Tech Forum

If you've ever played a Church video in a classroom and tried to do it "live" or on-line, you probably know the frustration that can happen when the video starts/stops. It's a great way to ruin an otherwise spiritual presentation.

The home page of lds.org has an article that offers some help, which is based upon the Church guidelines of downloading your video at home and playing it off-line.

https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/train/s ... 5&lang=eng

There is another way not mentioned on that page. While it may not be available for everyone, if you have a USB connection on a TV, you can also use a USB flash drive to play video. Just download the video to the flash drive, plug it into the TV, and select the USB input.

Not every TV with a USB port on it can play video files directly from that port. The higher-end models do but the "standard" models usually can only play audio files (like MP3 or WMA) or they can display still photos (maybe just JPEG). But MP4 playback isn't always supported. If your TV can do it (or a media player connected to the TV like a Bluray player with a USB port on it) then, yes, this is a great way to show the videos you downloaded from LDS.org.

We have been testing a Samsung 24" TV that is fairly inexpensive that will let you play the files directly from the TV. It is working very good. We have also set up WD TV Live boxes on the other TV's and have downloaded the videos recommended in the different lesson manuals (Teaching in the Saviors Way, Gospel Doctrine - Old Testament, and Teachings of the Presidents of the Church). We have created indexes and have posted them in our Stake Newsletter. This works well for us.

I have heard that some of the FM groups are using a device to download all the church streaming media and then wirelessly streaming them to boxes on the TV's. Has anyone heard of this?

Of note. The Church provides a list of A/V hardware and in particular a list of TVs that are compatible for video playback. We are working on making that list more accessible and easier to find. In the meantime the following TVs are listed and are compatible for USB video playback:

SAMSUNG 28”-(HG28NB670BF)-$378 (Includes Handle & Carrying Case)
LG 32”-(32LY340C)-$319
LG 47”-(47LY340C)-$687

you could also do a search on youtube with your model on enabling USB playback on your node.

I have had better luck with DVD/Blu-Ray players with USB ports. Our ward does not have any but I bring mine from home and it is quite simple to use. None of our TVs can play videos directly from the USB ports.