need help w/dvd external drive or video

[J HighNote]

Okay, so I've had a very frustrating evening and I'm certain many of you can probably offer some advice or alternatives. Someone had asked whether an external drive could be connected to the Note but I don't think anyone answered that specific question. But it sounded like a good idea so I started to look into it and found a Samsung external portable DVD writer that was for Windows, Mac, and ANDROID. No external power source, plugs in via usb cord and should be good to go. I thought the worst would be it might drain the battery pretty fast. I have no experience with media on a tablet but it sounded so simple. HA! I'll spare you most of the frustration in lack of information in online manual. It does say if the drive doesn't come on to use a Y usb cable and connect it to two ports. It also says not to use a usb hub. Now I have the real deal Samsung adapter to create a usb port with a 30 pin adapter. I used a real Samsung usb cord that connects drive to adapter. No luck, not even the led light came on. Tried it on my computer, it works. Tried a usb Y connecter to one hub and it didn't work, tried it with a different hub and the green light came on but it didn't seem to read the dvd. So, as more frustration sank in, I got my hyperion battery charger that has a usb connection and put one leg of the Y into the charger plugged into an extension cord, and the other Y into the adapter in the tablet. All that made it extremely UNportable but at this point, I was on a MISSION. The drive would open, and it would rotate and do an odd click but I couldn't figure out how to get the tablet to even look at it. I tried the video player but couldn't figure out how to get it to go look elsewhere for a movie. I tried the my files folder to see if I could get to the dvd drive but couldn't figure that out either.

There are places on the web where people have figured out how to do this and they say you just need a generic adapter that costs less than two dollars to turn the 30 pin connection into a usb and act like that's all there is to it. Reviews for this drive are from folks using this with other tablets and things. So what am I doing wrong??? Some of those threads I mentioned used the word "host". Is that something particular, or does it just mean a female usb port?

Many of you have mentioned putting movies on a memory card or flash drive and I kept hoping I'd be able to figure out how it's done. I have NO experience at such things and would really appreciate any advice (dumbed down to the very novice level) on either transferring from dvd's to a way I can watch them on the Note or getting the dvd drive to work. BTW, the dvd's I have are probably the protected kind, they're mostly tv series I've bought, if that makes a difference.

Thanks for any help!!!

 

[GMJeff]

What is happening is that the tablet does not have the drivers included for a external drive like a dvd player. There would have to be some kind of input/output driver installed that would recognize it and mount it for read/write functions.

I am sure there may be an app solution to all of this and you would have to root the device and switch to a vanilla android to get it to work, but more hassle than it is worth.

As for the usb issue, it sounds like the drive is powered by the usb bus as well as uses it for data, hence the "Y" adapter. One part of the wire for data, the other for power. DVD drives as well as hard drives are power hungry devices. Usually, you would plug the adapter into two usb ports on a tower or laptop to run the drive. I believe that you are right in the sense that the battery on the tablet would run dry in a rather short time if it worked. USB hubs usually aren't powered unless you buy a specific model that has a power supply to offer the full voltage to connected devices, that is why they do not recommend a hub.

There is software on the market that will allow you to transfer your dvd movies to a sd card from the disc, and some movies today if bought from a store offer a digital copy in the case to use on tablets and such. I can't comment on the best or what is available now, as i stopped ripping dvds quite some time ago.

Sent from my GT-N8013 using Android Central Forums

 

[Andy847]

Hi J,
I've never done anything with an external dvd drive, but have the Usb On the go adapter cord to attache a Flash Drive to the Note. I just transferred a movie I had on my PC to the flash drive using the Usb port on my Pc and dragging and dropping it to the Flash Drive. I then connected the USB adapter cord to my Note and plugged in my Flash Drive. Then using the File Explorer app I have or I'm sure you can use the one on the Note, just found the movie on the flash Drive and clicked it and it started playing. Looked good on the Note too. I think it was The Lost World Jurassic Park II. I just did it to see how a movie looked on my tablet and to see how the USB cord I bought off Amazon.com worked. I think I paid like $3 and some change for the USB adapter cord.

 

[J HighNote]

Thanks Jevangil and Andy, I appreciate the help. Jevangil, it didn't come with a Y adapter, Samsung acted like one usb connection is usually enough and they supplied a normal usb cable. I had a y cable from an external drive. I've seen external battery packs and one of them said it could charge a drive and still let data go from drive to tablet. Of course, that wasn't a feature I thought I would need at the time and now I can't find it again. If I hadn 't had all Samsung connections, I would have thought something was just under par and think that was the problem. Andy, last night I tried directly connecting the tablet to the pc and copying the dvd to the tablet. Something came up and asked if I wanted to convert the files. I have no idea what software started. I said yes and at first it said 45 minutes remaining. I finally got an error message saying there wasn't enough room in the destination even though there were G's left on the tablet. Did your movie take long to copy? I appreciate the help folks.

 

[Andy847]

J, I did it a different way. I had blu rays that came with digital copies in the box with a code to put in on the website it specified to download them. I downloaded to my PC, then transferred the movie to my flash drive which was plugged into my USB on the PC. The Movies only took 10 minutes each to download to my PC, maybe a little longer. I then put the flash drive into my USB adapter cord, and plugged into the GN and found it on the flash drive with my file explorer. I then just hit it and it started playing.
I have had the message come up to convert when I took some music videos I have downloaded on my PC and put them on my Note by connecting directly to the PC via USB Port. I usually convert the files when it asks, although sometimes have kept the same, as when I download the music videos, I usually download them as MP4. It does take a little longer when converting them. So I can imagine the Movie would take a lot longer. Not sure why you got the error message if you have some Gb's left on the memory of the GN.
What you might want to try is look through some of your newest DVD's or Blu rays, and see if any of them come with a digital copy included. Try downloading them to your computer first, then try to save to a flash drive or your SD card. The digital copies usually are a Card with the name of website to download from and a code to enter. I did have a problem with a blu ray wanting me to use the Ultra Violet format, which Is a new format they are pushing, which required me to join Flixter or another website, and was wary of using them and was a lot more complicated then it needed to be. So never downloaded that movie. If I have time I'll play around with it this weekend and try to get it to work with another movie and see how I did it. It's been awhile, so haven't done it recently.

 

[J HighNote]

Stuart, please don't take up time copying blu rays. I don't have blu rays and probably never will. I'm not one to typically buy dvds, I just bought a few complete series that I thought would be nice to play when I'm away from my tv. I did have a radio shack guy explain that I didn't need to copy all the files on a dvd, just the large video ones in the video folder. I came home and did that but this time the software didn't come up and ask whether it should convert it and evidently the tablet didn't like the format. I didn't feel like doing it all over again. I think copying is a @#!$ pain. I did manage to get the drive to work but the tablet just doesn't see it. It will see a flash drive, just not the dvd one. BTW, got the drive to work by using a 2.0 output adapter with usb port and plugged one end of the Y cord into it. I think tomorrow I'll give a call to Samsung. I don't understand the terminology of "host" and OTG as it pertains to usb cables. Maybe I just need different cables! I'm not ready to admit defeat yet!