comparable items to this?

[hueyot]

i'm very interested in buying an external hard drive that doubles as a portable media player that can be connected to a television, DVD player, etc...

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10481

check out that link, it looks to be exactly what i'm looking for, but it's expensive. do you guys know of comparable items for a competitive price?

i've also found this on e-bay:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5826566458&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

are there some reputable brands that you guys think are worth the price? maybe you guys can give me some pointers on what to look out for.

i think i should probably check some chinese websites, but i think customer service will be poor. especially if i have a quality problem after purhcase.

are these portable hard drives that double as media players relatively new?

thanks.

 

[jaxvon]

The reason that hard drive is expensive is because it's made with a laptop drive. This allows it to be bus powered. You can make your own, though. All you need is a hard drive and an enclosure. Search for a 2.5" one and fine one that you like.

 

[hueyot]

hmmm that's interesting. but i am looking for a portable HD that can be powered through the USB.

when plugging these portable HDDs/media players into TVs, how is the device powered?

 

[hueyot]

if i were to build my own, what would i need in order to have the hard drive capable of playing media files?

i like the idea of being able to plug this HDD into TVs and playing media.

 

[MDS]

hueyot,
It would be easier for us to make suggestions if you tell us how you will use an external drive. A hard drive is for storage - a drive alone cannot play media files. The drive you linked to is just an external hard drive with a USB interface.

I use a 300 GB external Maxtor drive (USB and Firewire interfaces) to store WAV files ripped from CD. All the major drive manufacturers make similar products and the new trend is networked external drives (not quite NAS) with ethernet ports that you can connect directly to a router.

You still need software or a hardware media server type device to stream the files stored on the drive to your stereo or tv. It sounds to me like what you really want is a media server, but they are not exactly portable.

 

[hueyot]

well, my primary need is simply portable data storage which is powered through USB.

secondarily, if possible, i'd like to be able to connect this external hard drive to a television and be able to view media of various formats on the television.

 

[jaxvon]

Well to fit your primary concern, you MUST purchase either a pre-built enclosure that specifies it is bus powered, or build one with a laptop hard drive. The power demands from a normal 3.5" hard drive are too high for bus power.

Your secondary concern is, sadly, not possible from just a hard drive. You'll need a computer to play the media files located on the drive.

 

[hueyot]

thanks for the information... i'll look at some canadian sites and see if i can build a portable hard drive from a 2.5 inch HDD.