Media player for TV to read USB drive with family DV videos?
 

I am trying to find a good solution for a media player for an external USB hard drive. I have elected to keep all my family videos from vhs tapes and minidv in the raw uncompressed format.

I want my family members to be able to easily access the video files on the hard drives and play them on a TV. I have tried a couple, but both of them only played the audio and not the video of the files.

I logged into google play to download VLC and that worked well, but I was hoping to find a media player that is inexpensive and can play these files without anything software or apps added.

I know the WD live media player on here has been recommended, but I guess I would prefer an option that isn't used (because it's not longer made).

Lastly, if I get a 1080P player, I am assuming the TV will upconvert the signal for me? I don't need to get a 4k media player correct?

WDTV won't play DV or uncompressed files. Neither will the majority of standalone media players. There was a similar question at videohelp.com recently (maybe it was yours?). The issue is that if you do find a player that would work, you're likely limited to that particular model which may have incompatible hardware and software in the next version.

The best option is to convert the files to a compatible format in an .mp4 or .mkv container. I'll leave it to others to give the best conversion options and software.

Edit: I see it was your thread at videohelp. Maybe you'll a better answer here. Good luck!

Edit 2: The WDTV Plus and Live Streaming were great devices for their time (miss the interface), but they're prone to failure after a few years as they run hot and act up after a few hours of use. I've gone through 3-4 of each over the past decade and now use a laptop as my media player.

Leave the original archives as-is.

Then make a copy encoded to H.264 (in MP4 or MKV container).
Use Hybrid, it's easy (after you understand mild learning curve GUI; I need to make a guide)

BTW, for DV, aside from codec/container is bandwidth. Files are too large to stream.

Yeah that was me on the other forum as well. I figured to try to find out if anyone else has discovered solutions to playing uncompressed avi media player.

I think I will go the route of converting everything to h.264 mp4 and keeping 2 or 3 different copies of the uncompressed video footage.

Lordsmurf thanks so much for your advice and help. I really appreciate it.

Is Hybrid just a good free choice of a piece of software or is it in your opinion the best piece of software to use for the H.264 conversion?

So I downloaded Hybrid and got confused at all the options. I have tried my best to search on this forum and other forums for recommended setting on hybrid for either Mini DV or VHS AVI files with regards to just putting them on a hard drive that will be accessed through a media player. I am going to keep the original files intact. I am just trying create a copy that plays well on tvs.

Is this posted elsewhere in a forum and I am just not using the correct keywords?

I have posted screenshots from the program in my google drive for ease:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VX...9aFsvDS6lBxlpb