Modern Smart TV devices from LG and Samsung have excellent potential to watch movies and TV programs in high quality. But not everyone knows that the broadcast in Smart TV can be paused. To do this, you need to use an external drive. The larger its size, the longer you can record your favorite TV show or program. This article describes the main points of choosing an external hard drive.
Instructions
Step 1
Form factor of external drive for Smart TV - the smaller the better. Choose 2.5”models. They take up less space. Some manufacturers complete their HDDs for Smart TVs with a special plastic basket that can be attached to the back of the TV in a VESA wall mount. The figure shows how such a solution looks like in Freecom Mobile Drive Sq TV. If you have a 3.5-inch model, you can also use it, but you have to put it on the shelf behind the Smart TV.
Step 2
Interface - USB only! Modern Smart TVs are designed to connect external devices via USB, so there are no problems with connection. An external drive is defined as a regular flash drive, only a very large one. Do not use too long cable to connect HDD to Smart TV. The drive is receiving power over the USB cable, and the voltage may drop on a long cable. So with a cable length of 2 meters or more, the drive may need additional power from an external source.
Step 3
Size - at least 250-500 GB. This is enough for tens of hours of recording. The larger size is a waste of money, although the cost per GB falls annually. So 1 TB or more is cheaper today than 500 GB last year.
Step 4
The speed does not really matter, it will still be limited by the USB bandwidth. According to experts, in practice it rarely reaches 30 Mb / s. And even the interface of a laptop is slow, 5400 revolutions per second, HDD is capable of providing 80-100 Mb / s. Buying an external SSD for a Samsung or LG smart TV is also unjustified. For the same reason - limiting the USB speed.
