Seagate GoFlex wifi Satellite external hard drive

[scubadiver12165]

I've been contemplating on whether to purchase the Seagate Goflex wifi Satellite external hard drive. The 32 GB on my ipad2 is simply not enough to store all the movies, home videos taken with the iPad, games and such. I read online reviews from places such as Amazon and Newegg and there seems to be more negative comments about it than there are positives. I was wondering if anyone here has experience using it. If so, what is your honest opinion of it. Worth buying, get something else or hold off for something better to come along?

 

[jeffreydc]

I had one for a couple of weeks and ended up returning it. It worked OK for movies but wasnt worth the nearly $200 in my opinion. A lot of the negative reviews I read were true.

Cons:
1. It was slow populating thumbnails EVERY time you turn it on
2. The file system is as bad as everyone says it is
3. You cant be hooked to internet and goflex at same time
4. And finally the most unacceptable con for me was that you cant play movies on the HDMI out adapter like you would with Netflix on a TV or projector. The video only plays in the smaller mirror image version and looks like crap.

pros:
1. The video streamed smoothly and looked good on the ipad
2. It is very quiet and small for a wireless hard drive

I ended up getting the camera connection kit and just put all my movies on an SD card and transfer them to my ipad now. This way I have pretty much unlimited storage in a much smaller package.

 

[twerppoet]

Check out the AirStash. I don't' have it, but I believe the reviews are better. It may not have the capacity of a HDD solution, but SD cards would be more flexible.

 

[Wolfpuppies3]

I have both the Air Stash and the SeaGate Go flex

Both work just fine for me. The Seagate is pricey but it is also 500 gig compared to the much loser cost Air Stash that is limited to the (extra cost) SDHC card's capacity. Start with the Air Stash with a 32 gig SDHC card and see if that solves your problem. It is much smaller and less expensive than the SeaGate

 

[AlacrityF]

I bought the Seagate for my sister and quite the time setting it up.
1st off most of the files I wanted her to be able to use were avi's. I had to download (buy) Azul player in order to play the avi's. .movs and .mp4 stream just fine from the Seagate. Azul downloads the file off the Seagate on to your ipad then plays them. It works just not as nicely as mp4s. I guess after she fills up her ipad drive she will have to delete the files she doesn't want.

 

[AlacrityF]

FYI, the Buzz Player HD is (so far) the best player I have found for playing (streaming) avi's from the Seagate Satellite.

 

[Chronicals]

Help

FYI, the Buzz Player HD is (so far) the best player I have found for playing (streaming) avi's from the Seagate Satellite.

Can anyone help me please, I have a bunch of avi files on my goflex drive however only files less than roughly 400mb will play. I try to load a 2 hour 700mb avi file and try playing with buzz player, Oplayer, VLC player and nothing happens at all, it just stays on the segate page and nothing loads, what is wrong !!!

 

[MattIM]

Can anyone help me please, I have a bunch of avi files on my goflex drive however only files less than roughly 400mb will play. I try to load a 2 hour 700mb avi file and try playing with buzz player, Oplayer, VLC player and nothing happens at all, it just stays on the segate page and nothing loads, what is wrong !!!

Hello Chronicals, welcome to the forum. In a short while, you will soon be greeted by a super moderator. They will give you excellent "welcome to the forums" links. Be sure to read those links as they will give you all the information you will need to participate on this forum.

Chronicals, you pulled up a very old thread about the Seagate GoFlex drive. There are some newer threads but they do not address your specific question--I too am interested in this topic as I just bought one, it will be delivered Monday, May 7th. I'm doing a lot of searching on this forum and elsewhere to help myself get ready to play with a new piece of technology! I'm replying to your post hoping others with direct experience can help us answer your questions.

Once again, welcome to the forum!

 

[leelai]

Can anyone help me please, I have a bunch of avi files on my goflex drive however only files less than roughly 400mb will play. I try to load a 2 hour 700mb avi file and try playing with buzz player, Oplayer, VLC player and nothing happens at all, it just stays on the segate page and nothing loads, what is wrong !!!

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

I too am interested in this subject.

The IPad Forum is a community of members from all walks of life and from all over the world coming together to share our experiences and to help each other learn about this wonderful piece of technology the Ipad. There is a wealth of information already here in the many threads we have so doing some searches will answer most of the questions you have. If then you cannot find the answer you are seeking then by all means post your question. There are many friendly and informed members here only too willing to help you.

We also have our own App - It is a very simple app to navigate.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/discussion-forum-for-ipad/id412896524?mt=8
Reading the IPad manual is a great place to start so please download a copy of these.
http://www.support.apple.com/manuals/ipad/
2 very informative threads from which you will learn many tips and shortcuts for the IPad.
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general-discussions/21590-tips-tricks-those-us-who-dont-know.html
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-os/49581-ios5-tips-tricks.html
We have rules like any Community so please read these also
http://www.ipadforums.net/forum-rul...um-rules-everybody-please-read.html#post14697

Once again we welcome you here and are so pleased you have joined us!

 

[drb_52]

I have a goflex and will take a shot at addressing your questions.
First, connect the ipad to the goflex wifi.
Then, open buzz player hd.
At the bottom of the screen, tap the smb/ftp icon.
The goflex should show up as a upnp guest connection.
Tap that to connect buzz player to the goflex.
If you have the goflex password protected, you will be prompted to enter the password the first time you connect, buzz player will remember the password the next time you connect.
You should be able to see several folders. Just navigate to your movie and select it.

The goflex app will only play movies with the ipad compatible file extensions.

 

[MattIM]

I have a goflex and will take a shot at addressing your questions.
First, connect the ipad to the goflex wifi.
Then, open buzz player hd.
At the bottom of the screen, tap the smb/ftp icon.
The goflex should show up as a upnp guest connection.
Tap that to connect buzz player to the goflex.
If you have the goflex password protected, you will be prompted to enter the password the first time you connect, buzz player will remember the password the next time you connect.
You should be able to see several folders. Just navigate to your movie and select it.

The goflex app will only play movies with the ipad compatible file extensions.

Hello drb_52, thanks for the advice on Buzz Player HD app. I also got the GoFlex Media app.

The GoFlex Satellite Drive arrived today. First impression, I forget how easy iPad is to setup. The GoFlex is basically a Windows device, so it is not plug and play like the iPad. August 2011 is the age of the software on the GoFlex, i had to downloaded an update from the Seagate Website. The form factor for the drive Is 3inches x 5inches long x 1 inch thick. It is less than a pound in weight.. Documentation states that there is a 20 minute charge but the battery is good for four to five hours of continuos play back. The top of the drive is a real slick black bezel that easily shows finger prints. The bottom of the drive gets very warm--much warmer than my iPad 3 generation ever got.

GoFlex Media app is from Seagate Tech. The Buzz Player app is from a third party. GoFlex Media app, plays Apple formatted files. Buzz Player can play any video formatted file. When I did media synch app for my pc, it downloaded the files that I had in my media files onto the GoFlex.

The drive itself broadcasts it's own wifi, so once you launch the iPad app GoFlex or Buzz Player, you have to go to the settings app and select the GoFlex wifi network. This means that once you are finished accessing the GoFlex, you have join/reconnect to your home wifi again. I haven't figured out how you can access your wifi and the GoFlex but so far you have to join either the GoFlex or any other wifi.

Im going to start ripping some DVDs I own onto this drive and see how it that works. My goal was to get a central location to contain all of my media files that could easily be accessed by all of my devices. I think this meets my goal. I now can access my music that was n my original iPad on the other two iPads.

 

[drb_52]

MattlM, nice write-up .

You can access your network wifi through the goflex.
First, access the goflex wifi and start the goflex app.
In the lower left corner of the app screen, look for the wifi symbol under Connection Utilities.
Tap the wifi symbol.
You should see a list of available wifi networks. Sometimes, I have to wait a while or repeat the process before a list of available networks appears.
Select your network. You'll have to enter your network password the first time you connect through the goflex.
The wifi symbol will change from a green to blue when you are connected to your network.
You should be able to connect to the internet with your ipad.

 

[MattIM]

MattlM, nice write-up .

You can access your network wifi through the goflex.
First, access the goflex wifi and start the goflex app.
In the lower left corner of the app screen, look for the wifi symbol under Connection Utilities.
Tap the wifi symbol.
You should see a list of available wifi networks. Sometimes, I have to wait a while or repeat the process before a list of available networks appears.
Select your network. You'll have to enter your network password the first time you connect through the goflex.
The wifi symbol will change from a green to blue when you are connected to your network.
You should be able to connect to the internet with your ipad.

Thank you drb_52, I did as you said, now I can access everything! You were right about the lag time of the GoFlex finding my wifi network. But once it did, very solid. I'm thinking the GoFlex is also acting as a signal strengthener or something like that. My house wifi router is all the way on the other side of the house, I'm sitting in my breakfast room where I do most of my iPadding and I have more bars on my wifi.

This is turning out to be a really good alternative to putting a lot of stuff on my limited storage space iPads and trying to swap data files. I'm looking forward to ripping dvd's now.

 

[Pensmith007]

I ended up getting the camera connection kit and just put all my movies on an SD card and transfer them to my ipad now. This way I have pretty much unlimited storage in a much smaller package.

How do you transfer your movies from the SD card to the IPAD with the camera connection Kit?

 

[MattIM]

I ended up getting the camera connection kit and just put all my movies on an SD card and transfer them to my ipad now. This way I have pretty much unlimited storage in a much smaller package.

How do you transfer your movies from the SD card to the IPAD with the camera connection Kit?

Hello Pensmith007, unfortunately, the Camera Connection Kit (CCK) is just that--gives you the ability to connect your camera and export your digital image onto the iPad. When I found out about the CCK, I got it thinking I could do what you concluded. But it was not meant to be. I have heard that you can do this with a jail broken iPad. I haven't tried this solution as I do not want to jailbreak my iPad. I've been searching for alternatives.

This GoFlex was the easiest solution for me. There are other threads on this forum that discusses other third party devices similar to GoFlex. I'll look around and see if I can't link you to those threads.