cable (provided). You then attach the media player to the TV with a HDMI cable (not provided). Sounds cumbersome, but it's not. Also the great thing about the one I got is its size...tiny..about 2 inches x 2 inches and about an inch high.
 
onq said:
You'd be a bit suspicious about what ownership of one of these might be taken to imply though.

Possession of compressed files which may be films could raise questions.

They'd never co-relate the purchase to your usage would they?

See what's happened to this guy
Click to expand...

Highly unlikely as you can own one of these for viewing photos, rips of DVDs you bought yourself. Its not in any way illegal to own this device.

Its also great for playing movies you download for free from torrent sites or warez-bb :D
 
Maxie37 said:
do you have to connect it to a laptop or hard drive? Can you store photos and movies on it?
Click to expand...

Firefly said:
Simply plug a SD card/memory stick/external hard drive into the back of it and away you go.
Click to expand...

From the description provided, this is a media player and does not have it's own storage. At a guess, it would not be able to read from a laptop - too many directories to look through to locate playable content. A hard drive should be OK. But it is also possible to get an external hard drive with a built-in media player; this solution is more nimble than that.
 
TarfHead said:
From the description provided, this is a media player and does not have it's own storage. At a guess, it would not be able to read from a laptop - too many directories to look through to locate playable content. A hard drive should be OK. But it is also possible to get an external hard drive with a built-in media player; this solution is more nimble than that.
Click to expand...

True, but a lot more expensive.

Also, with those with built in hard drives are bigger. My one takes an SD card (front loading) and you can pick up a 32GB one of these for about 30 euro. As I have a dedicated SD slot on the front of my laptop it's very easy to swap them in and out.
 
You could also buy and Apple TV for a little over €100 and jailbreak it, install XBMC and stream your files either wired or wirelessly to the Apple TV.
 
Most new DVDs players / TVs have a USB port and / or SD memory card that play avi's/mpeg movies and also allow you to view pictures on your telly... Might be limited in the size of the memory stick that can be read successfully by the TV/DVD player...

If you are looking to get an external device, even though it's more expensive, go for the one with the harddrive. At least that will have built in menu for scrolling through different movies...
 
Lidl or Aldi do a reader I bought one last year and its 100% I also had a WD one which are good but this is a lot better keep an eeye out for them they go very fast.
 
Jazz01 said:
If you are looking to get an external device, even though it's more expensive, go for the one with the harddrive. At least that will have built in menu for scrolling through different movies...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't agree with this. They are bigger and it means that you have to disconnect the entire device from the TV and bring it to your PC when adding programs. It's a lot easier to simply remove the USB drive from the unit and stick it into the PC when adding files. My unit (without storage) has a super easy menu that's operated via the provided remote control. You simply navigate to the folder containing the files and they all appear.
 
They are bigger and it means that you have to disconnect the entire device
Click to expand...
"BIGGER"? ahh come on, it's not a computer tower you are lugging around... these devices are small... & assuming you have many films / pics on the unit already you aren't continuously taking it from the TV to the computer each time you want to view something...
 
I just use the standard PC cable connected to my laptop...my TV supports that input. Very handy.
 
Jazz01 said:
"BIGGER"? ahh come on, it's not a computer tower you are lugging around... these devices are small... & assuming you have many films / pics on the unit already you aren't continuously taking it from the TV to the computer each time you want to view something...
Click to expand...

They've gotten smaller I grant you that...but you still have to unplug it from the TV everytime you want to add/remove files from it. The one I bought has an SD card slot and so does my netbook which is a lot easier...you just remove the SD card from the media player, slot it into the netbook and away you go. SD cards have come way down too...just bought a 32GB one on Amazon for 21stg.

I should add, that by using SD cards or memory sticks, you can set up the device in a permanent location so that you're not messing with cables each time you want to add files.

Each to their own :p
 
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