Your TV’s USB ports are completely underrated, and these 4 tricks will prove it
We often overlook the great possibilities offered by the USB ports on our TVs, but they actually have a lot of functionality.
Most people rarely interact with their TV once it is set up, but the truth is that today’s smart TVs hide great multimedia possibilities through their various ports, including USB ports located on the back and/or side of the TV, right next to the HDMI ports where we connect our consoles, sound bars, or Blu-ray players. That’s why here are four tricks to get the most out of your TV’s USB ports.
Turn your TV into a media player
The vast majority of new smart TVs have a pair of USB 2.0 ports, and the latest ones even have a USB 3.0 port for faster data transfers. And it’s likely that your TV is bigger than your computer monitor, so why not take advantage of the larger screen to play back pictures or videos?
In this way, we can turn our TV into a large window to multimedia, whether it is to display photos from our last trip or to play videos in a wide variety of formats. And all this through any type of external hard drive, USB memory or storage device that can be connected through a USB port. Our TV will recognize the storage device as a connected one, allowing us to access and navigate through its folders and multimedia files as if it were a computer.
In addition, we can always have a storage device connected without any loss or transfer of data, since the TV will only read the files directly from the flash drive, without the need to copy them to the memory of our SmartTV, if it has one.
Turn your TV into a workstation
Need a bigger screen to work? Often the computer monitor can be too small for us, so using our 42, 47, 55, 65 or more inch TV is a really viable option to better organize our workspace. We can also use a Bluetooth adapter over USB to connect wireless peripherals such as a mouse or keyboard.
Easily charge your USB devices
You can also use the USB ports on your TV to charge virtually any device with the right cable. Do you often rely on your computer’s USB ports to charge your cell phone, console controller, or tablet? You can use the USB ports on your TV to charge all of these devices with ease. However, the USB ports on the TV are typically designed for low-power devices, so charging will be much slower than usual.
Extra Utility: Software Update
Normally, we always have the TV connected to our Wi-Fi network to take full advantage of streaming applications, browsing the Internet or maintaining the TV itself through updates. However, in the event that we do not have the TV connected wirelessly, we can always use its USB ports to update its firmware through a pendrive. All you have to do is download the update file from the manufacturer’s website to your computer, save it to the USB flash drive or external hard drive, and connect it to the TV via USB to start the process.
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