External USB powered HDD

[GAOlivier]

Hello,
I've decided to buy an android tablet, but have one important condition (besides my 200 euro budget):
I would like to be able to watch movies from my SeaGate portable 1TB usb powered HDD.

After having searched around on google and on these forums, I haven't found a concrete answer yet. I've read about using a usb hub to solve the power issue, and about some tablets (like the Nexus 7) being able to read files from an external hdd (with help from certain apps, like Nexus Media Importer).
Is this possible with other tablets and within my 200 euros budget?

Thank you

 

[wizzrah]

Hello,
I've decided to buy an android tablet, but have one important condition (besides my 200 euro budget):
I would like to be able to watch movies from my SeaGate portable 1TB usb powered HDD.

After having searched around on google and on these forums, I haven't found a concrete answer yet. I've read about using a usb hub to solve the power issue, and about some tablets (like the Nexus 7) being able to read files from an external hdd (with help from certain apps, like Nexus Media Importer).
Is this possible with other tablets and within my 200 euros budget?

Thank you

You have to make sure the USB port can give enough power to support the external hard drive. The tablet might also need a custom kernel as well.

 

[GAOlivier]

Ah, alright. Do you know whether it's actually efficient to watch movies from an external hdd, instead of copying everything on my pc, from the drive to the tablet's internal storage? I can imagine it would take a lot of battery usage from the tablet. Maybe I should just get an SD card with it, to expand the storage.
Also, which tablet would you recommend within my budget (200 euros). I've mostly taken a look at brands like Yarvik and Archos, because I get the idea that they bring comparable specs as brands like Samsung and Sony do, but at a lower price.

 

[Ealevenish]

Ah, alright. Do you know whether it's actually efficient to watch movies from an external hdd, instead of copying everything on my pc, from the drive to the tablet's internal storage? I can imagine it would take a lot of battery usage from the tablet.

I'm guessing: too much.
It would either not get enough juice to operate, or it would drain the battery in less than half an hour.
Is that SeaGate portable 1TB usb powered HDD a mechanical/optical old-school set of spinning hardware disks or an SSD array? If the first I wouldn't advise to carry – and bounce – it around all the time.

Maybe I should just get an SD card with it, to expand the storage.

In your shoes I would go for a tablet that handles external SD cards. The 32GBs work fine, afaik. There seem to be a lot of crappy ones among the 64GB SD cards. And 128GBs were just released. Probably still pricey, but they'll drop fast.

OR you could consider a personal cloud. That would be the virtual ultra portable HDD that you can never lose, or forget, or get stolen.
Of course you'd need internet to up- and download stuff, so WiFi recommended always!
In any case: you wouldn't need to schlepp around your SeaGate portable 1TB usb powered HDD anymore!
Portable is not exactly the same as mobile, after all.

 

[wizzrah]

Ah, alright. Do you know whether it's actually efficient to watch movies from an external hdd, instead of copying everything on my pc, from the drive to the tablet's internal storage? I can imagine it would take a lot of battery usage from the tablet. Maybe I should just get an SD card with it, to expand the storage.
Also, which tablet would you recommend within my budget (200 euros). I've mostly taken a look at brands like Yarvik and Archos, because I get the idea that they bring comparable specs as brands like Samsung and Sony do, but at a lower price.

If you have a computer at home, you can connect your hard drive to the laptop and then turn the laptop into a media server from which you can stream from.


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