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[Q] External dvd drive for asus transformer?

Does the asus transformer support using an external dvd drive? I tried connecting my external dvd drive to my transformer to watch a movie on disc but not sure where to go or what to do next.

Dead topic revival, but wanted to give the OP some information.
The asus transformer does not support dvd drives out of the box. Two things need to occur before we can watch dvd's on our transformers. The first is a custom kernel with drivers for external dvd drives and the correct file system support (this may actually already be built-in, but I haven't tested to find out). The second is a method to decrypt css on dvds.
Linux has a library that can do this written in either c or c++. In theory this can be ported to the Android eco system. There are existing questions about the legality of the library commonly used on linux for this decryption. In some countries it is definitely legal, in others, the courts have not tested its legality. I would also be willing to bet that a few companies (like the one behind powerDVD) will create dvd software with completely legal decryption in the hopes that Android users with 3.1+ will buy their software for dvd playback.
It is very possible that we will be able to get dvd playback at some point, but it probably won't happen for at least another few months. Best bet for now is probably linux (either chroot if that has access to usb, or dual boot).

External BluRay would be great

Device recognised, no filesystem mounted
If anyone (like me) found this topic by searching the web: My LG DVD drive is recognised on my Transformer. I can see it listed as Usbdisk1 under Storage in Settings. Mounting doesn't work however, so I suppose the biggest issue here is the filesystem (either CDFS or UDF). The drives LED flashes a few times when I try to mount it.

I copied my DVD movies to an external hard drive, connected the drive to the Transformer through the USB port on the keyboard dock and it worked perfectly without a problem.

[Q] TV Sticks and large external drives.

I have a couple of TV sticks on the way both RK3188 Quad core
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300962682097&ssPageName=ADME:LC:GB:3160
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281141550752?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
Its going to replace an old PC I am using as a media centre
I plan to use XBMC and Netflix on these although I am aware there are some issues, I guess they will be ironed out in time.
I got a question about external hard disks.
If I have an external NTFS formatted 3tb hard drive full of movies.
I see that Paragon NTFS is available for android but not android 4.2 currently
I want to just plug the hdd directly into the host port and have XBMC see the stuffs, just like it does on my current PC setup.
Is it possible, Is anyone doing something similar?

I got two external drives connected to my newly purchased Minix Neo X7, a 320GB WD Portable Passport (1st gen) formatted with exFat, and a Cooler Master enclosure with a 400GB WD drive with NTFS, none of them show up in my android, all i get is a Safe to remove notification. Something tells me rooting will grant me extra options with a few apps available.

PlutoDelic said:
I got two external drives connected to my newly purchased Minix Neo X7, a 320GB WD Portable Passport (1st gen) formatted with exFat, and a Cooler Master enclosure with a 400GB WD drive with NTFS, none of them show up in my android, all i get is a Safe to remove notification. Something tells me rooting will grant me extra options with a few apps available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the research I have done you certainly need root to use a NTFS 'reader' and maybe a specific kernel (see http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-hfs-android/index.html)
My TV Sticks are in transit so as soon as I have them I will of course work it out then post back a reply to my own question, assuming someone else does not answer it first.
I could just avoid all this and NAS my 3tb drive but thats an expense I would rather not incur.

Rooted the piece last night. Paragon mounted my poorly supported Cooler Master X Craft 360 straig away. For some reason exfat is not supported though, which is wierd cause both older paragon versions did and so should android 4.2 natievly, shouldnt it?

Yeah I heard exFat was supported too, its useful to know paragon worked.
still waiting for mine to arrive...

sleepingsword said:
Yeah I heard exFat was supported too, its useful to know paragon worked.
still waiting for mine to arrive...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are a couple of other tools that'll do the job as well like Chainfire's SitckMount http://goo.gl/T5TBTy
And for troubleshooting:
USB Host Controller http://goo.gl/fUq5ZS
DiskInfo http://goo.gl/qtgnOH
so far, no luck on exFAT , Paragon says "• exFAT evaluation mode - for OEMs only."
edit: Paragon app works in 4.2.2, dont know why it says it doesnt.

Android 6.0 and USB OTG devices

Does anyone know how MX Player can "Scan" or access a mounted USB OTG drive?
It looks like the drive is mounted in /mnt/media_rw/, but MX Player can't access that directory.
Yes, I know there is a workaround by browsing to the individual videos and hitting play one-at-a-time. But I'd really like to be able to see the list of videos natively within MX Player, so that I can jump to the next video without having to go back into a file manager.

kent1146 said:
Does anyone know how MX Player can "Scan" or access a mounted USB OTG drive?
It looks like the drive is mounted in /mnt/media_rw/, but MX Player can't access that directory.
Yes, I know there is a workaround by browsing to the individual videos and hitting play one-at-a-time. But I'd really like to be able to see the list of videos natively within MX Player, so that I can jump to the next video without having to go back into a file manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In which device..?
Needs proper mount point information.
Open the OTG drive in any file manager & check the property.
In most of the devices media_rw is uaed to raw storage access & will no be available for third party apps. The same partition is remounted as sdcardfs file system under /storage to manage write access to external storage.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk

This is a Moto X Pure, running Android 6.0.
The USB OTG drive is mounted as what looks like a URL. USB://CORSAIR/
The drive does not have a true representation in /storage, except for whatever symbolic link that might have been placed there by a 3rd party app like StickMount (which I've tried). The true mount point of the USB OTG storage device looks like it's in /mnt/media_rw/XXX-YYYY/.
The issue is that MX Player seems to require scanning of a true directory structure, and can't use a symbolic link as a target for media scanning.

Same issue here running Android 6.0.1 (Resurrection Remix v5.6.0) on Asus ZenPhone 2 ZE551ML.
When going to Settings -> List -> Scan Folders -> Add, the starting location is internal storage (/storage/emulated/0). Navigating up seems to freeze the folder content list below, again one folder upwards (/storage) it lists xxxx-xxxx folders for external SDcard and OTG storage. Navigating into the OTG directory freezes the list again (as it could not read its contents while showing the contents of the previous folder). Tapping 'Add' adds the folder, but back on the main view, it does not actually scan the newly added folder.

kent1146 said:
Does anyone know how MX Player can "Scan" or access a mounted USB OTG drive?
It looks like the drive is mounted in /mnt/media_rw/, but MX Player can't access that directory.
Yes, I know there is a workaround by browsing to the individual videos and hitting play one-at-a-time. But I'd really like to be able to see the list of videos natively within MX Player, so that I can jump to the next video without having to go back into a file manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From Android 6, OTG drive is officially supported by Android but in completely different way.
In fact, OTG drive is not mounted in file system but can only be access via Android's unique Storage Access Framework(SAF).
Unfortunately, listing files on SAF is not yet supported, but will be supported in the future.

OK. Thank you very much for the response
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

bleu8888 said:
From Android 6, OTG drive is officially supported by Android but in completely different way.
In fact, OTG drive is not mounted in file system but can only be access via Android's unique Storage Access Framework(SAF).
Unfortunately, listing files on SAF is not yet supported, but will be supported in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you add support soon. man!! Love you!
Sent from xt1096 with Marshmallow!

Just for information, I have a Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 with Marshmallow. If i try to open a file from the stock android file manager it works fine, except for the external subtitles that are not loaded (I have to load them once the video is started from a internal folder and not from the OTG video folder), If I open a video file with ES File Explorer (right now the only file manager that can load USB otg on 6.0) it loads also the subtitles but when I try to reload it after a break or when I exit the program I have a black screen and the video doesn't start (it seems that ES file create a fake network address that goes to //usb:/....).
I hope you'll fix this soon! Keep up the great work!

Hey guys sorry for necro post but just wanted to share you the solution i made, for those with similar problems:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/rooting-roms/guide-usb-otg-support-media-players-t3343706
this way you can solve your problem too. Cheers

gaferreira13 said:
Hey guys sorry for necro post but just wanted to share you the solution i made, for those with similar problems:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/rooting-roms/guide-usb-otg-support-media-players-t3343706
this way you can solve your problem too. Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your sharing, but my G5 cannot be rooted at this moment. Hope the next update MX player can support OTG in Marshmallow again.

OTG drive support via Android SAF
bleu8888 said:
From Android 6, OTG drive is officially supported by Android but in completely different way.
In fact, OTG drive is not mounted in file system but can only be access via Android's unique Storage Access Framework(SAF).
Unfortunately, listing files on SAF is not yet supported, but will be supported in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@bleu8888, first off, awesome app! This is a really robust media player, and is super helpful to have!
I'm just curious if OTG drive support via Android SAF is still on your roadmap? Or has it been implemented in a recent version and I just haven't figured out how to use it?
Thanks!

MY guess is that the pen's filesystem is FAT32 which doesn't support linux permissions so MX Player tries to check if it has permissions and it can't so it freezes.
Which could be fixed if you tried to format the pendrive as ext4 or something like that.
Good luck
You could also try a bind or remount command from the pen to a certain folder. But there are so many filesystems on android so i can't help on that part either.

DA6030;69350053 [user=3850543 said:
@bleu8888[/user], first off, awesome app! This is a really robust media player, and is super helpful to have!
I'm just curious if OTG drive support via Android SAF is still on your roadmap? Or has it been implemented in a recent version and I just haven't figured out how to use it?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gaferreira13 said:
MY guess is that the pen's filesystem is FAT32 which doesn't support linux permissions so MX Player tries to check if it has permissions and it can't so it freezes.
Which could be fixed if you tried to format the pendrive as ext4 or something like that.
Good luck
You could also try a bind or remount command from the pen to a certain folder. But there are so many filesystems on android so i can't help on that part either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Fact SAF is required to rename/delete file on Lollipop and above. MX uses SAF implementation to rename/delete files & to write subs.
Even if it's implemented for OTG in future, What's the real challenge is is everytime you have to Grant access.
The Current OTG support purely depends on the mount point used in your ROM. For Example in most of the Samsung devices USB OTG is mounted under /Storage/<some ID>. In this case just refreshing the media list will bring the files in list.
What I am thinking is USB host implementation. The best part is that, It can support even NTFS partitions even if it's not supported by the device natively. I have already discussed about this with @bleu8888. But, it won't be a part of 1.9.0. He may implement in future after finishing 1.9.0 to everyone.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using XDA Labs

ktsamy said:
The Current OTG support purely depends on the mount point used in your ROM. For Example in most of the Samsung devices USB OTG is mounted under /Storage/<some ID>. In this case just refreshing the media list will bring the files in list.
What I am thinking is USB host implementation. The best part is that, It can support even NTFS partitions even if it's not supported by the device natively. I have already discussed about this with @bleu8888. But, it won't be a part of 1.9.0. He may implement in future after finishing 1.9.0 to everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool -- super helpful!
In my case it's mounted only at /mnt/media_rw/<some ID>, and media_rw doesn't show up in /mnt/ within the MX Player directory browser. Although passing URIs to MX Player from the native Android file browser (from within Settings->Storage) works fine, so maybe I can mess with the permissions to find a workaround.

DA6030 said:
Cool -- super helpful!
In my case it's mounted only at /mnt/media_rw/<some ID>, and media_rw doesn't show up in /mnt/ within the MX Player directory browser. Although passing URIs to MX Player from the native Android file browser (from within Settings->Storage) works fine, so maybe I can mess with the permissions to find a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's in the same path for me...
ktsamy said:
What I am thinking is USB host implementation. The best part is that, It can support even NTFS partitions even if it's not supported by the device natively. I have already discussed about this with @bleu8888. But, it won't be a part of 1.9.0. He may implement in future after finishing 1.9.0 to everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd buy MX player if it supported using USB host natively... I have the pen on NTFS which seems to work fine through the Paragon NTFS mounter app.

gaferreira13 said:
I'd buy MX player if it supported using USB host natively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely would buy as well.
I know Titanium Backup is a terrible comparison, because TB has root permissions, but just taking a look at their directory-selection implementation (that lets you choose your method), including DocumentProvider, I think is a very slick catch-all that will cover everyone. In my case I used DocumentProvider just to identify the right storage device, and then all further file management happens within the app.

DA6030 said:
Cool -- super helpful!
In my case it's mounted only at /mnt/media_rw/<some ID>, and media_rw doesn't show up in /mnt/ within the MX Player directory browser. Although passing URIs to MX Player from the native Android file browser (from within Settings->Storage) works fine, so maybe I can mess with the permissions to find a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gaferreira13 said:
It's in the same path for me...
I'd buy MX player if it supported using USB host natively... I have the pen on NTFS which seems to work fine through the Paragon NTFS mounter app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Infact /mnt/media_rw/<some ID> is used for rw access to the storage. But, it's not accessible to the third party apps.
If you changed it's permissions it may be scanned by MX. By default it's excluded since it causes duplicate entries in some devices with improper implementation. In MX Player 1.8.9, Goto Settings > List > Folders. Select /mnt/media_rw & unhide it. Then back to the list screen and tap on refresh button or pull down the list to refresh.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using XDA Labs

ktsamy said:
Infact /mnt/media_rw/<some ID> is used for rw access to the storage. But, it's not accessible to the third party apps.
If you changed it's permissions it may be scanned by MX. By default it's excluded since it causes duplicate entries in some devices with improper implementation. In MX Player 1.8.9, Goto Settings > List > Folders. Select /mnt/media_rw & unhide it. Then back to the list screen and tap on refresh button or pull down the list to refresh.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please someone confirm this so that i don't format my pen for nothing

gaferreira13 said:
Please someone confirm this so that i don't format my pen for nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't harm anything. You are just forcing MX Player to scan it. If you have root access & fixed the permissions, it will scan without any issues. Else, MX Player will not scan the mountpoints under media_rw.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk

ktsamy said:
It doesn't harm anything. You are just forcing MX Player to scan it. If you have root access & fixed the permissions, it will scan without any issues. Else, MX Player will not scan the mountpoints under media_rw.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry, I wanted to say "Please someone confirm this works", I'm not really 'afraid'.

USB OTG Music Player for unrooted Oreo?

I will be traveling internationally soon and was hoping to load up a large USB OTG pen drive for the flight with my entire music collection so I wouldn't have to pick and choose ahead of time and waste internal storage. My device is not rooted, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I've tried a TON of music players, from the big name ones to very obscure ones and none of them seem to be able to recognize or be directed to scan the USB OTG drive for playback. Is this just something that isn't possible with unrooted Oreo? Any help or app recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Have you checked this thread?
This post is from october 2017, so it should work on oreo since it's pretty recent

TENN3R said:
Have you checked this thread?
This post is from october 2017, so it should work on oreo since it's pretty recent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I did find that thread and tried the players listed. I can't get them to work, though. Nothing will let me navigate to the USB drive itself; only to internal storage to pick media folders. I can see it with Solid Explorer, but it will only play a single file at a time.

Reading this reddit thread looks like that otg devices should get mounted to the internal storage (dev post)
And looks like there is a specific music player for this: here
Hope this helps somehow, I know how bad is to have a giant music library but not enough space

TENN3R said:
Reading this reddit thread looks like that otg devices should get mounted to the internal storage (dev post)
And looks like there is a specific music player for this: here
Hope this helps somehow, I know how bad is to have a giant music library but not enough space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link. The thread made me hopeful, but no luck so far. The drive isn't mounted anywhere under internal storage that I can find. Its actual mount point is /mnt/media_rw/F417-B616 (which, I'm guessing, is some sort of hardware ID or serial for the drive). Can't find a player that will let me navigate to that to scan, though. Haven't tried USB Audio Player PRO yet, though. It doesn't have a trial, and $8 seems a bit steep to just play off a USB even if it did work. May have to break down and try it.

ninja_rancher said:
Thanks for the link. The thread made me hopeful, but no luck so far. The drive isn't mounted anywhere under internal storage that I can find. Its actual mount point is /mnt/media_rw/F417-B616 (which, I'm guessing, is some sort of hardware ID or serial for the drive). Can't find a player that will let me navigate to that to scan, though. Haven't tried USB Audio Player PRO yet, though. It doesn't have a trial, and $8 seems a bit steep to just play off a USB even if it did work. May have to break down and try it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I got something somewhat working. I installed MiXplorer file explorer. It can see the USB drive and has a built-in media player that will play all the files in a given folder. So I guess my choice is between one CD at a time, or copying what I want to play from the USB to the device first. Which may wind up being a better solution since I won't be killing battery powering a USB drive.

Total Commander would be able to do it.
It has a built in media player and you're able to create/save playlist from any directory.
.
Check the play store or Google Total Commander Android to go to their official site (ghisler) to download it. The most recent version just improved OTG support, and there are also easy to install plugins for additional OTG support if needed.

Best usb otg app for exFat and Ntfs without rooting the phone.

After some research and trying a lot of apps I reached to a conclusion that JS USB OTG app does the best job.
I needed an app that can handle usb flash drive formated in exFat (my case) or NTFS for Android One phone (Xiaomi Mi A2).
We are in 2018 and some Android phones still asking to format the usb flash drive attached through otg in Fat32 file system with its 4GB file size limitation.
I wanted to play some big video files and that Fat32...
There are some options like Es file explorer, File Commander with Paragon or Solid Explorer with otg patch, but this apps are streaming videos from usb and if you want to jump through file the video will get stuck.
So finally I found this app JS USB OTG and I am playing all types of bigger video files with MxPlayer in SW decoder mode and the streaming is fast, you won't even notice when jumping through the video file.
I started this thread to help others with this kind of problem.
I know that exFat and Ntfs are microsft proprietary.
If you know other apps like JS USB OTG please share.
Thanks!

yackmaan said:
After some research and trying a lot of apps I reached to a conclusion that JS USB OTG app does the best job.
I needed an app that can handle usb flash drive formated in exFat (my case) or NTFS for Android One phone (Xiaomi Mi A2).
We are in 2018 and some Android phones still asking to format the usb flash drive attached through otg in Fat32 file system with its 4GB file size limitation.
I wanted to play some big video files and that Fat32...
There are some options like Es file explorer, File Commander with Paragon or Solid Explorer with otg patch, but this apps are streaming videos from usb and if you want to jump through file the video will get stuck.
So finally I found this app JS USB OTG and I am playing all types of bigger video files with MxPlayer in SW decoder mode and the streaming is fast, you won't even notice when jumping through the video file.
I started this thread to help others with this kind of problem.
I know that exFat and Ntfs are microsft proprietary.
If you know other apps like JS USB OTG please share.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Yackman.
I found another APP named "USB Media Explorer" (paid App, about $4 USD) and I can open music/video and copy to internal storage.
You cold use "USB Photo Viewer" for trial, To see if you can read photo on USB disk with ext fat format.
These two Apps were both made by Homesoft, LLC.
---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:13 PM ----------
yackmaan said:
After some research and trying a lot of apps I reached to a conclusion that JS USB OTG app does the best job.
I needed an app that can handle usb flash drive formated in exFat (my case) or NTFS for Android One phone (Xiaomi Mi A2).
We are in 2018 and some Android phones still asking to format the usb flash drive attached through otg in Fat32 file system with its 4GB file size limitation.
I wanted to play some big video files and that Fat32...
There are some options like Es file explorer, File Commander with Paragon or Solid Explorer with otg patch, but this apps are streaming videos from usb and if you want to jump through file the video will get stuck.
So finally I found this app JS USB OTG and I am playing all types of bigger video files with MxPlayer in SW decoder mode and the streaming is fast, you won't even notice when jumping through the video file.
I started this thread to help others with this kind of problem.
I know that exFat and Ntfs are microsft proprietary.
If you know other apps like JS USB OTG please share.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks yackmaan.
I found another APP named "USB Media Explorer" (paid App, about $4 USD) and I can open music/video and copy to internal storage.
You cold use "USB Photo Viewer" for trial, To see if you can read photo on USB disk with ext fat format.
These two Apps were both made by Homesoft, LLC.

yackmaan said:
After some research and trying a lot of apps I reached to a conclusion that JS USB OTG app does the best job.
I needed an app that can handle usb flash drive formated in exFat (my case) or NTFS for Android One phone (Xiaomi Mi A2).
We are in 2018 and some Android phones still asking to format the usb flash drive attached through otg in Fat32 file system with its 4GB file size limitation.
I wanted to play some big video files and that Fat32...
There are some options like Es file explorer, File Commander with Paragon or Solid Explorer with otg patch, but this apps are streaming videos from usb and if you want to jump through file the video will get stuck.
So finally I found this app JS USB OTG and I am playing all types of bigger video files with MxPlayer in SW decoder mode and the streaming is fast, you won't even notice when jumping through the video file.
I started this thread to help others with this kind of problem.
I know that exFat and Ntfs are microsft proprietary.
If you know other apps like JS USB OTG please share.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can I download the app please.

bill22413 said:
Thanks Yackman.
I found another APP named "USB Media Explorer" (paid App, about $4 USD) and I can open music/video and copy to internal storage.
You cold use "USB Photo Viewer" for trial, To see if you can read photo on USB disk with ext fat format.
These two Apps were both made by Homesoft, LLC.
---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:13 PM ----------
Thanks yackmaan.
I found another APP named "USB Media Explorer" (paid App, about $4 USD) and I can open music/video and copy to internal storage.
You cold use "USB Photo Viewer" for trial, To see if you can read photo on USB disk with ext fat format.
These two Apps were both made by Homesoft, LLC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you all! I really needed this. USB Media Explorer is even better than JS USB OTG as it supports writing on exfat partition

m_amirian said:
Thank you all! I really needed this. USB Media Explorer is even better than JS USB OTG as it supports writing on exfat partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been years. I don't use anymore JS usb otg. I have Xiaomi Mi A2 witch now has problems with OTG. I must change my phone.