I've done some googling, but I'm not sure if an Android TV box is what I'm looking for or if there's another name for it. It seems like every device I've found just focuses on streaming online content instead of playing local files. Would be greatly appreciated if somebody could point me in the right direction!
Something that can do both would be fine of course, but playing media files off a drive is the main thing I'm after.
Get a Raspberry Pi 3, it has 4 USB ports and doesn't give a flip about Ex-FAT, FAT32 or NTFS formatted drives.
Image onto a MicroSD card, LibreELECT, then insert the MicroSD into Pi, power it up and it will boot straight into Kodi. Navigate to the video menu, then files, which you should then see your external drive listed and allow you to play back whatever you want. You can even share out the hard drive to other media players on your network.
NOTE: a Raspberry Pi4 will be nicer, faster, but the Pi3 will be slightly cheaper as it uses MicroUSB for power and HDMI, parts you might have lying around. The Pi4 switches to USB-C for power and Mini-HDMI, which you may have to buy if you dont have spares. Either the Pi3 or Pi4 wont have a problem with 1080p or 4K videos.
I got a Walmart onn for $20 and am using a $5 USB OTG cable to play DVD rips from an external ntfs SSD. Exfat is not supported. Not sure if there's enough voltage for a mechanical HDD though.
Trying to do same to play via a non smart TV. My firestick does not run OS 7 so will not work with an OTB. Did you find a solution?
As long as it has a USB port, any Android TV box will typically be able to play from an external drive.