Develop Bugs

Xperia S USB OTG

I have been trying to use some flash drives as external storage however I ran into some trouble.
1. First of all without rooting and getting a kernel or something (which I cannot do as my phone is sim and bootloader locked to o2 right now) it can only read FAT32 formatted drives rather than NTFS.
This means I have to either split >4gb files into two smaller pieces or re-encode. I don't like re-encoding because of the great hdmi output so why not carry full blu-ray rips
2. Does anybody know the power output of the USB port in the Xperia S? Is it something like 100ma or less? As you can see from my photos below here are my tests,
Sony 16gb Micro Vault Click USM-L (pink)...........works fine.
Sony 16gb Micro Vault Click USM-P (black)...........works fine.
Verbatim Stor N Go 32GB Micro USB (tiny one)..........USB Power Consumption Error
I don't like the fact that it is hit and miss when choosing drives and don't always want to carry around a powered USB hub or a Sony Ericsson Livedock instead of the tiny drives and the lightweight micro usb->female usb cable.
Its meant to be "USB On-the-go" not "USB can't go because my arms are tired and bag is full"
There is NO information on either Sony's nor Verbatim's website regarding the power consumption of their flash drives.
Any suggestion's?
View attachment 957423
View attachment 957424
View attachment 957425

did you try to conncet wireless keyboard ?
did you buy any in particular ?
i have already order this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320739400862&ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:GB:1123
i hope will work. will it?

hi i also bought a cheapy one from ebay and its perfectly fine
yes usb keyboard and mouse works fine, tried logitech k800 with unifying receiver and also tried microsoft keyboard and mouse desktop combo with big ass usb receiver. i have not tried bluetooth yet but that would be preferable to me because it will take one less port.
i would also like to hear about the livedock or if anyone has made a a simple y cable with "micro usb male" (to go into phone) split into "female usb" (for usb device) and "female microusb" (for charging input).
In fact why not go the whole kaboodle
A. Keyboard & Mouse & Headset & Phonejoy controller & Smartwatch : simultaneous Bluetooth
B. Flash Drive or USB Hub with multiple drives: Micro USB to USB adapter
C. TVOUT : HDMI
D. Charging : Female Micro USB input from same spliiter cable as B
now its a full desktop, NES, SNES, whatever all controlled by any of the above and the damn thing is the size of your hand

View attachment 962244
Basically does something like this exist?
This cable should in theory have the same functionality of the bulky livedock?

I was thinkink about same thing: y cable, so we were able to access flash drive (memory card) along with charging the phone. But i think it is not possible with JUST a cable. I think it is possible with live dock, but live dock probably got some sort of electronic curcuit board which controls flash drive and charging at the same time. Unless you would buy live dock for other phone (P in example), take curcuit board out and do DIY.
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk

That all sounds really cool to experiment with, but thats alot of gear to cart around... wouldn't it be easier just to buy say a PSP(homebrew) or perhaps a PSvita? Emulation is wasted on a touch screen.
The kernel mods in the dev section have already enabled ntfs fs reading amongst other things, you could flash these right now or the first roms will probably have this soon which should help you out quite a bit.
I bought the livedock for the XPS hoping it would work for usb charging via computer, it does not; a Y cable is a good idea tho... unfortunately the dock just does not suit the XPS at all, does not sit correctly, u have to lean the dock usb connector on the ground for the whole setup to be "somewhat" stable and just looks silly, not to mention unsafe.
Those clove youtube vids area bit of a con imo.
-smc

Does anybody know where we can buy the original Sony Ericsson USB OTG? Also, does anyone know the part number? I do not want to use any other brands. Hope someone could help

Any reason why? You can buy it of ebay for just a couple of pounds and is working fine.

I connected Logitech RumblePad to my xperia S (Using some samsung USB adapter)- including vibrations, so i think power output is pretty ok.

somemadcaaant said:
That all sounds really cool to experiment with, but thats alot of gear to cart around... wouldn't it be easier just to buy say a PSP(homebrew) or perhaps a PSvita? Emulation is wasted on a touch screen.
The kernel mods in the dev section have already enabled ntfs fs reading amongst other things, you could flash these right now or the first roms will probably have this soon which should help you out quite a bit.
I bought the livedock for the XPS hoping it would work for usb charging via computer, it does not; a Y cable is a good idea tho... unfortunately the dock just does not suit the XPS at all, does not sit correctly, u have to lean the dock usb connector on the ground for the whole setup to be "somewhat" stable and just looks silly, not to mention unsafe.
Those clove youtube vids area bit of a con imo.
-smc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi it wouldn't be too much to carry around, consider having a phone and a vita and a laptop? at what cost. you'll still always need at least 2 devices, you phone and another. now you can have all three from one nice looking device and can take each accessory when required. ie all three to a hotel, just the keyboard for working on, just the gamepad when you feel like it. check out the freedom pro keyboard (better than a laptop's) or the phonejoy for a full vita beating experience (comfort wise - wireless on big screen anywhere)
and minimising what we need to carry is the whole point of finding if such a y cable works because then we don't have the added bulk of the Livedock...
thanks for your review of the livedock, even more reason to want that cable! I cant believe there is no grip, i wouldn't have been able to assume that from the Clove videos. its a bit silly that the Xperia P has the new smartdock but because they put our ports on opposite sides we can't use it
i noticed the devs have a kernel for ntfs compatibility but i cant use it as i havent even received my sim unlock code from my network let alone finding out if my locked bootloader can be unlocked after this. plus ive just discovered how bad the yellow tint issue is on my phone, so its a bit of a wait for me!

ergo14 said:
I connected Logitech RumblePad to my xperia S (Using some samsung USB adapter)- including vibrations, so i think power output is pretty ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but i don't think the wireless receiver for the rumblepad takes up as much power as constant reading from and powering a flash drive would. the wireless receiver doesn't need much compared to that and the controller itself has its own battery
nevertheless you could be right in suggesting that the power output is ok as it powers some but not all drives, so if its not power output then there is some other reason for the compatibility issue with each usb device... so we should do a list of what drives work and which dont

Hi
just want to know if this will work with the Xperia S
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310371255484?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
I asked the seller but he says its only compatiable with nokia as it a nokia branded cable but surle all these cable are the same as any generic ones as they use the same connections?

ash_c64 said:
Hi
just want to know if this will work with the Xperia S
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310371255484?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
I asked the seller but he says its only compatiable with nokia as it a nokia branded cable but surle all these cable are the same as any generic ones as they use the same connections?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it looks like this cable will work perfectly fine, just branded and looks pretty nice actually. however id be weary of choosing this when there are right angled micro usbs on some adapters...these are more practical in my opinion after having used my similarly priced generic ebay otg cable and also the standard charger cable that comes with the phone
i bought this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290680019...id=m570.l2736&_nkw=290680019654&_fvi=1&_rdc=1
but if you want your one, here it is for 30p cheaper
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-N..._MobilePhoneDataCables_JN&hash=item4601d26b4b

willusdun said:
yeah but i don't think the wireless receiver for the rumblepad takes up as much power as constant reading from and powering a flash drive would. the wireless receiver doesn't need much compared to that and the controller itself has its own battery
nevertheless you could be right in suggesting that the power output is ok as it powers some but not all drives, so if its not power output then there is some other reason for the compatibility issue with each usb device... so we should do a list of what drives work and which dont
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'ts normal usb connected pad I'ts NOT wireless at any rate

ergo14 said:
I'ts normal usb connected pad I'ts NOT wireless at any rate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow confirms the plenty of power theory then, does it rumble and everything all powered by the phone?

Understood.
Yeah i'm a huge fan of mobile docks, they screwed us over regarding that i reckon, bad bad port locations...
Sorry to hear about your yellow tint issue, what a pain in the arse, reminds me like some kind of sun damage i've seen on other devices before left on the car dash for an hr.
-smc

willusdun said:
wow confirms the plenty of power theory then, does it rumble and everything all powered by the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does, i had to connect it 2 times, at first phone said it takes too much power, but on 2nd time, it worked fine, and yes it did rumble when i pressed vibration button on it ;-)

willusdun said:
it looks like this cable will work perfectly fine, just branded and looks pretty nice actually. however id be weary of choosing this when there are right angled micro usbs on some adapters...these are more practical in my opinion after having used my similarly priced generic ebay otg cable and also the standard charger cable that comes with the phone
i bought this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290680019...id=m570.l2736&_nkw=290680019654&_fvi=1&_rdc=1
but if you want your one, here it is for 30p cheaper
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-N..._MobilePhoneDataCables_JN&hash=item4601d26b4b
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the right angled ones will be better, but i just love the build quilty of the Nokia one so will probably give it a try.

To anyone interested in OTG cables:
Guys, the Nokia OTG cable works just fine and is VERY good quality and very common anywhere (quite cheap as well).
Tested by me. Already connected my 16GB Ultra Speed Transcend USB drive and works fine.

I've been using OTG since day 1 when i got the unit - like the OP says, the power consumption of the USB port for devices are hit-and-miss.
Some usb drives works great, some consumes too much power and cannot be powered on; so far, my wireless keyboard+touchpad set (rapoo) works great.

300 GB Hard Drive

Hey guys I bought a usb otg cable and everything connects fine, except this 300gb hard drive I have, I've tested with several different 300gb+ drives and none of them connect, could it be because they are NTFS?
I'm on stock, not rooted

I think that may be the problem. Android likes FAT. I know that for older phones there have been threads on XDA with mods for allowing android to mount NTFS volumes (called NTFS mounter), probably just a matter of time until that functionality is brought to the S3.

Thanks, I guess I'll wait

You need a mod or app of some sort to handle NTFS drives. There are some in the Play Store that people have reported will do this...
However, there might be another problem. When I connect my 1TB WD Passport with USB OTG, it beeps and the HD light flashes...I believe it's indicating that the phone does not supply enough power via USB to run the hard drive. I can tell the drive is not spinning.
I'm not sure if this is the case for all portable drives...and I imagine it's not an issue with a larger externally powered drive.

Cables to use phone as desktop?

Hi folks,
As I understand it, the Glide supports both HDMI out and USB On the Go. What I'd like to do is set up my phone to be a basic laptop.
The first part of my plan is to get the right cables. Does anyone know of a combo cable that provides both HDMI female and USB A female to the phone so I can hook one end up to a powered hub with an ethernet dongle and keyboard/mouse thing, and at the same time hook up an external display? Also, if I do this, I assume the hub will need to provide power in some way back to the phone. Is that correct?
Or is this going to be so expensive I should just use a cheap computer?
Thanks.
Jonathan

fighttheangrybunny said:
As I understand it, the Glide supports both HDMI out and USB On the Go. What I'd like to do is set up my phone to be a basic laptop.
The first part of my plan is to get the right cables. Does anyone know of a combo cable that provides both HDMI female and USB A female to the phone so I can hook one end up to a powered hub with an ethernet dongle and keyboard/mouse thing, and at the same time hook up an external display? Also, if I do this, I assume the hub will need to provide power in some way back to the phone. Is that correct?
Or is this going to be so expensive I should just use a cheap computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1633902&highlight=hdmi ?
Assuming a computer on site, you could always vnc.
From past experience with other PDA's, you will -quickly- grow tired of this and end up purchasing a laptop anyways.
Not that you'd want to be internet'ting, much, on a TV, either. For anything short of a quick search, weather, TV guide, you're going to want to cross the room to your laptop, IMO.
Which is probably what you'd have your HDMI connected up to, anyways. Although using the Glide as a remote in that situation is probably attractive. Or as an XBMC control sort of thing, but, again, likely the content would come off the computer rather than the glide, the glide just remotely controlling it.
You can easily test how you find this, either by using a bluetooth keyboard and playing (never mind the external screen for the moment), or by vnc'ing to it from a computer (pretend it's a bluetooth keyboard and it's an external monitor, for the moment).
Technically possible, not practically feasible.
Chromebook?

Just get cheap laptop. It will serve you better and will be much easier to use
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda app-developers app

ubuntu
---

HDMI out is supported by the SoC, but to the best of our knowledge those pins aren't actually connected to anything in our phones. That said, there's a protocol for outputting to an HDMI device via a USB dongle that doesn't require any hardware infrastructure beyond USB OtG, which we have.
In theory, you could get a powered USB hub (it MUST be powered, no way in hell the phone can put out enough current to support all this), plug a keyboard and mouse into it along with one of those USB-to-HDMI dongles, then hook the phone up to it as a host using an OtG cable. At that point it's just a matter of ROM/kernel support of all the peripheral hardware. (Ask dman? Nah, I'm sure he's WAY too busy.)

If you are just using it for media as like an htpc, I'd reccomend skipping all the usbotg stuff and just connecting a net book or some other cheap PC to your display.
My current setup: old netbook with 1tb external hooked into TV, controlled by the glide (unified remote app) and the external drive is also network shared so my glide (and tablet) can read from it.
Its served me well for playing all of my local video files as well as flash video and light browsing. Depends what you're using it for though, I suppose.
The only time I've ever really used HDMI out with android is to play n64 emulators (or other games that support a bt controller) or if my girlfriend is watching desperate housewives or something on the main setup. It works well enough for that, but not enough that I would make a habit of it.

Uber frustration with PS3 controller. Wired won't show.

I hae simply given up on wireless via mac. So, I got the gameklip and love the idea but when I plug in the controller, and nothing happens. It says it should show up immediately. It doesn't. Says usb connected and that's it. Input method doesn't show a new device. What I am doing or not doing? Stock rooted JB.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Have you used the sixaxis app?

Yes and usb/bt. Neither one will find either controller in wired mode.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Borii said:
Yes and usb/bt. Neither one will find either controller in wired mode.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like your missing a huge step. Did you do the whole Mac address thing?
(⊙＿⊙)

Are you sure your usb adapter cable is compatible with the s3? Try plugging a usb thumb drive in if its no recognized then its not compatible. Also you dont need the six axis app with this phone since ps3 conroller is natively supported.

jbadboy2007 said:
Are you sure your usb adapter cable is compatible with the s3? Try plugging a usb thumb drive in if its no recognized then its not compatible. Also you dont need the six axis app with this phone since ps3 conroller is natively supported.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct but that is my problem. I am using the default cable that came with the gameklip. It connects fine to my camera etc. My PC, just will not show on the phone. I have to believe the cable is just faulty.
As for mac address that should be unnecessary for a wired plug in. I got it connected after driving to my friends house and using a windows machine to change the mac address. I still can not connect it physically but without a second cable to test against, I can't say for sure it is the cable but I do believe it to be so.
Only other problem I have now which I can't seem to find is that the games won't accept long presses. Example, in Silent Hill, R1 is side step, but also holding it draws your weapon but nothing happens.Just side steps. I am trying to research if it is just the game itself or a setting I can somehow manipulate. I have never had an Android and in the last 3 weeks have rooted it, overclocked it, undervolted it and through on all the emulators. Too many awesome things to do at once lol

I used this back in the summer when I was playing MGS on the S3:
Granted, it's the wireless setup, but it just don't follow the whole tutorial to get the wired setup.

I have bought two otg adapters the first didnt work for me and the second one i bought from amazon the reviews said it worked for the s3 that one worked.

Just use sixaxis and change the controllers mac address to the phone. It straight up says on gameklips website that the T-Mobile version isn't compatible with the wired option.
I use the wireless setup and it works perfectly. Stock rooted here.
Sent from my bathroom, with toilet paper.

Zardos66 said:
Just use sixaxis and change the controllers mac address to the phone. It straight up says on gameklips website that the T-Mobile version isn't compatible with the wired option.
I use the wireless setup and it works perfectly. Stock rooted here.
Sent from my bathroom, with toilet paper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have an USB OTG cable then you don't need to mess around with MAC addresses or anything else, very straightforward to pair the PS3 controllers directly on the phone with Sixaxis Controller if you have a USB OTG cable.

Try and plug a mouse or USB key drive in to the OTG cable to see if it turns up. If it doesn't, the cable is faulty.
I bought an OTG cable on eBay that didn't work. The seller sent another when I reported it faulty (I didn't need to send anything back), and the second one worked fine allowing the PS3 controller to work.

USB Hub?

Hi
As there are only 2 usb on shield, did anyone tried usb hub for it? Does any work?

Kajman said:
Hi
As there are only 2 usb on shield, did anyone tried usb hub for it? Does any work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive got a generic 2.0 hub 4 ports working........pretty sure others work
Although you might wanna google search "shield tv usb 3.0 shielding" or something to that affect, i cant remember the exact details, but i read there may be some issues with 3.0 hubs because the shielding around the 3.0 ports on our shields, was not the best, or non existant, cant remember............issues about "interference"..............like i said, i dont know the exact details..........was waiting to look it up when i decided to finally think about buying a 3.0 hub...........and as im writting this, i think that may be now

Kajman said:
Hi
As there are only 2 usb on shield, did anyone tried usb hub for it? Does any work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using an Anker USB 3.0 one perfectly fine with it. Haven't tried benchmarking speeds or anything but works fine with my xbox 360 wireless receiver, wired logitech gamepad controllers as well as a regular Logitech K400 receiver (but range does feel a bit weak, not sure if it's due to interference or lower power, but I feel like it's more interference as I had some issues without the hub). I usually use the other native usb port on the shield for charging the remote/controller. Might try a powered usb 3.0 hub later if I find I need to. But this one works just fine powered from the shield.

you didn't try to connect there f.e. 2 hdd and usb sticks?

I'm interested in the Shields behavior concerning multiple HDD's on a USB hub. I read in the past that the Shield TV did not support more than 2 ext HDD's through USB simultaneously. This is said to be a firmware limitation and rooting can solve that. I'm not rooting so curious as to whether that limitation has since been officially removed.
I'm looking to try out a Sabrent 4 port USB 3 hub. It's not powered. So how many HDD's can an unpowered HUB such as this one support?
If the hub won't serve my purpose then I''ll just use a couple of USB3 extension cables since my main need is easy access to USB device swapping. Getting to the back of the Shield is kind of a pain.

I use an unpowered usb 3 hub and it works fine. I have it hooked up to the cable used to charge the remote and controller, a wireless keyboard and a 128gb ssd in an external usb 3 enclosure. I am rooted so cant comment on the 2 hdd limitation.
Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

mad212 said:
I use an unpowered usb 3 hub and it works fine. I have it hooked up to the cable used to charge the remote and controller, a wireless keyboard and a 128gb ssd in an external usb 3 enclosure. I am rooted so cant comment on the 2 hdd limitation.
Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for the feedback. Nvidia will be adding a feature that may allow use of multiple ext HDD on the USB ports. Have to wait and see.

Yup
copticwalad said:
I'm using an Anker USB 3.0 one perfectly fine with it. Haven't tried benchmarking speeds or anything but works fine with my xbox 360 wireless receiver, wired logitech gamepad controllers as well as a regular Logitech K400 receiver (but range does feel a bit weak, not sure if it's due to interference or lower power, but I feel like it's more interference as I had some issues without the hub). I usually use the other native usb port on the shield for charging the remote/controller. Might try a powered usb 3.0 hub later if I find I need to. But this one works just fine powered from the shield.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's nice and at available rate. I am also prefer Anker USB 3.0 one.

Kajman said:
you didn't try to connect there f.e. 2 hdd and usb sticks?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my answer after next quote.
OrlyD said:
I'm interested in the Shields behavior concerning multiple HDD's on a USB hub. I read in the past that the Shield TV did not support more than 2 ext HDD's through USB simultaneously. This is said to be a firmware limitation and rooting can solve that. I'm not rooting so curious as to whether that limitation has since been officially removed.
I'm looking to try out a Sabrent 4 port USB 3 hub. It's not powered. So how many HDD's can an unpowered HUB such as this one support?
If the hub won't serve my purpose then I''ll just use a couple of USB3 extension cables since my main need is easy access to USB device swapping. Getting to the back of the Shield is kind of a pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I finally got around to grabbing all my usb sticks and hdd's and a few devices and trying it out. I found that there is some sort of firmware limitation that allows only 2 usb storage (FDD + HDD) devices to show up. I'm not rooted yet and am still on stock ROM but may look to change that after we get marshmallow this month. Keep in mind though you can power an xbox 360 for windows wireless receiver, a logitech unifying receiver, even logitech wired gamepads along with 2 Storage drives (HDD or FDD) on a single usb port. I did try a 5400RPM usb 3.0 in NTFS drive along with a few flash drives in exFAT, NTFS, and FAT32 formats. The way I'm noticing it's behavior is you can have say 5 drives connected overall, say a 7200rpm on other main usb port, and then 5400rpm + 3 flash drives on unpowered usb hub but the Key is, the system will ONLY show you the last two plugged in. If one is removed, it should show another one (if not then you'll need to disconnect/connect) and they are all powered interestingly, even when not shown up.
Summary from my tests so far:
-Connect as many USB devices (controllers, keyboard mouse receivers, xbox 360 receivers, HDDs, FDDs) as you want through usb hubs, if you have more than two 2.5" drives I'd recommend a powered usb hub.
-All devices so far have lit up and power on as long as there's enough power
-The obvious Limitation so far, is software limits access to 2 most recently connected Storage USB Devices, this is despite being fully lit up and hard drives spinning. You can unmount them easily though in Android Settings -> Storage & Apps -> Unmount.
*This is reflected in both ES File Explorer and Android Settings
I'm going to talk about how I usually approach watching my media... so feel free to read
*I recommend to everyone to try and find alternatives to ease your lives. I'm a crazy tech enthusiast and even though I have soo many hard drives and flash drives from over the years, I've learned to simplify things and accommodate accordingly. For example PLEX is an amazing solution for watching videos over the network on this nvidia shield, and even though I do plan to eventually use Gigabit, wireless AC over 5Ghz is ridiculous on this thing and has no lag. In fact, even though I could connect my 6TB external hard drive to the unit directly, I still prefer the plex interface and ability to watch on my phone or tablet instead of my tv based on a number of factors. The other thing you could do if you don't like plex is simply use Windows network interface and Share 1 specific folder to your network that you can easily access on ES File Explorer. You can make it a little easier by assigning a specific computer in your house to 1 Local address, so the ip address never changes. For example: 192.168.1.2 could be assigned to your favorite computer, so then in ES File explorer you can save that SHARED folder as a favorite after scanning your network and then access it easily and wirelessly and not worry about flash drives etc..... Lastly don't forget about the awesome Casting abilities of the Nvidia Shield, so you can just cast your screen on your smartphone/tablet and if you have family photos on say Google Photos (released 6/2015 and highly recommended for everyone), you can cast them all on the big screen. Don't be like how I used to be and have literally over 10 drives and flash drives, each hard drive being like 500gb or 1TB and a bunch of scattered media on flash drives. Instead simplify your life and put all your media on 1 huge hard drive (ideally with RAID 1 security backup built in or offsite backup) and keep maybe one On The Go speedy flash drive, like Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0, for media you put temporarily to watch on a trip or something. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help, but that's a summary for novices.

copticwalad said:
See my answer after next quote.
I finally got around to grabbing all my usb sticks and hdd's and a few devices and trying it out. I found that there is some sort of firmware limitation that allows only 2 usb storage (FDD + HDD) devices to show up. I'm not rooted yet and am still on stock ROM but may look to change that after we get marshmallow this month. Keep in mind though you can power an xbox 360 for windows wireless receiver, a logitech unifying receiver, even logitech wired gamepads along with 2 Storage drives (HDD or FDD) on a single usb port. I did try a 5400RPM usb 3.0 in NTFS drive along with a few flash drives in exFAT, NTFS, and FAT32 formats. The way I'm noticing it's behavior is you can have say 5 drives connected overall, say a 7200rpm on other main usb port, and then 5400rpm + 3 flash drives on unpowered usb hub but the Key is, the system will ONLY show you the last two plugged in. If one is removed, it should show another one (if not then you'll need to disconnect/connect) and they are all powered interestingly, even when not shown up.
Summary from my tests so far:
-Connect as many USB devices (controllers, keyboard mouse receivers, xbox 360 receivers, HDDs, FDDs) as you want through usb hubs, if you have more than two 2.5" drives I'd recommend a powered usb hub.
-All devices so far have lit up and power on as long as there's enough power
-The obvious Limitation so far, is software limits access to 2 most recently connected Storage USB Devices, this is despite being fully lit up and hard drives spinning. You can unmount them easily though in Android Settings -> Storage & Apps -> Unmount.
*This is reflected in both ES File Explorer and Android Settings
I'm going to talk about how I usually approach watching my media... so feel free to read
*I recommend to everyone to try and find alternatives to ease your lives. I'm a crazy tech enthusiast and even though I have soo many hard drives and flash drives from over the years, I've learned to simplify things and accommodate accordingly. For example PLEX is an amazing solution for watching videos over the network on this nvidia shield, and even though I do plan to eventually use Gigabit, wireless AC over 5Ghz is ridiculous on this thing and has no lag. In fact, even though I could connect my 6TB external hard drive to the unit directly, I still prefer the plex interface and ability to watch on my phone or tablet instead of my tv based on a number of factors. The other thing you could do if you don't like plex is simply use Windows network interface and Share 1 specific folder to your network that you can easily access on ES File Explorer. You can make it a little easier by assigning a specific computer in your house to 1 Local address, so the ip address never changes. For example: 192.168.1.2 could be assigned to your favorite computer, so then in ES File explorer you can save that SHARED folder as a favorite after scanning your network and then access it easily and wirelessly and not worry about flash drives etc..... Lastly don't forget about the awesome Casting abilities of the Nvidia Shield, so you can just cast your screen on your smartphone/tablet and if you have family photos on say Google Photos (released 6/2015 and highly recommended for everyone), you can cast them all on the big screen. Don't be like how I used to be and have literally over 10 drives and flash drives, each hard drive being like 500gb or 1TB and a bunch of scattered media on flash drives. Instead simplify your life and put all your media on 1 huge hard drive (ideally with RAID 1 security backup built in or offsite backup) and keep maybe one On The Go speedy flash drive, like Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0, for media you put temporarily to watch on a trip or something. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help, but that's a summary for novices.
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A bit of an old bump/OT but do you stream 4k over wifi or is it just 1080p? Because my ShieldTV is hating 4k streaming on my 5ghz ac wifi and im not sure what's up.

I am streaming 4k on wifi without problems with only 60-80mbit wifi repeater capabilities (real download speed).

test878 said:
A bit of an old bump/OT but do you stream 4k over wifi or is it just 1080p? Because my ShieldTV is hating 4k streaming on my 5ghz ac wifi and im not sure what's up.
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Click to collapse
My bad for not seeing this until now, and actually perhaps it's a good thing I just saw this because I finally got to try out a true 4K movie over plex and compared it to locally on Nvidia Shield vs USB on 4K TV (Samsung SUHD). I'm gonna talk a little bit about HDR and 4k limitations so far and maybe adoptable storage experience.
Quick Background:
-Nvidia Shield 16gb with latest official 3.0 MM Update, not rooted. Adoptable Storage using 128gb Samsung Pro Plus MicroSDXC (90MB/s read and write).
-Samsung UN65JS8500 4K TV with HDR abilities and HDMI 2.0a
-Networking still currently over 5Ghz wireless ac to Netgear Nighthawk router and also to my Plex Server (with 300Mbps average wireless connection).
-Media samples of true 4K 10-bit encoded in the brilliant x265 HEVC @ 5.2Mbps (comparative to 10Mbps x264) , a 4K HDR sample from Life of Pi
~TV plays 4K 10-bit and HDR perfectly locally on USB 3.0 flash drive, I'll have issues getting subtitles to work with mkv on occasion because of Samsung's media player.
~Nvidia Shield plays 4K and 10-bit perfectly locally on VLC Player and MX Player from both adoptable storage and usb 3.0 drives, keep in mind that adoptable storage cannot be used or even seen on any computer (unless you plan on formatting it) because of its encryption, despite not having PIN or passcodes on SATV.
- HOWEVER, HDR would not work at all as I don't think the update included HDMI 2.0a (which HDR requires). Luckily Nvidia says it can be upgradeable in future with firmware.
As for streaming 4K over wifi, it works perfectly from Youtube but my big test today was for over the network from a pc with a 'native' 2160p movie rather than upscaled and I found the limitation to be the transcoding on my core i7 laptop. I got a warning at the start from Plex denoting that and afterwards it would slowly work but constantly buffer.
-I'm planning on implementing Gigabit wires to shield and tv and possibly back to my laptop but 4K transcoding is very demanding. Unfortunately on the Plex app on Android tv it doesn't give you the option to try direct play but I feel like that option might work to stream without transcoding. I'm going to try it again but from the tv (which has half the wireless speeds but at least the option to direct play from plex).
Really depends what source you're streaming 4K from. I also have 65Mbps internet connection with no issues and even delays when streaming from Youtube or Amazon Prime (on tv not Shield unfortunately).
Since this thread is supposed to be about the USB Hub I'll mention that today I noticed while using adoptable storage and inserting a USB Card reader with another microsdxc in it that the system didn't recognize it until restarting the unit. USB 3.0 drive though would show up instantly and luckily VLC player reads it very nicely and easily.

copticwalad said:
My bad for not seeing this until now, and actually perhaps it's a good thing I just saw this because I finally got to try out a true 4K movie over plex and compared it to locally on Nvidia Shield vs USB on 4K TV (Samsung SUHD). I'm gonna talk a little bit about HDR and 4k limitations so far and maybe adoptable storage experience.
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You're a testing champ boss! I hope you take one for the team and don't ever get a girlfriend or married. :fingers-crossed:
I have a crap load of scenarios to work out when I get home this weekend on my Pro...after I first enjoy a candle-light dinner with my wife and pass a couple of glasses of wine through her and to bed.
PS are you also using something like the SiliconDust HomerRunHD TV tuner for Live Channels or with Plex DVR?

@copticwalad
Is your adoptable storage insert via a USB hub?
Meaning
Shield TV > USB hub > adoptable storage.
My drive is formatted by STV already
I was thinking of adding a USB hub in-between it and the device.
Would it work?

makapav said:
You're a testing champ boss! I hope you take one for the team and don't ever get a girlfriend or married. :fingers-crossed:
I have a crap load of scenarios to work out when I get home this weekend on my Pro...after I first enjoy a candle-light dinner with my wife and pass a couple of glasses of wine through her and to bed.
PS are you also using something like the SiliconDust HomerRunHD TV tuner for Live Channels or with Plex DVR?
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Not yet but I'm planning on it in a few months whenever I get around to wiring cat6 and coax through my house. Hard to justify cost of strong antenna+homerun when all our family watches on OTA is the news and sometimes major sports like superbowl and nba finals etc.. That might change if rumored products of Antenna Directly to Shield USB Live Channels+DVR comes at good price.
noobhero said:
@copticwalad
Is your adoptable storage insert via a USB hub?
Meaning
Shield TV > USB hub > adoptable storage.
My drive is formatted by STV already
I was thinking of adding a USB hub in-between it and the device.
Would it work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually don't use my usb hub anymore, it was good to know it works but my adoptable storage is actually a 128GB Samsung Pro Plus microSDXC MB-MD128DA/AM with 95 Read/90 Write. It's been amazing for over 14 months and I can access it and the Internal Storage of the Shield even when it's in standby from my laptop as a Network drive, not needing to worry about speeds or power. We lucked out cause the 2017 Nvidia Shield 16gb versions don't have microsd card readers (500GB does).
To answer your question: If your drive is either a flash drive or usb powered 2.5" drive the hub should easily power it as long as you're not powering too many with usbpower alone. If it's a bigger 3.5" external hard drive then it will have power + usb and should work as well.
I have a question myself for anyone here. Has anyone used a 3.5" External Hard Drive with the Shield using Power+ USB 3.0 without usb hub. 24/7 with no issues with power or did you have to manually turn it on and off. In other words, does it go to standby power with the Shield while still powered externally? And also are you using it for local playback only or with plex server? I'm debating adding a wd red drive to the Shield for plex local playback instead of going with the costly route of a real NAS without the transcoding power and expandable storage.
Also in case anyone ever has an issue with a flash drive not being seen by the Nvidia Shield, remove ES File Explorer. It very awkwardly prevent my Shield (running Nougat) from seeing or opening a flash drive even in Nvidia's settings. I uninstalled it and it works perfectly now through MX Player. I prefer Solid Explorer as File Manager, even on Android tv, worth the cost.

So I bought a thermaltake external HDD dock for about $40. It's USB 3.0 and I'm running my Plex Server out of it. It's 6TB drive. It's self powered and does not sleep. I was hoping that the Shield would recognize both drives at the same time but that didn't not work. I'm not routed and don't know if after I root it will recognize both drives at the same time.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

wheels01 said:
So I bought a thermaltake external HDD dock for about $40. It's USB 3.0 and I'm running my Plex Server out of it. It's 6TB drive. It's self powered and does not sleep. I was hoping that the Shield would recognize both drives at the same time but that didn't not work. I'm not routed and don't know if after I root it will recognize both drives at the same time.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
copticwalad said:
I have a question myself for anyone here. Has anyone used a 3.5" External Hard Drive with the Shield using Power+ USB 3.0 without usb hub. 24/7 with no issues with power or did you have to manually turn it on and off. In other words, does it go to standby power with the Shield while still powered externally? And also are you using it for local playback only or with plex server? I'm debating adding a wd red drive to the Shield for plex local playback instead of going with the costly route of a real NAS without the transcoding power and expandable storage.
Also in case anyone ever has an issue with a flash drive not being seen by the Nvidia Shield, remove ES File Explorer. It very awkwardly prevent my Shield (running Nougat) from seeing or opening a flash drive even in Nvidia's settings. I uninstalled it and it works perfectly now through MX Player. I prefer Solid Explorer as File Manager, even on Android tv, worth the cost.
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Click to collapse
I'm glad I can give back a little to the community.
I hooked up a 6 terabyte external Western Digital hard drive which is powered on its own through an external power adapter. Next I hooked up another 2 terabyte external Seagate hard drive similarly powered externally. Since I am not as rich as I would like to be, they are both traditional 7200 RPM drives instead of SSD. They are both USB 3.0 and plugged into the internal USB ports of my Nvidia Shield Pro 2017.
My Nvidia Shield has no problem detecting both the drives and I use x-plore (https://goo.gl/UKuRRT) file manager to do operations between them.
Do larger Drive contains all my media for access my Plex and once again I have no problems accessing this media through Plex and playing it back locally or across the network in the house.
Recently I moved to 6 TB external drive into a USB 3.0 hub because I have to connect other devices to my Nvidia Shield Pro. This drive also contains all my Plex Media. I can confidently say that both these combinations of configurations for both the USB 3.0 drives work simultaneously and I'm able to move file to cross the drive and also use Plex against media stored on both of them.

got a 7 port usb hub and 7 Hard Drives Connected (8TB, 5TB, 3TB, 2TB, 750GB, 2 500GBs on one 2 Bay Enclosure) to the Shield using it and no issues on the local network or the Shield all files are accessible and blazing fast ) I recommend the
TP-Link UH720 for best performance.
Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I have a Shield TV 16GB 2017, rooted, and have a 4 port usb (non-powered) hub connected to the first usb port (next to hdmi port). On this hub I have a flash drive as adopted storage and a 8TB hdd as external storage.
My problem or annoyance is the hdd can't be seen when accessing from PC sometimes even when shield is awake although I can see adopted flash and browse it. I usually have to reboot to see it.
friend.evil you have 7 hdd's on a usb hub are they accessible all the time even when shield is asleep?
Do I need to move my hub to the 2nd usb port and put the adopted in the 1st port.
Thanks. Any help is appreciated.

Nvidia Shield w/ a USB 3.0 Hub and 6 USB Drives ?
Last post above was someone that had 7 drives working... will this work in 2019 as it prolly has a new OS ? My last box (chromePC) with kodi 15.X worked using 5 drives... I tried a Zidoo box and only 4 USB drives work so im thinking of getting the Nvidia box as Ive got 5 FULL 8TB drives and need to add a 6th ! but wanna make sure before I get a shield as its costly... thanks in advance