Switching to USB flash drive distribution

[Dave Barnes]

Hello all - looking for some comments & advice. I think this is the year I will finally offer USB flash drive option for delivery of dance recitals. Anyone have comments or advice on what format is the most compatible with most smart tv's? How does this work for anyone that has gone down this road? The only thing I have found so far is the fornat of the usb flash drive should be exFat for best compatibility.

DVD has had a good run , but people have started asking for USB flash drive option.

** by format I am asking what video codec etc. thanks

[Noa Put]

Eventhough exfat will play on mac and pc many tv's might not recognize the format and that can result in many client complaining it won't play on their tv, my old samsung HD tv is happy with NTFS formatted usb sticks and as far as I know Mac can read the format as well so I would format the sticks to NTFS. The easiest fileformat that will play on anything is a HD file in .mp4 (h.264) codec.

You also might consider just offering a option to provide a download link which is way less work, in such a case you have to agree a fixed amount for your work since that link can be easily shared to those that don't want to pay, that is also the case with usb sticks which can be shared with family and/or friends who can copy it to their pc for free.

[Anthony McErlean]

Originally Posted by Dave Barnes

Hello all - looking for some comments & advice. I think this is the year I will finally offer USB flash drive option for delivery of dance recitals. Anyone have comments or advice on what format is the most compatible with most smart tv's? How does this work for anyone that has gone down this road? The only thing I have found so far is the fornat of the usb flash drive should be exFat for best compatibility.

DVD has had a good run , but people have started asking for USB flash drive option.

** by format I am asking what video codec etc. thanks

I format the USB3 pen in NTFS and copy an MP4 file to it and never had any problems with a bride saying it won't play. I use handbrake to encode the MP4 file.

[Dave Barnes]

Noa & Anthony - thanks for the tips - I will try that out with a sample and see how compatible it seems.