So what are they? These media drives allow you to transfer TV shows, movies, and other forms of media from your computer to your television. That’s right, you can actually watch your downloaded iTunes movies on something OTHER than your laptop. That’s a very nice thing to have if you’ve ever found yourself staring at a 13″ screen while there’s a 40″ screen in the corner being ignored!
How do they work? An external media hard drive operates much like a wireless hard drive does; it’s either a standalone system, or is easily incorporated into your existing network interface. Certain drives will plug straight in to your router and allow your television to receive the data it’s transmitting. There is a slight issue with this, however. Most televisions that aren’t less than a year old (and even most that are brand new) have no capability to actually interface with a network. That’s quite alright. There are devices that are available on the market now that will allow your TV to interface with the router wirelessly (or wired, depending on the model), and in that way will allow you to access what’s stored on the media drive.
Some of these home media network hard drive systems are what we call “standalone,” simply because they don’t require a network interface to work. These have transmitters and receivers built straight in, and don’t need you to hook them in to a router. Of course the above problem is still staring right at us: How do you get your television to interface with it? Again, you’ll just have to go out and buy a device that’ll allow that to happen. Most can be bought for fairly cheap, and can be found wherever media hard drives are sold.
Did that answer your questions? I hope so. See you next time.
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