USB portable hard drive to caravan TV?
Submitted: Friday, May 24, 2013 at 18:51
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Member - bungarra (WA)
I have just upgraded our TV in the caravan to a Sphere. It has a USB port. If I am wishing to plug a portable USB powered hard drive into it to playback some movies (it does read the most common formats)......
will I cause any damage to either the portable hard drive or the TV if the portable attempts to source its power from the USB connection..if that USB is data only and not a power source as
well?
I cant find any reference in the paperwork to state if the USB hard drive needs to be the 240v type that sources external power or if the USB will power it (like a laptop does)
Not game to experiment in case of damage
thanks
Reply By: Member - J&R - Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:24
Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:24
In the absence of any relevant information, have you tried contacting the manufacturer?
AnswerID:
511771
Reply By: KenInPerth - Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:42
Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:42
If there is no power on the USB port of the TV then there will be no harm. The USB drive will not power up and the TV will not be able to read anything.
USB has only 4 "pins" - 2 for power and 2 for data - and there are no variations to standards that I am aware of that would not maintain the relationship of all pins between all devices.
Plug it in and if it lights up then all should be good - but if no power from the TV then no damage will be done and you will need a seperate power supply for the USB drive - but I expect that will be unlikely.
AnswerID:
511774
Follow Up By: Member - bungarra (WA) - Friday, May 24, 2013 at 20:12
Friday, May 24, 2013 at 20:12
Thanks for the replies..
based on the advice I have just plugged it in and all good...plays a dream...sure beats using the Laptop and a HDMI cable as before
cheers
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Reply By: Member - Bruce C (NSW) - Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:51
Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:51
Hi Bungarra,
I have watched several movies on my TV via a USB port and portable hard drive and had no problems using the USB as the only means of power.
My portable HD has no other power source anyway.
The only problem I had related to out of the ordinary formats.
I would assume that most USB ports, certainly on a TV, would conform to an international standard, with regard to current capacity.
After all, I pressume that that is why they are fitted to the TV, to run an external HD or similar.
I know that not all USB plugs are able to carry a reasonable amount of current as some cig socket USB adapters will not charge my phone in the car, while others with a higher capacity will.
Cheers, Bruce.
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Reply By: Member - Toyocrusa (NSW) - Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:57
Friday, May 24, 2013 at 19:57
Hi Bungarra. My van is a 2010 model with a 22" Sphere TV. It will power a usb hard drive from either end of the tele. What took me ages to work out was if you have a program recorded from an external device then it plays through the usb at the dvd player end. If you wish to record and then play the recorded program then it must be done from the Coax/power source end. The remote can also be a bit fiddly when operating the timer/record menu also. Sometimes I have to try 2 or 3 times to get it to activate. Cheers,Bob.
AnswerID:
511776
Reply By: Member - Boobook - Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 05:52
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 05:52
Firstly try a usb thumb drive with the files to verify that they work with the TV.
Once that is ok you need to make sure that you get a USB hard drive that draws less than 500mA which is the standard that a USB port can drive. Some hard drives use more power and need to be externally powered of powered off 2 USB ports.
AnswerID:
511792