external hard drive media player that can read 4TB drive and upscale 720 SD files to 1080 HD

kgrd

Prominent
Feb 11, 2017
2
0
510
I have a WD Passport Ultra 4TB drive that I have a lot of old TV shows I've copied from my DVDs.
In order to play files from that large of a drive, I had to buy a refurbished WD TV media player, which works well, but I still have one complaint. I used to be able to upscale old 720p SD files to full 1080p HD on my TV. When I plugged in my old 2TB drive directly to my TV, it would automatically upscale the SD files to full HD so the videos would fill my screen.

Unfortunately, the TV and most media players, even the Roku Ultra, don't have the power to run my large 4TB drive in their USB ports, so the discontinued WD TV was my only option. I can watch my videos, but they are all in SD format, with black bars on left and right side of TV.

Does anyone know if there is a media player out there that will not only power large external hard drives, but also upscale the file to full screen HD?

My TV is a Vizio M551D-A2R, great TV, but doesn't have the power for drives larger than 2TB. Roku suggests getting a USB power hub to power the large drive when plugged into the USB port on it, but if it still doesn't upscale the video file, it still won't be a solution for me.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!
 

kgrd

Prominent
Feb 11, 2017
2
0
510
I've got a new Blu Ray player that adjusts the aspect ratio accordingly.

Pillarboxing is just something that you have to live with, there's no easy way around it. I'm sure a solution will eventually come out. For now, I've got what I want with my new player.
 
You are confusing upscaling with changing the aspect ratio. Your TV does both.
The upscaling is automatic to the native resolution of the screen.
You can change the aspect ratio to fill the screen but you will either distort the picture or lose some of the top an bottom of the picture. There is a button on the remote or you can go into a menu. Check the manual.