Anyone hooked up a big external HD to a Fusion LED TV?

Cardo

Cardo

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www.yacht-tinkerbell.co.uk
Currently in the throes of equipping the boat for long term liveaboard and trying to sort out the entertainment.

I have sorted out the music by having a Fusion radio with an iPod dock with all our music. I'm now thinking about our movie collection. This has been ripped and sits on a big HD. I had a thought of getting a 12V LCD/LED TV that can read movie files from an HD.

I quite like the look of the Fusion TVs, and the fact they're designed to be tolerant to marine conditions. They have a couple of USB ports, however officially they only support up to 16GB USB flash drives. I emailed Fusion to ask if a large HD with movie files on it would work, but unfortunately I received a not particularly helpful response stating they only officially support the above. They did say technically a larger HD should work, however would have size limitations and it would have long loading times. They didn't specify what the size limitation was.

So, has anyone tried this? If so, any luck?

Also, has anyone done this with a different TV with success?
 
Consider the option of an Led monitor as an option. They seem to use less power, even if you need to use a net book to power them. They will play movies from your hard drive in any current and in any future format.
I don't watch TV, but for crusing sailors I think Internet TV and movies is likely to source used in the near future.
 
Alternatively you could use a Media Player connected directly to the TV.
Versions are available with a built-in HDD. Unfortunately they run off external mains but the internals probably run on low voltage DC so with a little knowledge it should be possible to get them them to run on a 12v boat supply without the need of an inverter.

Something like this :-

http://www.philips.co.uk/c/blu-ray-...origin=|mckv|svJxHSIbd&pcrid=9728097414|plid|

or put "HDD mediaplayer" into google.
 
Got a 23" Cello TV on board (mains or 12/24v). Hook up a 1TB hard drive which is powered from the USB connection. Works great. Cello tv has a good picture and has built in digital and analogue tuner. Bought of ebay for a couple of hundred quid.
 
deuc02 said:
Got a 23" Cello TV on board (mains or 12/24v). Hook up a 1TB hard drive which is powered from the USB connection. Works great. Cello tv has a good picture and has built in digital and analogue tuner. Bought of ebay for a couple of hundred quid.
Click to expand...

Similarly I recently bought a Kogan Tv which will read a Hard Drive, (plan to test it this weekend). Not the best picture in the world, but we have the latest Panasonic Viera at home, (which is one of the best pictures in the world, second only to the Pioneer Kuros).

Www.kogan.co.uk
 
Thanks for the replies, all. The Cello and Kogan TV's look interesting. There is a 19" Cello currently listed on eBay for £159.

I've also had a look at Kogan. They're quite a lot cheaper, however as stated the picture quality is quite a bit lower. Just how bad is it in practice? Richard, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know how you get on with trying the HD hooked up to it.
 
Unfortunately the Raspberry Pi, despite the recent hype, won't be generally available for a couple of months. Would make a great, cheap media server though!
 
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