Memory Stick Virgin

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

[quote user="dave21478"]YES, someone gets it!

as ANother points out, upload and download speed are NOT the same. I pay for a 2 meg connection, which gives a real world 1.2meg download on a very good day (more like 400 - 500k most evenings, and occasionally just stalls away to zero - the joys of living in the countryside where the telecoms network consists of a series of broken old grey boxes along the roadside, most of which are hanging open with the birds nest tangle of wiring exposed to the elements) , but upload is only about 100k. at absolute best

Uploading 64gig+ at that sort of speeds.....I would be quicker driving to the shop, buying a memory stick and going to the friends house and swapping the files physically.

As for ease....method 1 - friend plugs stick into his computer, drags n drops the files, hands me the stick, I go on holiday, plug the stick into the telly and thats it done.

method 2 - i research which cloud storage provider gives the required storage capacity for free. I sign up an account and pass the details on to my friend, who has never even heard of could storage. They get it though and start uploading at a painfully slow rate. I go on holiday and find that the net connection is less reliable than a 70's BL car on a cold morning. I download the files in fits and starts onto my computer. I still need to get them to the TV though, which requires a memory stick..........

Cloud storage has its uses, and one day 20 years from now when everywhere has super-fast connections, not just those who live in cities, then it will be great for this sort of thing.[/quote]

I understand the difference between upload and download speed so you don't need to be patronising.

As I have already said, the cloud is great if he has the speed to do it. Nowhere has he said he doesn't have the speed to do it.

I also assume he would be watching said movies on his laptop. Most tvs do not have usb ports.

And of course the biggest advantage the cloud has is he doesn't even need to go to his friends to get more content.

But carry on putting down another viable option.

[Benjamin]

Thanks for all your comments and recommendations although some of them passed over my head!!!!

I have no knowledge of the quality/speed of the wifi connections I may get so the memory stick still seems the best bet for the moment.

The cheap as chips Kogan TV has a USB port (as well as other interfaces) although it will probably fail at some point in time. As for other devices with storage (Android, tablet etc.) we have none except for a Kindle Fire HD for the occasional 'net access.

If all else fails we'll just go back to our normal means of amusing ourselves i e we talk to one another!!!!!!!!

[AnOther]

In all likelihood your 'cheap as chips' TV will only support the .avi format (nominal 700mb) so the question of playing HD movies via it's USB port does not even arise !

Furthermore, .avi is a loose standard with many different codecs (encoders/decoders) for creating and reading so there is no guarantee that all .avi files will play on it even if the TV does technically support them.

Your best bet may be to store them on a laptop and then connect that to the TV via a an HDMI or VGA/PC input depending on which your TV has.

[DerekJ]

I use one of these.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclone-Micro-MultiMedia-Player-Adaptor/dp/B00534L3B8/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_1_0

Very small, connect it to my TV via a HDMI cable. I use SDHC cards and transport it between the UK and France.

It displays a basic menu and has a remote control.

An excellent little device and very cheap.

[dave21478]

"But carry on putting down another viable option."

But it is NOT a viable option. Even with a 12mb connection - a speed that is beyond the wildest dreams of a very large portion of the country - it took a chap on the previous page THREE HOURS to upload one single 700mb file.

Uploading enough content to fill a single cheap memory stick at those speeds would take all day, and at the speeds many (most?) of us endure, it would take literally weeks.

Like I said....perhaps in twenty years time, when the infrastructure is in place to support it.....

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

I've not used a flash drive for ages since I've signed up for google drive, dropbox and skydrive. Have almost 30gb of stuff between the three. I don't think it took more than a few hours to upload, but it wasn't a big deal, I just left my computer on. Those speeds are already here.

However, I do agree with you if either his or his friend's isp is not up to it. But we don't know, which is why it is an alternative option.

Anyway, he's going for the flash drive method, so fair enough.

I wonder what Chromebook sales are like in Europe then. If there's no infrastructure for cloud use in place, then I guess they will flop there.