Portable memory drives for smart tv viewing

**FalunGonged** · January 25th, 2019, 10:21 AM

For the past few years I have been using those thumb portable drives to store and watch movies/videos and keep pdfs and jpeg images on my smart tv. The size of the thumb drives as a point of reference 16-32 gigs. I was wondering if any of the VEF tech savvy brethren have any advice on this.

Specifically....
1) As I like to move files (movies - mp4 format mostly) and docs (pdfs/jpgs) regularly, how reliable are thumb drives for this purpose? size of movies are around 1 gig- 2 gig tops. fyi some movies have been there for close to 2 years.

2) This is the most inexpensive or rather hassle free method I can think of watching stuff on my smart tv without having to pair devices to the tv itself however according to some, moving data about on these thumb drives is risky in regards to retention quality of the above data.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

halvar · January 25th, 2019, 11:52 AM

Most sources state a retention time of 5 or more years for flash drives, like here: https://anonym.to/?https://blog.stor...rage-lifespan/

BUT there always will be failures. And it will be the one you value most.
Always keep multiple copies of your files!

Also I find It rather expensive and cumbersome to handle many flash drives. I think it would be better to buy two larger (~4 TB) hard drives and put them in external casings with USB. These can also be attached to Smart TVs using USB. And by having two you can mirror them to have at least some kind of backup.

I use flash drives only temporarily to transfer data, not for long term storage. If I had 10, 20 or even more flash drives I would totally lose control over what is stored on which.

**FalunGonged** · January 25th, 2019, 07:53 PM

Thanks Halvar, having read the info link in your post and looking around the internet, the impression I am getting is that there is roughly a 5 and maybe up to 10 year lifespan on some higher end devices.
I guess its similar to the life span on computer/laptop hard drives, albeit that I have had a laptop for close to 8 years and working ok....for now.

That being said it boils down to the fact that you need to refurbish your tech if you want to avoid problems that could be preventable.

Jumpman2 · January 27th, 2019, 03:19 AM

I used to use multiple 2TB HDD's with my Smart TV but it was hard to manage the collection as it grew. I moved to Plex and have all my content being served from a dedicated server on my home network. Understandably, this may not be an option if you want to be more discrete in how you watch your media.

Alternatively, you could just have a NAS acting as your media server and either use the Smart TV media player or on board media server. Then you can unplug and put the NAS away when you aren't using it, though I'm unsure on how this would impact settings when adding and removing the NAS constantly.

For Plex, I had to sort out a lot of file naming conventions, folder categorisations etc. to get the library loaded and working the way I wanted to. I also turned off all the stats gathering functionality to reduce the potential of that information being used by Plex.

**FalunGonged** · January 27th, 2019, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jumpman2

...I moved to Plex and have all my content being served from a dedicated server on my home network. Understandably, this may not be an option if you want to be more discrete in how you watch your media...

Yup, I considered this but its not the best option for me at present but something to think about for the future. Each option, be it removable flash drives, servers etc have their pros and cons. For now I may just stick with either portable drives or thumb drives but will need to make sure to back these up to more up to date drives over 2+ years. I cant recall when I had mine so perhaps its prudent to get some new ones now.

Thanks for your input Jumpman2.

matt333 · February 7th, 2019, 04:50 PM

I have two 250 GB USB drives. I put 200 favorite movies and tv shows on there. It works pretty well. I unplug when I finish watching because they get hot if you leave the TV on. I've done this for about 3 years using the same 2 drives and never had any problems. The brand of my flash drives is PNY. I have been thinking about getting a 500 gb. The drives must be formatted properly or each file is limited to less than 3 GB.

January 25th, 2019, 10:21 AM	#1
FalunGonged Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 3,096 Thanks: 27,940 Thanked 69,774 Times in 3,108 Posts	Portable memory drives for smart tv viewing For the past few years I have been using those thumb portable drives to store and watch movies/videos and keep pdfs and jpeg images on my smart tv. The size of the thumb drives as a point of reference 16-32 gigs. I was wondering if any of the VEF tech savvy brethren have any advice on this. Specifically.... 1) As I like to move files (movies - mp4 format mostly) and docs (pdfs/jpgs) regularly, how reliable are thumb drives for this purpose? size of movies are around 1 gig- 2 gig tops. fyi some movies have been there for close to 2 years. 2) This is the most inexpensive or rather hassle free method I can think of watching stuff on my smart tv without having to pair devices to the tv itself however according to some, moving data about on these thumb drives is risky in regards to retention quality of the above data. Thanks in advance for any tips!

January 27th, 2019, 03:19 AM	#4
Jumpman2 Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 41 Thanks: 3,256 Thanked 664 Times in 34 Posts	I used to use multiple 2TB HDD's with my Smart TV but it was hard to manage the collection as it grew. I moved to Plex and have all my content being served from a dedicated server on my home network. Understandably, this may not be an option if you want to be more discrete in how you watch your media. Alternatively, you could just have a NAS acting as your media server and either use the Smart TV media player or on board media server. Then you can unplug and put the NAS away when you aren't using it, though I'm unsure on how this would impact settings when adding and removing the NAS constantly. For Plex, I had to sort out a lot of file naming conventions, folder categorisations etc. to get the library loaded and working the way I wanted to. I also turned off all the stats gathering functionality to reduce the potential of that information being used by Plex. __________________ I use 7zip for archives. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

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January 25th, 2019, 11:52 AM	#2
halvar Blocked! Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: HH Posts: 1,963 Thanks: 115,040 Thanked 32,801 Times in 1,955 Posts	Most sources state a retention time of 5 or more years for flash drives, like here: https://anonym.to/?https://blog.stor...rage-lifespan/ BUT there always will be failures. And it will be the one you value most. Always keep multiple copies of your files! Also I find It rather expensive and cumbersome to handle many flash drives. I think it would be better to buy two larger (~4 TB) hard drives and put them in external casings with USB. These can also be attached to Smart TVs using USB. And by having two you can mirror them to have at least some kind of backup. I use flash drives only temporarily to transfer data, not for long term storage. If I had 10, 20 or even more flash drives I would totally lose control over what is stored on which.

January 25th, 2019, 07:53 PM	#3
FalunGonged Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 3,096 Thanks: 27,940 Thanked 69,774 Times in 3,108 Posts	Thanks Halvar, having read the info link in your post and looking around the internet, the impression I am getting is that there is roughly a 5 and maybe up to 10 year lifespan on some higher end devices. I guess its similar to the life span on computer/laptop hard drives, albeit that I have had a laptop for close to 8 years and working ok....for now. That being said it boils down to the fact that you need to refurbish your tech if you want to avoid problems that could be preventable.

February 7th, 2019, 04:50 PM	#6
matt333 Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: THE WASTELAND Posts: 240 Thanks: 270 Thanked 3,486 Times in 240 Posts	I have two 250 GB USB drives. I put 200 favorite movies and tv shows on there. It works pretty well. I unplug when I finish watching because they get hot if you leave the TV on. I've done this for about 3 years using the same 2 drives and never had any problems. The brand of my flash drives is PNY. I have been thinking about getting a 500 gb. The drives must be formatted properly or each file is limited to less than 3 GB.