skylive5 Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I have a question. (Or maybe a couple of questions.) I just bought a Panasonic DMR-EZ28 that has a USB port. The reason I bought it was so that I didn't have to make DVDs and could play all my music from a USB device directly through my tv and stereo for the next three weeks or so. The guy at the store said that since a portable HD was pretty much the same thing as a thumb drive the portable HD "should" work. .....Well, it doesn't. The DVD player says that the USB device is not formated properly. The HD is a removable WD 500GB drive with no partitions. So now to my questions...... Does anyone own one of these DVD players and if so, which thumb drive would you suggest I purchase? I would not want to purchase any thumb drive that is not 32GB as that is the maximum the DVD paperwork says it will read. Disclaimer....I know they are not called thumb drives anymore and that they are flash drives. I prefer to say thumb drive so that I can keep things straight in my behind the times mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 I have a question. (Or maybe a couple of questions.) I just bought a Panasonic DMR-EZ28 that has a USB port. The reason I bought it was so that I didn't have to make DVDs and could play all my music from a USB device directly through my tv and stereo for the next three weeks or so. The guy at the store said that since a portable HD was pretty much the same thing as a thumb drive the portable HD "should" work. .....Well, it doesn't. The DVD player says that the USB device is not formated properly. The HD is a removable WD 500GB drive with no partitions. So now to my questions...... Does anyone own one of these DVD players and if so, which thumb drive would you suggest I purchase? I would not want to purchase any thumb drive that is not 32GB as that is the maximum the DVD paperwork says it will read. Disclaimer....I know they are not called thumb drives anymore and that they are flash drives. I prefer to say thumb drive so that I can keep things straight in my behind the times mind. As far as I know, all thumb drives (I call them that too) are the same apart from capacity. If the DVD manual says thumb drive without specifying, then any will be fine. They are maybe $60 - $70 for a 32GB one, I think. Portable HDs are NOT the same as thumb drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylive5 Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 As far as I know, all thumb drives (I call them that too) are the same apart from capacity. If the DVD manual says thumb drive without specifying, then any will be fine. They are maybe $60 - $70 for a 32GB one, I think. Portable HDs are NOT the same as thumb drives. His answer to my questioning look was that they both do the same thing... store data. LOL Thanks Ursa. Thumb drive it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 (edited) I could be wrong, but I believe that the portable HD's are formatted NTFS which is not compatible w/ those recorders. Thumb drives I believe come FAT 32. Re-format the HD to FAT 32. Also check page #64 and beyond of the recorder's manual. It explains compatibility issues there . Edited January 24, 2009 by rocknrobn26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 I could be wrong, but I believe that the portable HD's are formatted NTFS which is not compatible w/ those recorders. Thumb drives I believe come FAT 32. Re-format the HD to FAT 32.Also check page #64 and beyond of the recorder's manual. It explains compatibility issues there . Might be to do with drivers. Seems to me that the DVD device has a driver built in to it that tells it how to talk to thumb drives but it doesn't have one for an HD. I might be way off on this though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylive5 Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 I could be wrong, but I believe that the portable HD's are formatted NTFS which is not compatible w/ those recorders. Thumb drives I believe come FAT 32. Re-format the HD to FAT 32.Also check page #64 and beyond of the recorder's manual. It explains compatibility issues there . The problem is going to be that on page 64 it also says that it supports memories up to 32GB.... so I would assume that a 500GB drive is going to be a bit much for it. It's cool though... I pretty much expected this. LOL Knew that being able to use an existing portable HD was going to be too good to be true. And with what I have on it now I really, really do not want to reformat it and start over. I'll just go to the NEX and get me a thumb drive and be happy with 32GB. Thanks rockn'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 I could be wrong, but I believe that the portable HD's are formatted NTFS which is not compatible w/ those recorders. Thumb drives I believe come FAT 32. Re-format the HD to FAT 32.Also check page #64 and beyond of the recorder's manual. It explains compatibility issues there . right, and that's where the 32GB limitation comes in -- that is a hard limit in fat32. to re-format his hard drive in fat32, he'd have to break it up into 16 partitions. probably not an option either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 right, and that's where the 32GB limitation comes in -- that is a hard limit in fat32. to re-format his hard drive in fat32, he'd have to break it up into 16 partitions. probably not an option either. Dam....I knew that! That's why it's FAT 32!!!! 32 gig!!! Note to self: Don't post before second cup of coffee! I wonder if you formatted a 40 gig drive to FAT 32 if it would work??? Reason is I have a 40Gb HD that I could dedicate to music for bedroom tv. The loss of 8 Gb is no biggie. Anyone??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Dam....I knew that! That's why it's FAT 32!!!! 32 gig!!! Note to self: Don't post before second cup of coffee! I wonder if you formatted a 40 gig drive to FAT 32 if it would work??? Reason is I have a 40Gb HD that I could dedicate to music for bedroom tv. The loss of 8 Gb is no biggie. Anyone??? Try it. FAT32 is 32 bit, BTW, not 32GB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Try it. FAT32 is 32 bit, BTW, not 32GB. I checked my TV's manual. It says NO HD's of any size. Back to Thumb drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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