1. Does it display whatever is on your laptop screen and not just videos and apps? 2. Can you hook up an external hard drive and play directly to TV?
1492194
1. Yes it displays whatever is on your latptop screen and shows it on the TV or projector. Everything shows very good, except when playing videos the texture and color is a lilttle bit faded. 2. No you can not play an external hardrive directly with out it being connected to a pc.
2206384
Idk about a straight hard drive install. Not sure how you would access the files. I do, however, regularly connect my computer/iPad to the tv thru an HDMI cable. I can watch files on the unit or stream from the internet.
161121
I ran mine directly from my PC to the HDMI port on my TV. When I did, the tv became a big pc monitor where I could go online or play movies which were on my pc. I don't know about any other applications for it.
1624517
Yes it connects easily to external USB HDDs. The limit is 2TB, have a 3TB and had to partition it into 1TB and 2TB partitions to use it. It is a great little Android box. Turned my "dumb" 50" flat screen into a "Smart TV" at a fraction of the cost and far more powerful & scale able than any Smart TV currently on the market. I was really surprised how small the device itself is. Finding the right wireless keypad has been the challenge.
1761595
You wold need software to view the media on any display. Why don't you run a media cable from your computer to the HDTV and view it that way?
238455
It has an HDMI output and a component output. If you have an HDMI slot on your computer that can receive it will work. I do not know of a laptop that has a receiving HDMI input, only an output. If you are referring to a computer not a laptop then you should be able to get the appropriate hardware to make it work if it does not already have it. Most newer computers have the option to install an HDMI input to receive tv channels etc. from other sources like satellite receivers. Good luck!
552065
I have an external USB hard drive connected and it works fine. You can even play back files from the USB drive. I have a 1 TB external drive.
252211
Yes. You can use it similar to a wireless projector. Once you connect it to your TV, everything you do on your computer/laptop will be shown on the TV
388325
It does have the ability if your computer does, I connect my laptop with the hdmi and tv shows what is on my computer. Does just fine.
635371
All I know to say is try it. It works with USB to hook to my computer. And I can put a DVD or CD into the computer and play it. I don't have an external drive.
500451
I have been able to play .mov, .avi, .mkv .jpg and mp3 files.So far I haven't found any video files that it won't play.It has played on the TV and any computer connected to my network.
1695055
It plays all of your internet apps, like netflix, hulu, etc. but the main reason i bought it is that it also plays all of your own media. iv'e been consolidating my DVD library onto a big hard drive along with all my pictures and music. This device will easily play all of that.
812170
I'm not totally sure since I only purchased it to watch movies. However it does say that you can play music,movies,and view pictures downloaded onto USB and SD cards. Hope this was helpful.
1502607
You can view from laptop or download the videos your laptop. Also, you can view it on the unit's small screen.
1610269
I'm certainly no electronics expert, but shouldn't you be able to use this to play movies on your TV by hooking the drive up to your laptop, and then running an S-video cable from the laptop to the television, and changing the video output (screen) from the laptop screen to the TV screen? I've never tried it, but it seems like it should work. I use my internal DVD drive on my laptop to play movies on my TV by this method all the time.
1769519
How do you expect connecting an external drive to a TV to make any sense?!?
2047840
Its fast and easy to play content from an external HDD with the WD TV Live. I've other issues with it but if this is your purpose to have one: yes, it's a good equipment using a USB 3.0 connection. I did not use no USB 2.0 external HDD, then, for this I can't help you.