DP Lite external drive format ???

[Greg Hudson]

G'Day. I've just sent a 2.5 inch NTFS formatted drive (which works fine in my BW-T4) to my sister, with her DP Lite...
When she plugged it in, no files were visible.

Does anyone know what drive format (NT, FAT, Ext FAT) the DP Lite supports please ?

[MrQuade]

G'Day. I've just sent a 2.5 inch NTFS formatted drive (which works fine in my BW-T4) to my sister, with her DP Lite...
When she plugged it in, no files were visible.

Does anyone know what drive format (NT, FAT, Ext FAT) the DP Lite supports please ?

It should be able to read NTFS formatted drives, it just can't write to them. It will also read FAT (with its 2GB file size limit) and FAT32. It's internal drive's format is a variant of FAT32.

I would guess that it can read ext3 as well (haven't tried it myself), but that's not very compatible with non-linux PCs for most average users.

If your sister's DP-Lite can't read from the drive, then I am thinking that the DP-Lite is having trouble supplying enough power for the drive. She could try powering the drive externally, or using one of those USB Y-power-adaptors.

Either that, or the drive didn't survive the "sending", or there is a user-error of some sort. I presume she has tried accessing it from her PC?

[Greg Hudson]

G'Day. I've just sent a 2.5 inch NTFS formatted drive (which works fine in my BW-T4) to my sister, with her DP Lite...
When she plugged it in, no files were visible.

Does anyone know what drive format (NT, FAT, Ext FAT) the DP Lite supports please ?

It should be able to read NTFS formatted drives, it just can't write to them. It will also read FAT (with its 2GB file size limit) and FAT32. It's internal drive's format is a variant of FAT32.

I would guess that it can read ext3 as well (haven't tried it myself), but that's not very compatible with non-linux PCs for most average users.

If your sister's DP-Lite can't read from the drive, then I am thinking that the DP-Lite is having trouble supplying enough power for the drive. She could try powering the drive externally, or using one of those USB Y-power-adaptors.

Either that, or the drive didn't survive the "sending", or there is a user-error of some sort. I presume she has tried accessing it from her PC?

G'Day Mr Quade. I've been waiting TWO WEEKS (pun) to hear from you
Thanks for the reply. The drive I sent my sister was a 250GB 2.5 inch, in a USB3 external drive case.
She can see folders (but no files) on the drive (plugged into her DP Lite) and folders AND files when plugged in to her PC - which gave me the idea it could be the DP Lite didn't like the NTFS format. However, if it supposed to be happy with NTFS, then I'll assume the USB port doesn't have enough power for the drive to work correctly.
Ive got a 3.5 inch enclosure (powered) that I can send her, so I'll try that with Ext FAT and see what happens.
Some files are over 4GB hence the reason for Ext not just FAT. (NTFS does not have the file size limits, or HDD size limits, which is why I use it)
I've got her copying files to her laptop HDD now... so the drive survived the trip to Adelaide.

The only other option I can think of is to send her a small 120GB SSD which should not use the same amount of current as the 2.5 inch HDD
What do you think ?

[MrQuade]

G'Day Mr Quade. I've been waiting TWO WEEKS (pun) to hear from you

Get ready for a surprise!

Thanks for the reply. The drive I sent my sister was a 250GB 2.5 inch, in a USB3 external drive case.
She can see folders (but no files) on the drive (plugged into her DP Lite) and folders AND files when plugged in to her PC - which gave me the idea it could be the DP Lite didn't like the NTFS format. However, if it supposed to be happy with NTFS, then I'll assume the USB port doesn't have enough power for the drive to work correctly.

If she can see the folders, then the drive should be reading correctly. I am not sure why it wouldn't be seeing the files though. I had thought that the DP-Lite would be able to recognise the .ts file extension as valid media files. Maybe someone with more recent DP experience can chime in.

Ive got a 3.5 inch enclosure (powered) that I can send her, so I'll try that with Ext FAT and see what happens.
Some files are over 4GB hence the reason for Ext not just FAT. (NTFS does not have the file size limits, or HDD size limits, which is why I use it)
I've got her copying files to her laptop HDD now... so the drive survived the trip to Adelaide.

The DP series can't read exFAT. exFAT is different (newer) to FAT and FAT32.

The only other option I can think of is to send her a small 120GB SSD which should not use the same amount of current as the 2.5 inch HDD
What do you think ?

I'm not sure it will help given that the DP is seeing the drive's folders.

[peteru]

Sounds like the DP-Lite is reading the HDD just fine, but the UI is filtering the list of the visible files.

If I recall correctly, the DP series will only show a certain type of files by default and if you want to see everything you need to select the correct view mode. From memory, this is done with left and right arrows.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Sounds like the DP-Lite is reading the HDD just fine, but the UI is filtering the list of the visible files.

If I recall correctly, the DP series will only show a certain type of files by default and if you want to see everything you need to select the correct view mode. From memory, this is done with left and right arrows.

Yes sirree -
2) Step 2: Select Content Type
Use the LEFT/RIGHT buttons to select the type of content you wish to play, as follows;

 All media icon: This will show all media files contained in the selected device.
 Video camera icon: This will show only the video files contained in the selected device.
 Headphones icon: This will show only the audio files contained in the selected device.
 Still camera icon: This will show only the photo files contained in the selected device.

NOTE  When you enter File Playback mode, the content type selected is always the content type you last used.

[Greg Hudson]

Thanks to all for your tips & suggestions. I'm not 100% sure of my sisters technical prowess attempting to explain what was happening with regards to folders being visible but not files. It sounds a bit sus to me now I think about it.
In the interim I have sent her a 500GB 3.5 inch HDD (FAT32 format) in a powered external case with a USB port.
Fingers crossed it will do the job.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I'm not 100% sure of my sisters technical prowess attempting to explain what was happening with regards to folders being visible but not files. It sounds a bit sus to me now I think about it.

Video files won't show in the file list if either of audio filtering (headphones icon) or image filtering (SLR camera icon) is selected. Select either of video filtering (Video camera icon) or better still the all media filtering (all three icons).

Send her this pic and tell 'sis to keep the filtering selection on "the leftmost icon on the top row"

[Greg Hudson]

It's taken a while for my sister to get back to me. The situation is:
I've sent her a new 3.5 inch 500GB drive, formatted in FAT32
She has it plugged into one of the 2 USB ports on the rear.
Power is on, she can hear the drive spinning.
She has All media and USB selected on the main menu.
All she sees is:
/
Nothing else. No files, nothing.

So, could it be the BW doesn't like the drive format as FAT32 ?
Thanks.

[Greg Hudson]

OK, maybe I am asking the wrong question ?

For the DP Lite, what are the 'known' working formats for external USB drives?
FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc ?

Thanks.

[MrQuade]

So, could it be the BW doesn't like the drive format as FAT32 ?

The DP-Lite can definitely read and write FAT32 partitions, and can read NTFS partitions.
It's can't read or write exFAT.

I do have to check though, that you are sure that the disk is formatted as FAT32?

I ask, because Windows makes it difficult for you to format anything larger than 32GB as FAT32, so if you formatted a 500GB disk as FAT32, you would have had to have used a special tool. The Windows format tool formats anything larger than 32GB as exFAT or NTFS.

Also, FAT32 is limited to storing files that are no larger than 4GB each. This is sometimes a problem for recordings of movies or long sporting events, which can be larger than 4GB.

I'm still stumped from earlier how she was seeing folders, but not the files though. This is very strange!

[peteru]

Make sure you use files and file extensions that the DP-series can play. It's been a long time since I used a DP-series, but I think that AVI and MKV are the two formats you want. Nothing fancy in terms of codecs - MPEG-2 video with MP3 audio would be the safest bet.

Or just buy her a V2 and send that over with the HDD.

[Sandy B]

I had a similar problem with my DP-P2 with it not "seeing" my USB thumb drive. I was advised by the forum that most probably it was a power supply unit issue, when the PSU eventfully fail I got Mark Warkus to repair the unit and check out the USB situation.

Mark repair the PSU and advised that there was nothing wrong with the USB slots on the P2 as he got get his thumb drives to work. It appears and he could not explain as to why the P2 could "see" can not "see" my Sandisk drive, but can "see" his Toshiba thumb. As I said Mark can not explain why, but the problem appears to be in my case that the P2 will just not "see" certain thumb drives / HDD. My Sandisk thumb drive work perfectly well in my computer and T4, so I do not think it is a format or defective drive issue.

Potentially you have the same problem.

[Sandy B]

I've tided up and reposted my comments. I should read more carefully prior to posting.

I had a similar problem with my DP-P2 with it not "seeing" my USB thumb drive. I was advised by the forum that most probably it was a power supply unit issue, when the PSU eventfully fail I got Mark Warkus to repair the unit and check out the USB situation.

Mark repair the PSU and advised that there was nothing wrong with the USB slots on the P2 as he got get his thumb drives to work. It appears and he could not explain as to why the P2 could can not "see" my Sandisk drive, but can "see" his Toshiba thumb. As I said Mark can not explain why, but the problem appears to be in my case that the P2 will just not "see" certain thumb drives / HDD. My Sandisk thumb drive work perfectly well in my computer and T4, so I do not think it is a format or defective drive issue.

Potentially you have the same problem.

[prl]

I would guess that it can read ext3 as well

Your guess would be incorrect

The DP series boxes run a very trimmed-down version of Linux (μClinux), and the DP series firmware doesn't include any drivers for the ext family of filesystems, even though they're a very commonly-used Linux filesystem (even at the time that the DP series was current). Remember that the DP series (apart from the P2) had only 8MB of firmware flash (the P2 had 16MB).

The only file systems supported on the DP series are FAT32, read-only NTFS and cramfs, which used for the firmware flash. Cramfs isn't really viable for video files: it has a maximum file size of ~270MB. It also has client-only Windows file sharing (read-write).

[Greg Hudson]

Hi Mr Quade.
Thanks for the info on the FAT32 format. Just what I was looking for.
I will keep it in mind next time I send my sister an HDD.
Thanks again.