Why FAT32?

[noa]

I just wonder why manufacturers still rely on fat32 as it is an ancient format, especially in an HD time where a one hour file is easily 10gb +.
For ext harddisks I heard it has something to do with the fact that fat32 can be read by either Mac or pc so it can be used right out of the box and changed when you think it's necessary, only for mediaplayers with operating software directly linked to that same fat32 system with no way to change I can't understand, why cripple a mediaplayer that is intended to play 4gb + files?
Someone knows?

[acgold7]

I started a thread about this very topic on that other forum we're both active in, and the consensus of opinion was that -- more important than the supposed Mac/PC capability -- it's really about avoiding paying Microsoft to license the NTFS file system.

[noa]

Ah, that's the reason :)

[steve]

There are other (free) options such as EXT2 & EXT3 which are files systems used with Linux. Both of them are without the limitations of FAT32, EXT3 is a journalling system like NTFS and of course they are free! There is at least one free windows application that can handle these systems, EXT2FS, see here:

http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

As most new devices such as NASs, Media Players etc., are based on a Linux OS, their internal drives are most likely to be EXT2 or 3 anyway. I think the PS3 will read an external EXT drive.

Steve