My in-laws have just bought an LG 42LM620T.

For Christmas I've bought them a WD Passport 500gb portable harddrive.

It's just occurred to me that the TV might not be able to power the drive from its on-board USB ports, the drive doesn't have one of those 2 to 1 USB cables for additional power.

Does anyone have experience of this or know how I can find out (without having access to the TV)?

The manual is here but I cant see anything about USB power, just this:

Aren't portable 2.5" drives supposed to be fine running off regular USB 5V? They don't use as much juice as the standard 3.5" external units, so if it doesn't have its own AC adapter I think it will be fine.

The easiest way to find out is to plug the drive into the TV. 

I always thought it was 2-1 usb cable to run a 2.5" drive, i'm sure i have seen them running off a single usb though.

Should work fine as USB is a standard - so should power the drive the same as a computer would.

You could always buy a cable for the sake of £2 to make sure
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-A-to-2-Male-Data-Power-Cable-for-PC-2-5-3-5-HDD-Encloure-BlacK-UK-/400340586881?pt=UK_Computing_Drive_Cables_Adapters&hash=item5d36289181

Quote from: Eggtastico on December 05, 2012, 19:01:34 PM
Should work fine as USB is a standard - so should power the drive the same as a computer would.

You could always buy a cable for the sake of £2 to make sure
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-A-to-2-Male-Data-Power-Cable-for-PC-2-5-3-5-HDD-Encloure-BlacK-UK-/400340586881?pt=UK_Computing_Drive_Cables_Adapters&hash=item5d36289181

Cheers guys. Sadly the disk end of the cable takes a propriety connection, so no can do on the ebay cable.

I know things like the Pi dont supply enough power over USB to power most accessories which is why I was thinking the power over USB wasnt part of the standard.

Might get a cheap powered USB hub just in case.

It looks like they have done the same thing as my Samsung tv, there is a dedicated HDD port that provides more power on the port, make sure you plug it in the right port and you won't have a problem

if it doesn't work, you can always get a powered USB hub?

Those two ended USB cables don't actually require the second one to be plugged in. I never plug the second one in.

I've also got a usb 2.5" drive - works perfectly well on a single cable. Most of these sip energy very efficiently and are below the stated ability of a USB port to supply power. The problem is if they have put a hub in there instead of individual ports, then one can rob the others of power.