I have an old (10 years) Panasonic Home Theatre player connected to my TV. The player will play DVD/CD as well as Ipod and USB. However when I insert a USB stick I get a message that the device isn't recognised or it's unplayable. Looking at the manual it just says that it will play USB devices that support bulk only transfer as well as USB devices that support 2.0 full speed, but not sure what that means. Have tried a couple of different brand USB sticks but nothing is recognised or will play. Any suggestions?

Has your TV got a USB input, try that if it has.

Perhaps it can't play the file format of the media? Or the USB stick is formatted in a file system that cannot be handled - often NTFS. 

 

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by Oldie

6 minutes ago, stouricks said:

Has your TV got a USB input, try that if it has.

I want to play MP3 music through the home theatre, not the TV.

7 minutes ago, Oldie said:

Perhaps it can't play the file format of the media? Or the USB stick is formatted in a file system that cannot be handled - often NTFS. 

 

The format is ExFat.

The message I get is "this kind of device can't be played, use a different kind of device". Not sure what can be different about a USB stick.

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by giddyup

31 minutes ago, giddyup said:

The format is ExFat.

Try a stick with FAT32. An other thing could be the memory capacity of the stick. If it has too much this older device might not be able to handle it. 

 

 

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by Oldie

The home theatre possibly only plays video files, not audio files, being 10 year old it may only recognise older USB 2.0 devices and only up to a certain capacity. Any USB stick purchased in the last 5 years would be USB 3 .0 and a higher capacity than existed when the home theatre was made.

Also the home theatre may not recognise exfat format. try reformatting any stick to the older fat32 format

32 minutes ago, Oldie said:

Try a stick with FAT32. An other thing could be the memory capacity of the stick. If it has too much this older device might not be able to handle it. 

 

 

I think it might depend on what USB slot I use on the PC, I have to use the 2.0 not the 3.0. I also changed the format to Fat32 as you suggested, now works fine. Pretty sure I can load up the flash drive with as much as it will hold and that will still play. Thanks.

13 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

The home theatre possibly only plays video files, not audio files, being 10 year old it may only recognise older USB 2.0 devices and only up to a certain capacity. Any USB stick purchased in the last 5 years would be USB 3 .0 and a higher capacity than existed when the home theatre was made.

Also the home theatre may not recognise exfat format. try reformatting any stick to the older fat32 format

How can you check to see if the flash drive is 2.0 or 3.0?

Just now, giddyup said:

How can you check to see if the flash drive is 2.0 or 3.0?

It is not the problem with 3.0. Normally they work problem free with USB 2.0. 3.0 has a blue plug - the plastic inside the plug. In respect of the capacity that your old device can handle it depends on the used interface there. The max memory size should be in the specifications. 

1 minute ago, Oldie said:

It is not the problem with 3.0. Normally they work problem free with USB 2.0. 3.0 has a blue plug - the plastic inside the plug. In respect of the capacity that your old device can handle it depends on the used interface there. The max memory size should be in the specifications. 

The Panasonic manual specifies it will only play 2.0.

2 minutes ago, giddyup said:

How can you check to see if the flash drive is 2.0 or 3.0?

You cant really other than its age or may not be recognized, fat32 had file and disk size limits, i think I recall file no bigger than 4GB or disk no bigger than 32GB. 

You can plug USB 2 stick into USB 3 port and it will be backwards compatible but not always the other way round .

5 minutes ago, giddyup said:

The Panasonic manual specifies it will only play 2.0.

I have several USB 3.0 sticks. They all work problem free with USB 2.0 on a notebook, on a TV, on a PC whatever. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible. The USB 2.0 device will not realize that it has a USB 3.0 stick plugged in. For USB 3.0 there are additional contacts. But the are not used at an USB 2.0 interface.