USB Media Player Questions

[Gorse]

BACKSTORY: A few years ago, I bought one of those big new 4K OLED Samsung Smart TVs, and it's really great! The picture quality for videos and games is excellent, it connects to all my devices beautifully, and it's very simple to set up and start using.

HOWEVER.

Because I'm an evilton, pretty much everything I watch on TV is an old show, movie, or cartoon downloaded from internet torrents and archives. Some of it works perfectly through my TV's USB input – I just plug in my standard SanDisk 256GB stick, and the TV loads it in – ... but a lot of it doesn't. The TV's operating system just doesn't recognize a lot of very common video formats – .avi files, for example, simply don't appear. Some .mkv files (which, as you may be aware, is the standard file type for animation produced by our friends in the far Orient) give me an error message when I try to play them, and some don't properly load in the subtitle files, leaving me unable to interpret the audio track. I'd say about 50% of the files I try to play on my TV this way aren't watchable.

There are a few ways I've tried to address this problem, all of which have failed to some degree. They are:

• Connecting my laptop to the TV through HDMI/casting it through LAN. Unfortunately, both of my current laptops – one Mac, one PC – are very old, and give me serious, immersion-breaking lag when I try to watch video this way. FAILURE
• Adding video files to my Apple TV. Apple's fucking proprietary, locked-down hardware/software package doesn't let me add any video files that aren't in .mp4 format, which most of what I want to watch isn't. I could convert the videos using FFMPEG or something, but I'm extremely neurotic about video quality – that's why I bought this TV in the first place – and I'm not smart enough to understand whether I'm converting the files correctly. FAILURE
• Using an internet-based media server application. This could work, but I have two issues with it: first, I really do not like the thought of me being unable to watch my stuff if I lose my internet connection, and second, I really really don't want to have to pay a recurring subscription fee to use these applications, which of course every reputable one charges. (Haven't you jerks heard of open-source software!? I'm calling Richard Stallman!) FAILURE

So, unless I'm not aware of another solution, it's looking like my only choice to watch my video files is through an external USB media player. From what I understand, the "best" option on the market right now is a 4K Amazon Fire Stick – base price $80 in Leaftopia for the best model (I'll probably buy it on sale) – but before I make the plunge, I have several questions that I'd really appreciate your input on. THEY ARE:

1. Is the 4K Amazon Fire Stick the USB media player you'd most recommend? Assume that I'm a fucking dumb-dumb who doesn't have the intellect, time, or inclination to bugger around with computer software endlessly.
2. When purchasing a modern USB media player, can I even expect to sideload my own files off of it? I'm completely out of the loop, here – do they still let you do that? Can I add my own files to this device? I don't need or want to use any of the streaming TV features – I just want to download stuff from my computer, put it onto this device, shove the device in my TV, and play it.
3. Can modern USB media players play all major video file types properly, including with subtitles and multiple audio tracks? I guess what I mean by this is file types like .mkv, .mp4, .avi, and maybe even weird stuff like .divx and .iso. (And yes, there are shows I want to watch that are only available in .divx format – I'm a lunatic.) I'd like to be able to toggle between soft-sub files and different audio tracks at a whim without anything breaking.
4. Is dealing with the remotes for modern USB media players a fucking nightmare? I currently have two remotes for my TV – a standard one, and my Apple TV one – and the thought of adding another kind of makes me want to kill myself, but I think it may be unavoidable. Should I be concerned about this? I have PTSD about the four different remotes I used to have to switch between when watching TV at my parents' house in the late 2000s.

Any support you could provide here would be truly appreciated. If anyone has any other questions about USB media players, please feel free to ask them in this thread, as well. Thank you, and goodnight.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Actually, I ran into that problem myself and solved it by getting a cheap tablet with an HDMI port on it and installing VLC Media Player on it.

No lag. Plays every file under the sun, and even searches for subtitles for you.

Hope this helps!

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Avi is just a container, and you can probably change that easily. mkv is also a container, but is more open than mp4 or avi.

I've seen more problems with a TV refusing to do playback of DivX contents, but a tool to change the codec to generic FourCC codec (no content changes) removes that.

So it may take a few minutes, but converting avi to mp4 or mkv is pretty easy. I can write you a quick script to use in batch, you just need FFMPEG.

Download FFmpeg

ffmpeg.org

If you use linux, probably use your apt or other package installer to download it.

The basic way to do a conversion is to tell it to just copy. example

ffmpeg -i inputfile.avi -c copy outputfile.mp4

Done!

A batch file will be one of two.

find "$@" -exec ffmpeg -i {} -c copy {}.mp4 \;

or for windows

for /r %%i in (*.avi) do ffmpeg -i "%%i" -c copy "%%~ni.mp4"

As for what your TV supports... the Samsung one i looked at had a manual entry and gave specifications for codecs, bitrates, and containers... I want to say most will be supported, but when you have the choice between licensing and not licensing, you go with free more often, so it may become ogg/vorbis and AV1, rather than MPEG/AAC.

 

[geckomantis]

I just want to point out that if you do setup a media server application like plex or jellyfin then you can still use it while offline. That's because the whole point is you're setting up your own computer to act as a server so you're running the whole thing locally. That said you do need a computer to do the transcoding for your video files and you already said you're 2 laptops aren't good enough to even play video files.

My recommendation if you're planning on spending money anyway is to get a better PC. As a person who has their own ever growing hoard of video files I've tried most of the ways and while I haven't mined some of them. At the end of the day nothing beat just having a media center PC with a wireless keyboard. An old cheap mini PC with a modern enough CPU like an AMD 5000 or Intel 12th gen should be good enough to play any video file without lagging and some of those are in the $100-$200 range.

A different option if you already have a newish phone is to just use that. If it can play all your files then just airplay/screen mirror your phone to the tv to play video files. My Samsung phone even has a full desktop mode called dex and I can actually plug it into tvs with cheap usb c dock.

It might help people if you actually listed what hardware is avalable to you. Like how old are your laptops and what kind of phone do you have?

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

I just want to point out that if you do setup a media server application like plex or jellyfin then you can still use it while offline. That's because the whole point is you're setting up your own computer to act as a server so you're running the whole thing locally.

Hmmm... If you have a NAS you might get away with it. There's apps i can download including those, which does both file sharing, but support transcoding (recoding video/audio on the fly to codec and/or bitrate and resolution).

However in my experience just having things encoded h.265 works better and is supported by most of my devices; And storing large videos (like porn ?) as AV1 greatly reduces the size, and i only have to do a quick re-encode if i need it on another device.

Though some anime as AV1 tends to be pushing for perfect copies and recoding to h.265 at fast is half the size...

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Wtf is a smart tv

 

[Enian]

Smart TV's often run Android. If yours is one of them, you can simply sideload Kodi and stick in a usb drive. Should work and is definitely worth a try.

Otherwise, Fire TV Sticks work great, but they aren't the creme de la creme. A dedicated media computer hooked to your TV would be able to do a lot more. There are also some high end media players that cost thousands of dollars. In the end it depends on what your standards are. I'm willing to believe a Fire TV Stick would be more than enough for your needs.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Wtf is a smart tv

If it does more than display a screen (and have options to adjust color/brightness/offset) then it's probably a smart TV.

Smart TV's often run Android

True. And often have apps you can use, depending on sideloading and depending on proprietary lockdown.

It can also spy on you too. BEWARE hooking a TV to the internet. You can be forced into agreeing to new terms you didn't agree to when you bought it, often regarding service or having to pay to unlock basic features.

 

[Gorse]

Thanks for all the answers so far – you've given me some great tips! Keep it coming – I'd love to hear more on this topic from people smarter than I am (everyone).

I can write you a quick script to use in batch, you just need FFMPEG.

Wow, thank you so much for writing all this up! I've actually used FFMPEG before, but I'm always afraid that it'll lower the video quality of the file I put through it, and I don't like that at all. I'm also not quite sure how it handles subtitle files, which causes me grief when I'm watching foreign media. I'll test this code out with a few things and get back to you.

My recommendation if you're planning on spending money anyway is to get a better PC.

I wish! Unfortunately, new PCs in Canada (for what I need) are upwards of $1500 for even low-tier models. o_O (And, as a matter of fact, I'm probably just staying with Mac the rest of my life – I'm too old to be dealing with the shit modern version of Windows.) I'm sure I'll have to upgrade eventually, but for right now, I'm trying to spend as little as possible.

It might help people if you actually listed what hardware is avalable to you. Like how old are your laptops and what kind of phone do you have?

I've got a 2015 Macbook Pro, a 2020 Thinkpad X1 with a non-functioning keyboard (long story), and an iPhone 15. Aside from the phone, which is subject to the same Apple restrictions I mentioned, the laptops aren't going to be doing much in terms of connecting to my TV. (They can still play videos just fine on their own, thankfully, but they're both at the age where they struggle with external displays, especially 4K ones.) I doubt I'll get far with any of 'em.

Smart TV's often run Android. If yours is one of them, you can simply sideload Kodi and stick in a usb drive.

Mine doesn't, it's a proprietary Samsung OS, and a rather shit one at that. ? If I were someone who only watched stuff on streaming services, I'd be just dandy, but I unfortunately was born under the massive nerd star.

In the end it depends on what your standards are. I'm willing to believe a Fire TV Stick would be more than enough for your needs.

After reading through this thread and a few other resources, I'm preetttyyyy sure I agree, but I'll keep an eye out if anyone has anything else to add.

It can also spy on you too. BEWARE hooking a TV to the internet.

This is something I think about a lot. I'm not too worried, unless the people at Samsung are keeping tabs on which 90s puppet sitcoms I'm watching, but I wouldn't be surprised if they've got my entire house bugged. ?

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

I'm also not quite sure how it handles subtitle files

Glad you brought that up. Avi doesn't have subtitles, but mp4 and mkv DO. ffmpeg has a weird quirk where it will only select the first video/audio/subtitle and work with that; Unless you specify otherwise.

'Otherwise' is done like so....

 -c copy -map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:s

That basically tells it to include all video/audio/subtitle streams, and should just be direct copied over.

Thinking about it, i'm not sure if -map 0 would just do the job, but i know the 0:x will work.

Post automatically merged: Jan 22, 2025

Mine doesn't, it's a proprietary Samsung OS, and a rather shit one at that.

My GF's mom has a Samsung. Yeah getting apps is a pain (and NONE of the apps after signing up to their service, were worth getting). Though plugging in the USB it recognized most file formats we wanted to use, even does AV1 decoding at a decent speed.

This is something I think about a lot. I'm not too worried, unless the people at Samsung are keeping tabs on which 90s puppet sitcoms I'm watching, but I wouldn't be surprised if they've got my entire house bugged. ?

Maybe. But it's the forced update to terms i dislike. What if you can only use the TV if you agree to enter your credit card and have to pay $10/month in order to use the TV, or else it's a brick?

And they also have cameras and microphones they move to within the screen so you can't just cover/block it easily now.

Best to not let it access at all.

 

[beatleboy2025]

BACKSTORY: A few years ago, I bought one of those big new 4K OLED Samsung Smart TVs, and it's really great! The picture quality for videos and games is excellent, it connects to all my devices beautifully, and it's very simple to set up and start using.

HOWEVER.

Because I'm an evilton, pretty much everything I watch on TV is an old show, movie, or cartoon downloaded from internet torrents and archives. Some of it works perfectly through my TV's USB input – I just plug in my standard SanDisk 256GB stick, and the TV loads it in – ... but a lot of it doesn't. The TV's operating system just doesn't recognize a lot of very common video formats – .avi files, for example, simply don't appear. Some .mkv files (which, as you may be aware, is the standard file type for animation produced by our friends in the far Orient) give me an error message when I try to play them, and some don't properly load in the subtitle files, leaving me unable to interpret the audio track. I'd say about 50% of the files I try to play on my TV this way aren't watchable.

There are a few ways I've tried to address this problem, all of which have failed to some degree. They are:

• Connecting my laptop to the TV through HDMI/casting it through LAN. Unfortunately, both of my current laptops – one Mac, one PC – are very old, and give me serious, immersion-breaking lag when I try to watch video this way. FAILURE
• Adding video files to my Apple TV. Apple's fucking proprietary, locked-down hardware/software package doesn't let me add any video files that aren't in .mp4 format, which most of what I want to watch isn't. I could convert the videos using FFMPEG or something, but I'm extremely neurotic about video quality – that's why I bought this TV in the first place – and I'm not smart enough to understand whether I'm converting the files correctly. FAILURE
• Using an internet-based media server application. This could work, but I have two issues with it: first, I really do not like the thought of me being unable to watch my stuff if I lose my internet connection, and second, I really really don't want to have to pay a recurring subscription fee to use these applications, which of course every reputable one charges. (Haven't you jerks heard of open-source software!? I'm calling Richard Stallman!) FAILURE

So, unless I'm not aware of another solution, it's looking like my only choice to watch my video files is through an external USB media player. From what I understand, the "best" option on the market right now is a 4K Amazon Fire Stick – base price $80 in Leaftopia for the best model (I'll probably buy it on sale) – but before I make the plunge, I have several questions that I'd really appreciate your input on. THEY ARE:

1. Is the 4K Amazon Fire Stick the USB media player you'd most recommend? Assume that I'm a fucking dumb-dumb who doesn't have the intellect, time, or inclination to bugger around with computer software endlessly.
2. When purchasing a modern USB media player, can I even expect to sideload my own files off of it? I'm completely out of the loop, here – do they still let you do that? Can I add my own files to this device? I don't need or want to use any of the streaming TV features – I just want to download stuff from my computer, put it onto this device, shove the device in my TV, and play it.
3. Can modern USB media players play all major video file types properly, including with subtitles and multiple audio tracks? I guess what I mean by this is file types like .mkv, .mp4, .avi, and maybe even weird stuff like .divx and .iso. (And yes, there are shows I want to watch that are only available in .divx format – I'm a lunatic.) I'd like to be able to toggle between soft-sub files and different audio tracks at a whim without anything breaking.
4. Is dealing with the remotes for modern USB media players a fucking nightmare? I currently have two remotes for my TV – a standard one, and my Apple TV one – and the thought of adding another kind of makes me want to kill myself, but I think it may be unavoidable. Should I be concerned about this? I have PTSD about the four different remotes I used to have to switch between when watching TV at my parents' house in the late 2000s.

Any support you could provide here would be truly appreciated. If anyone has any other questions about USB media players, please feel free to ask them in this thread, as well. Thank you, and goodnight.

just buy a usb media player box on aliexpress, i bought one there for like 12 bucks, and it plays everything i put on a usb stick, and i just plug the usb into the box and plug the box into the tv and it plays, it even came with a remote to pick the file i want to play, then i just hit play.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

on aliexpress

I would treat Aliexpress like TEmu and question everything.

You might get something that works, or it might be garbage.

 

[beatleboy2025]

I would treat Aliexpress like TEmu and question everything.

You might get something that works, or it might be garbage.

i donmt think you have to worry about a simple usb media player though, i bought this 3 years ago and its still working great, and it plays every file

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

i don't think you have to worry about a simple usb media player though, i bought this 3 years ago and its still working great, and it plays every file

What was 3+ years ago, isn't what's up today. News i watch keeping up with china, most workshops are cutting so many corners and using such cheap materials and may even be toxic or radioactive that i don't want to risk it.

Just suggesting you be wary, of Alibaba, AliExpress, TEmu and other Chinese stores/brands.