USB to TV how?

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by Steve Bleasdale

Talk about frustration....
Am i being paranoid?
USB flash drives been in production years yes?
So why cant they all play in TVs...
Am i paranoid that i am thinking TV companies don't want you to play movies through a USB stick so that you wont get sky TV and Netflix and all other movie downloads?
Jesus how hard is it to get a film to play through a USB.......

There isn't a standard governing what can playback on TV USB port. Every manufacturer come up their own. My 3 years old 55" LG TV only play pictures from USB stick. No movie at all.

There are also complaince fee TV manufacturer need to pay organizations if their USB port need to decode MPEG2 or MPEG4. So it's really up to them to include those feature or not.

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by Steve Bleasdale

C
File is to large for destination drive, soi format to ntfs downloading great, try in TV, will not play, brand new LG TV ... WTF...

if you want max compatibility, you need to format the USB drive in FAT32 format. well, limit to 4GB max per file. I encoded a whole hour reception video to MP4 using 12/15 mbps settings. It is less than 4GB in size.

[Steve Bleasdale]

I did that Taky..
How do i choose that setting 12/15 mbps? Is that in the settings in media encoder. Thanks by the way....

[Taky Cheung]

Check out my blog for encoder setting

Recommended Encoder Settings for USB Thumbdrive Delivery | L.A. Color Pros Blog

[Steve Bleasdale]

Brilliant my old mate thanks... Steve

[Kyle Root]

Yeah I'm not 100% sure about USB delivery yet, but it is interesting.

We have 4 TVs with USB ports, and only 1 of them can actually play video. lol

I have another friend who has one with USB ports, and it couldn't play mp4s, but only mp2s... I know because we took it to a wedding show and I had done mp4 files... and I was re-rendering on site to about a dozen different formats until we found mp2 worked.

[Christian Nachtrieb]

We just include a Roku media player when we ship our deliverables. That way we know 100% it'll work. It's also a surprise gift so they don't expect it :)

[Michael Silverman]

Originally Posted by Christian Nachtrieb

We just include a Roku media player when we ship our deliverables. That way we know 100% it'll work. It's also a surprise gift so they don't expect it :)

That's a great idea! Which model of the Roku do you include? Do you load the MP4 onto the Roku before shipping? Or do you give them the USB drive along with instructions on how to load it?

[Clive McLaughlin]

The TV compatibility thing is a slight concern but doesn't put me off. I only advertise it as one of the benefits. It works on my TV but I haven't tried my USB on many others.

At the end of the day it's a USB - everyone knows it's primary use is on a computer device. TV viewing is a bonus. But hopefully in the next few years it will become standard for TVs.

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Christian Nachtrieb

We just include a Roku media player when we ship our deliverables. That way we know 100% it'll work. It's also a surprise gift so they don't expect it :)

So for this to work they'll still need to copy across to a tablet/phone or play it from a USB drive plugged into a laptop?

Seems only the Roku 3 has a USB slot - at £99 might be a bit much to add on to the cost

[Steve Bleasdale]

+1 Peter, my clients get a good deal already in UK prices, i am not laying out £99 for them

[Michael Silverman]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

So for this to work they'll still need to copy across to a tablet/phone or play it from a USB drive plugged into a laptop?

Seems only the Roku 3 has a USB slot - at £99 might be a bit much to add on to the cost

I did some research last night and it looks like the Roku Streaming Stick will allow you to copy the files directly onto it before sending it to the bride. This would require you to open the package of course, but that might not be bad as I'm thinking of getting a custom box with the bride and groom's name on it. Here's a link to the one I'm looking at which is $49 US:

https://www.roku.com/products/streaming-stick

It might be something that I'll offer as an add-on that they can upgrade to this year, or I may just build it into the cost next year. Certainly not for everyone, but it's an interesting option that I had not thought of because I want to do whatever I can to get away from making DVD copies.

[Michael Silverman]

Originally Posted by Michael Silverman

I did some research last night and it looks like the Roku Streaming Stick will allow you to copy the files directly onto it before sending it to the bride.

After doing more research (calling Roku customer support) it appears that the Roku 3 is the only one that will play MP4 files so I was incorrect about the Roku Streaming Stick having that ability. I also found out that (according to the tech support person) it's not possible to copy the files onto the Roku 3 as you simply have to plug your own USB drive into the Roku 3 and play the file off of the USB drive.

I had hoped that you could pre-load the Roku Stick with the MP4 file and let the bride just plug it in to their TV and play it but apparently that's not possible. I would be interested if there is something else that has an HDMI input built in that will allow you to pre-load it with an MP4 file because that would be very convenient for the bride.

[Peter Rush]

Well you still would have to supply the wedding on USB but this should send the HDMI to a TV and only for £20

Sumvision Cyclone Micro 2+ Full HD HDMI 1080p Multi: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Pete

[Michael Silverman]

That looks very cool! It's very reasonably priced as well