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USB hard drives

KilarneyKilarney
edited January 2009 in Technology
I just ordered this hard drive.

Have people had good luck with USB powered hard drives? A lot seem to require a "Y" cable. The reviews of this one seem to suggest that it runs fine off of just one USB port. The trouble is usually with older laptops, and I'm using it with a desktop.

Despite the new Apple TV and MacMini models that are rumored, I figured we'd go with the Western Digital HD TV box for our video needs. I got the hard drive to use with it.

The only thing that makes me nervous is the fragility of a portable hard drive. I also could have bought a no-name brand for slightly cheaper, but they get pretty bad reviews.

Comments

  • ninjarabbininjarabbi
    I have the old 80GB version of the Seagate free-agent Go. It works fine for me. It came with a Y cable but a regular one seems to work just fine for me. It does get pretty hot because of the small case so I suggest you put your hard drive in a fairly open area so it doesn't overheat. I have had the problem of it eating the battery on our laptop but it's pretty old, and I rarely use it on anything but a desktop.
  • AprecheApreche
    The Western Digital HD TV Box is pretty good. However, it is also limited. Mostly, WD made it as a vehicle for selling their external hard drives. It's sort of ironic that you plan to get the external drive from someone else besides WD. If you do decide to get the WD, then any old external hard drive will be just fine. Don't worry if it's fragile. Every drive will crash someday. Drives are so cheap now, it's not something to worry about. Just get the cheapest drive at the size you want.

    Now, the WD-HDTV itself has two problems. One problem is that it's a lot of extra work. You've got to take the USB drive, put files on it, then carry the drive over and plug it in. Even with a laptop in the living room and a 2G USB stick, it's a lot of work. It's even more work if you get a video that's encoded in a format the device doesn't support, though it does support all the major ones.

    The other problem is that it doesn't do Netflix, Hulu, or any other sort of streaming service. It also doesn't do anything with any sort of DRM, so no buying media on iTunes or Amazon. If you don't want those, no problem.

    These days, I think that people really want to have fewer and fewer boxes connected to their televisions. It's really a pain in the ass to have a receiver, a DVD player, one or two game consoles, a cable box, a DVR, a Roku, an AppleTV, and more. If you get an actual full-on computer connected to your TV it can be a DVR, a Roku, an AppleTV, a game console, a DVD player, and more all in one box. The Mac mini does all that while also being small and quiet. If you're really clever, and you get a Windows Media Center PC with cable card support, your computer can be the cable box also. Good luck making it work, though. It's not easy. Heck, you can even get the computer to be the receiver, but it's not advisable.

    I think what's going to happen very soon is someone is going to put a full computer in a small box, similar to AppleTV. Unlike AppleTV, they're going to put some Boxee-like software on it that gives it all of those features. It will be a cable box, DVR, digital media player, DVD player, all at the same time. Combine that with a really simple receiver that is just an HDMI switch and a 5.1 amplifier in the same box, and you've got a complete media system in two boxes. We should see that within the year.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited January 2009
    I'm thinking of getting a Wii and just loading mPlayer onto it as it will just play whatever video files I put on a disc, It also plays games and is very portable.
    It's really a pain in the ass to have a receiver, a DVD player, one or two game consoles, a cable box, a DVR, a Roku, an AppleTV, and more.
    Can we get a picture?
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • AprecheApreche
    Can we get a picture?
    I don't have all those things.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    If you're really clever, and you get a Windows Media Center PC with cable card support, your computer can be the cable box also. Good luck making it work, though. It's not easy.
    What are you talking about, Scott? It is easy. I've got a P4 computer with an AGP ATI All-In-Wonder tv tuner card receiving cable and hooked up to the tv downstairs via RCA. I run MediaPortal on top of XP Pro and I've never had any trouble with it. Full DVR functionality and everything.
  • AprecheApreche
    What are you talking about, Scott? It is easy. I've got a P4 computer with an AGP ATI All-In-Wonder tv tuner card receiving cable and hooked up to the tv downstairs via RCA. I run MediaPortal on top of XP Pro and I've never had any trouble with it. Full DVR functionality and everything.
    You're very lucky. The guys from Engadget had people from Microsoft and people from Time Warner in their apartment, and they could not make cable card support work. It's really a crap shoot.
  • KilarneyKilarney
    Now, the WD-HDTV itself has two problems. One problem is that it's a lot of extra work. You've got to take the USB drive, put files on it, then carry the drive over and plug it in. Even with a laptop in the living room and a 2G USB stick, it's a lot of work. It's even more work if you get a video that's encoded in a format the device doesn't support, though it does support all the major ones.
    Agreed. That's a drawback with this unit. It's tolerable, but it involves some work. I REALLY wish that it was wireless. They could still sell the hard drive, but allow me to send things to it wirelessly.
    The other problem is that it doesn't do Netflix, Hulu, or any other sort of streaming service. It also doesn't do anything with any sort of DRM, so no buying media on iTunes or Amazon. If you don't want those, no problem.
    That's okay. Neither do I. I've got a TIVO for DRM content. Amazon on TIVO works really well. You can also get Disney movies through another service - although I can't remember the name.
    These days, I think that people really want to have fewer and fewer boxes connected to their televisions. It's really a pain in the ass to have a receiver, a DVD player, one or two game consoles, a cable box, a DVR, a Roku, an AppleTV, and more. If you get an actual full-on computer connected to your TV it can be a DVR, a Roku, an AppleTV, a game console, a DVD player, and more all in one box. The Mac mini does all that while also being small and quiet. If you're really clever, and you get a Windows Media Center PC with cable card support, your computer can be the cable box also. Good luck making it work, though. It's not easy. Heck, you can even get the computer to be the receiver, but it's not advisable.
    I'll have three boxes hooked up to my TV when this is done. Not too bad.

    I agree with you that something good is going to come along. We're very close to seeing it. That's the EXACT reason that I went with the Western Digital Unit. The WD unit is cheap - about $112 including shipping. Pretty much every other option is much more expensive. Of course I had to buy a hard drive, but I needed one anyway. I currently have no backup device for my desktop.

    When a truly good box comes out, I won't regret ditching the WD unit. I don't want to invest too much now, since I'm convinced that in a year or so we'll see the killer box. Now if the content providers could just get their act together and all stand together behind a box...
  • AprecheApreche
    I agree with you that something good is going to come along. We're very close to seeing it. That's the EXACT reason that I went with the Western Digital Unit. The WD unit is cheap - about $112 including shipping. Pretty much every other option is much more expensive. Of course I had to buy a hard drive, but I needed one anyway. I currently have no backup device for my desktop.
    There's other good reasons to buy something like that now as well. For one, when a complete single-box solution does come out, you can move all the things you buy now to your secondary or tertiary televisions. Also, something like the WD box is portable, so you can take it to other people's houses.

    We bought the Roku, even though we knew the Mac mini would eventually have that functionality. That's ok, though. When we move to a new house, we'll have a new TV also. We can put the Roku on the secondary TV, but keep the Mac on the primary one.

    I think it will actually be a much longer time before we see a one box for the whole house solution. Right now you actually have to get an entire computer for each screen. It's kind of silly. You should just have one central box that does the work of DVRing, etc. Then on each screen you could have a very tiny box that is basically just a power supply, a wireless network card, a processor, and A/V outputs. I think that is the ultimate of what modern technology can accomplish, someone just has to build it.
  • ZeehatZeehat
    someone just has to build it.
    FRC inc. ?
  • KilarneyKilarney
    I really like the looks of this Netgear unit. However, the price isn't impressive. I'd rather get a Mac Mini for not much more. At least you know that the Mac will play DRMed content.
  • Conan-SanConan-San
    edited January 2009
    I actually got a WDTV HD for Christmas and I'm thrilled with it. Most of the files I have, bar a few exceptions, have run flawlessly and even more so after the 1.01 firmware upgrade which sorted out some sponyness with .ASS subtitles.

    It also took music and video straight off my iPod's library which was a nice surprise.

    The only things that it doesn't support (apart from the DRM nonsense) is Vorbis audio and a few encoding methods for XVID (Some work perfectly fine others will jump like Mario on crack) and if I can get my Casshern Sins in 720p on for £70 then I think I've done alright for myself.
    Post edited by Conan-San on
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited January 2009
    Conan the Third, I salute ye! Found this video review of it (British accents abound).
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • JoeLamerJoeLamer
    I'm thinking of getting a Wii and just loading mPlayer onto it as it will just play whatever video files I put on a disc, It also plays games and is very portable.
    Have you tried this with MKV files? I downloaded a couple of Mplayer versions to my Wii but in all attempts the Mplayer crashed to a screen dump. So at least so far it seems to me that WD box wins Wii 1-0. I can play most of the files with TVersity - Xbox 360 combination but I haven't yet found a nice solution for MKV files (except my small laptop). WD HD TV looks pretty good because I already have the hard drives + no need for WLAN or DRM.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited January 2009
    I'm thinking of getting a Wii
    The WDHDTV is looking much more appealing though. Wii = no softsubs.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • KilarneyKilarney
    edited January 2009
    There has been a firmware upgrade to the WDTV that supposedly improves subtitles a lot.

    It seems that Western Digital is serious about improving the firmware with this model and adding functionality. They've already informally announced a new firmware arriving sometime this month.

    My unit is due to be delivered today, so I'll post a review at some point. The only problem is that I don't have a high-def television.

    My Fujitisu external hard drive arrived, and I'm very pleased. It's super quiet, and ran fine off of just one USB port. They included an extender cable and a separate "Y" cable if needed. I love the included USB cable attached to the hard drive. It makes a lot of sense, and sure beats carrying around a loose cable.

    Can anyone recommend how I should backup my hard drive onto the external drive? The Fujitisu came with a program to do this. I'm just not sure if I should make a "bootable" backup or just a mirror? Forgive my tech-naivete, but apparently there is a difference.

    My only concern with making a "bootable" copy is that it will somehow mess with my using the rest of the drive as a storage device. I don't want my computer going crazy when I plug it in.
    Post edited by Kilarney on
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited January 2009
    You just do a partition copy then set the partition to non-bootable so the computer won't even try to boot from it. You will have to change it back to bootable when you copy it back.
    I personally prefer just copying documents and such then using a fresh install and reinstalling my apps manually.

    I'm going to buy one of these pretty soon I think. I've never really tried watching files on TV but I could deffinetly get used to it. I also only have an SD TV.

    The big question is, will it play DVD ISOs?
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • AprecheApreche

    Can anyone recommend how I should backup my hard drive onto the external drive? The Fujitisu came with a program to do this. I'm just not sure if I should make a "bootable" backup or just a mirror? Forgive my tech-naivete, but apparently there is a difference.
    Don't use any weird programs. Just manually copy over files that are not replaceable. Things like documents, config files, personal media, etc. Don't copy over software, or anything you can just re-download easily. It's just a waste of space. It takes more time to restore your computer from a backup than it does to simply reinstall the OS and the software.
  • NeitoNeito
    Or just use a batch file and save all your important, irreplaceable stuff in one folder, then use Schedualed Tasks to move over everything with the archive bit set.
  • DkongDkong
    For backing stuff up, I use Toucan. I used to just do what Scott said- manually copying stuff over. If you have a lot of files (and I'm sure the amount of shit I have absolutely pales in comparison to what some of you guys have), it's so time consuming and a pain in the ass.
    Toucan's best option, IMO, is "mirror update". Say you have a folder on your main computer with all of your music in it, then a folder for your music backups on your external drive. The mirror update makes the one on the external drive exactly the same as the source folder. If there is a file with the same name, it will just "update" it (which works best for text files, but whatever floats your boat).
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Question about the WD HD TV: Has anyone tried playing an MKV with built-in softsubs (ones you can toggle) I saw someone say only subtitles in a separate file would work.
  • KilarneyKilarney
    I believe that was fixed in the latest firmware.
    You can check out the firmware release notes here.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    "Added embedded subtitle display in .MKV files" - Release notes. Win. I'll order mine tomorrow when this cheque [?] comes through.
  • KilarneyKilarney
    I found this on an "unofficial" bug list:
    - External subtitles (srt, ass, ssa) are out of sync most of the time.
    The texts are displayed too late.

    So be warned.

    The good news is that they seem to be serious about firmware upgrades and bug fixes.
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