Marine needs help playing videos from a tablet

[Tab Let]

Hi,

Basically, how do you play videos on tablet with a USB cable to an external hard drive?

My son is a marine and was just deployed to a ship. He has his movies on an USB external drive. He tried watching them in his bunk using his Windows 7 laptop but he only has about 10" clearance over his belly and can't open his laptop all the way. He has asked for a Tablet so he can plug his USB external drive into it and play directly from it. He only wants to spend a few hundred dollars for the setup Incase it gets damage during his deployment.

The WiFi on the ship is limited and he can only use it for 15 min at a time on certain computers, not his laptop. It also takes a long time to download anything, so all software has to be shipped to him on a USB.

We would also like him to open the unopened tablet box himself. He seams to always get hand-me-downs and this would make it special to him. This is not a requirement.

He is computer literate but considers computers a tool not a hobby. He knows enough to get by.

I've been working in the computer field full time since 1981 and grew up with CPM/DOS and Windows. I'm currently a windows systems engineer.

I picked up a Vizio VTAB1008 tablet with 16GB and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10", GT-P7510 with 16 GB to see if they would work.

I've tried the following to no avail:

1) USB cables: Tablet to USB hub to external drive
- VIZIO: No Connection. I heard it wasn't supported.
- Galaxy: No Connection. I may need a specal Host cable.

2) USB cables: Tablet to USB hub to PC
- VIZIO: Need updates on Tablet and PC before it will work.
- Galaxy: Need updates on Tablet and PC before it will work.

3) Bluetooth (I understand it is Slow...)
- VIZIO: Can only copy files one way (I think).
- Galaxy:

4) WiFi adhock
- VIZIO: get an invalid password error during connection.
- Galaxy: get an invalid password error during connection.

The Galaxy is $400 and is realy out of his price range considering it most likely will get damaged in the next 9 months. The Vizio is $200, a good price and looks good.

I feel the best options for him would be:

1) The Vizio connecting via USB cable to external drive.
2) The Vizio connecting via adhock WiFi.
- This would enable him to transfer the movies between his external USB and tablet as needed using his PC.

Has anyone done this before?

Suggestions please and Thanks!

 

[Tab Let]

Has anyone connected an external USB hard drive to a tablet and played movies from it?

 

[rlanza1054]

I know for my phone you need a special adapter to make the usb port work the other way. When I say the other way, usually those usb ports are for hooking up to a PC and seeing the directories/folders of the phone on your pc computer.

It is not usually meant for hooking up a flash drive or external hard drive and seeing that from the tablet (android).

They do make a special cable that actually reverses the direction so you can hook up a hard drive or flash drive.

Remember, on your regular PC the USB port is supplying power to the device you hook up (example a keyboard), the power comes from your PC's AC power supply.

In a tablet, it's a battery operated item and hence, doesn't really have the power to power a usb device. So many manufactures don't allow it.

But I think there are some tablets that do allow it, but your probably need that special cable.

I ordered one for my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch on Sprint, but the Android software has that feature turned off in the US. In Europe the Galaxy S II has it turned on, so the adapter I got would work on those phones.

If you need the model number of the adapter I purchase I can let you know if you want it.

Oh, I found the box, this is what I got from Samsung, you can probably get it cheaper from Monoprice.

The model number is: GH69-14041A.
The UPC code is: 6 35753 49554 6

I know from reading in a few other threads that some people talked about the Asus Transformer Tablet, with the keyboard dock is able to hook up an external drive. But if you add the keyboard dock, then you have a laptop... the lid would be in the way again.

With my Samsung phone, it has an external microSD card. I have a 32GB external card installed.

I take that card out of the phone and put it in my PC, then I copy about 10 full sized movies over the the microSD card, and then put the card back in my phone and what the movies with the a video player. In my case, I use MX Player Pro for my movies. It supports subtitles and works great but there are other media players that are good too, all available in Android's Play (was called Market place).

Maybe your son could get the movies copied to the memory card (or you can mail him a microSD card with movies on it for him) and then just pop the memory card in the tablet he received. Just make sure whatever you purchase supports external memory cards.

I'm just trying to give you several options.

Another option is to just stream the movies to his tablet, using a product that I use called 'Playon'. Play on is a plugin that gets installed on your PC and it can stream any video media to the tablet or phone. So whatever you have on your PC (all the movies) can be played on the tablet or phone, using their app that you also install on the tablet or phone.

Works great too!

But Playon would require at least a WiFi connection to be good. If you try it over a regular cellular carrier (such as Verizon, or ATT) then if you don't get a good speed it wouldn't work that good. But I think they have WiFi.

I'm sorry, I'm giving you several suggestions to your question.

I noticed that on body answered your question and I thought I'm comment until someone can add some more or better info.

Good Luck!

Rob

PS I also use Netflix on my phone as well. Anyway tablet (even Apple's iPad) can do Netflix now.

UPDATE:

I just ran across this, this could be another very good solution:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Satel...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU1717685

Check it out, it's a wireless external hard drive!