Bus-powered USB drives on BD players.

[nx6]

Hey, all.

I got a simple question here. Lots of bluray players have USB ports and support playback of PC video file formats natively. I'm working on doing encodes of some of my DVDs (h264/high, MP4, AAC audio) and was wondering if anyone had tried using those 2.5" external hard drives that are powered by their USB connection on their bluray player. I've heard of folks using external disks instead of USB flash drives, but not a lot about ones that don't use external power supplies.

I'd like to see if this works since the drive would turn on/off with the player then instead of needing to be switched separately.

[IanB]

The usb2 standard specifies ports to be able to deliver up to 500 milliamperes. The original interface IC, an LM3526M-H, that many manufacturer use implements this spec rigorously, i.e over-current shutdown at greater than 500.0 milliamperes.

Pin compatible interface IC's, AP2176SG-13 and HA8N4626 are now very popular and take a more relaxed view of output current. These versions can deliver up to 1 ampere to a single port or up to 1.5 amperes aggregate to both ports.

Many 2.5" drives depend on the extra current available from the newer interface IC's, particularly as they age. So a given 2.5" drive may work with your BD player now but stop working in the future. Cables that connect to 2 usb ports for extra power can be a life saver.

My media player/PVR has an LM3526M-H interface IC and I have a few 2.5" drives. All worked when new, only 1 still works without the double port cable. All the drives work with my PC which has a HA8N4626 interface IC.

It is all a big game of Russian roulette.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

One might put an USB Hub (one with separate power-supply unit!) in between, if the USB-Port alone doesn't provide enough power...

[Blue_MiSfit]

@IanB: Wow, that's an amazingly detailed response. You're awesome.

[Ghitulescu]

Many 2.5" drives depend on the extra current available from the newer interface IC's, particularly as they age. So a given 2.5" drive may work with your BD player now but stop working in the future. Cables that connect to 2 usb ports for extra power can be a life saver.

A secondary port would theoretically provide only 100mA and not 500mA as expected. Still is better than nothing, in particular with start-ups.

[G_M_C]

Hey, all.

I got a simple question here. Lots of bluray players have USB ports and support playback of PC video file formats natively. I'm working on doing encodes of some of my DVDs (h264/high, MP4, AAC audio) and was wondering if anyone had tried using those 2.5" external hard drives that are powered by their USB connection on their bluray player. I've heard of folks using external disks instead of USB flash drives, but not a lot about ones that don't use external power supplies.

I'd like to see if this works since the drive would turn on/off with the player then instead of needing to be switched separately.

Look at the players from Oppo. Those will do what you want without problems, including 1000 ma on the usb ports.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Look at the players from Oppo. Those will do what you want without problems, including 1000 ma on the usb ports.Agreed...

I recently got myself the Oppo BDP-103. I can confirm it's able to run quite power hungry 2.5" USB HDD's.

It's also able to play .M2TS and MKV contained files up-to 70Mbps via both UPnP and SMB, which is more that enough for playing Blu-ray back-ups...

Just-to-let-you-know... The Oppo does not support playback of DVD.ISO or Blu-ray.ISO files.


Cheers