TV - Computer Forums

[101RRS]

Saturday was a bad day - like many people I have far too many TV and audio remotes so I bought a Harmony remote to handle it all.

On setting it up - I appreciated my old Philips had an issue as it only has rca type inputs on the front - the back has scart and svideo only and I need 3 inputs - so in my wisdom I decided to move the front rca connector to the rear - on pulling the tv apart I managed to discharge the 50,000volts in its capacitors into my hand and then when I was thrown back I dropped the circuit board which broke the back of the picture tube and let all the gas out .

Oh well - I wanted a new TV.

I bought a LG 50" with an inbuilt HD tuner and 250gb hard drive. You can record programmes direct to the HDD and it runs "all the time" recording so you can go back and watch bits of programs while it records - so you don't have to miss any of that favourite program if you go to the loo.

Any way - while you can plug the TV into a laptop and use it as a big screen you cannot access the hard drive which is just a standard 250gb HDD (only holds 30 min of HD Best quality video) - will be the first thing to be upgraded.

So what I want to do is try to put in some sort of connector that will allow a PC to read the TV HDD. I assume some computer nerd has looked at this.

Any one know of a good forum where I can raise the above issues and get some sensible answers?

Thanks

Garry

[astormsau]

Gee mate, with your luck recently i think i'd leave it sit and just appreciate it for a few months before you go 'touching' anything

Given that the hard disk is accessed by the TV, i dont think you have that many options, the TV will want access to the drive whenever it decides it needs it, and im unaware of any hardware or software solutions which you could put between the hard disk and the TV to give you 'simultaneous' access to the HD from 2 devices - you run into issues when data is updated on the HDD.

It might be worth looking at the format the HDD is in by removing it from the TV and putting it into a portable HDD unit, im not sure which format the tv manufacturer would use for the file system. You may also run into issues with fitting a larger drive but wouldnt hurt to try it out.

Note that you would (this is obvious but saying it to cover myself) obviously void the warranty opening up a new tv to play with the hard disk.

Andrew

[Ferret]

Any one know of a good forum where I can raise the above issues and get some sensible answers?Garry

You might get lucky here

DTV Forum Australia (Powered by Invision Power Board)

[abaddonxi]

I usually do a search by model, etc. and come up with the forums that way.

There's a home cinema one that comes up often, and sometimes good stuff on Whirlpool, don't know how it counts as internet, but sometimes does.

Cheers
Simon

[101RRS]

Gee mate, with your luck recently i think i'd leave it sit and just appreciate it for a few months before you go 'touching' anything

Given that the hard disk is accessed by the TV, i dont think you have that many options, the TV will want access to the drive whenever it decides it needs it, and im unaware of any hardware or software solutions which you could put between the hard disk and the TV to give you 'simultaneous' access to the HD from 2 devices - you run into issues when data is updated on the HDD.

It might be worth looking at the format the HDD is in by removing it from the TV and putting it into a portable HDD unit, im not sure which format the tv manufacturer would use for the file system. You may also run into issues with fitting a larger drive but wouldnt hurt to try it out.

Note that you would (this is obvious but saying it to cover myself) obviously void the warranty opening up a new tv to play with the hard disk.

Andrew

Andrew - thanks for the comments - you maybe completely right but I don't know - thats why I am looking for a forum.

I wasn't looking at running the TV and the PC at the same time - just want a 'portal' to copy what is on the TV hard drive to the PC. The TV has an excellant editing function - so can edit ads out of movies and then download to my PC.

Garry

[101RRS]

You might get lucky here

DTV Forum Australia (Powered by Invision Power Board)

That is the sort of thing I am looking for.

Thanks

Garry

[hoadie72]

Saturday was a bad day - like many people I have far too many TV and audio remotes so I bought a Harmony remote to handle it all.

On setting it up - I appreciated my old Philips had an issue as it only has rca type inputs on the front - the back has scart and svideo only and I need 3 inputs - so in my wisdom I decided to move the front rca connector to the rear - on pulling the tv apart I managed to discharge the 50,000volts in its capacitors into my hand and then when I was thrown back I dropped the circuit board which broke the back of the picture tube and let all the gas out .

Oh well - I wanted a new TV.

I bought a LG 50" with an inbuilt HD tuner and 250gb hard drive. You can record programmes direct to the HDD and it runs "all the time" recording so you can go back and watch bits of programs while it records - so you don't have to miss any of that favourite program if you go to the loo.

Any way - while you can plug the TV into a laptop and use it as a big screen you cannot access the hard drive which is just a standard 250gb HDD (only holds 30 min of HD Best quality video) - will be the first thing to be upgraded.

So what I want to do is try to put in some sort of connector that will allow a PC to read the TV HDD. I assume some computer nerd has looked at this.

Any one know of a good forum where I can raise the above issues and get some sensible answers?

Thanks

Garry

I had a quick look on the LG website and couldn't see a model with the 250gb HDD but I'm assuming they're all the same in function.....

If your model has a USB connector then according to the manual for the 50" plasma model on page 56 you should have an option:

Copy to USB : Copies the recorded programme in the
internal HDD to the USB storage device.

By all accounts you can hook up USB HDDs (so long as they have external power) or flash drives.

[101RRS]

If your model has a USB connector then according to the manual for the 50" plasma model on page 56 you should have an option:

Copy to USB : Copies the recorded programme in the
internal HDD to the USB storage device.

By all accounts you can hook up USB HDDs (so long as they have external power) or flash drives.

Doesn't have a usb port - that would be ideal and I cannot see why one could not be rigged up.

Garry

[hoadie72]

1 reason - like the fact the basic hardware support for USB isn't there!