Indium antimonide -- the next big thing? - Doctor Spinola
SEAGATE HAS a nifty little media centre dock for it's Freeagent mobile drives called the Freeagent Theater. It takes the firm's 2.5-inch USB HDs in a dock and plays the music, videos and pictures on your TV.
The Theater is cheap, it comes in at only $129 for the dock, $179 with a 250G Freeagent Go drive, and $299 for a 500G. For that, you get the dock, a drive, and a remote. In case the price didn't clue you in, it is a basic but fully functional product, has some nice feature, and some limits.
Ease of use is the main idea here, with a big UI that walks you through the directory on the drive and plays the media with the click of a remote. The aim is your mother, not you, so they can look at your home movies on the big screen without a computer.
It has a USB port to the side, so you can connect any USB HD, the only thing you give up by not having a Seagate Freeagent is the slide in and out docking. It also supports DVD menuing, so if you happen to copy a full DVD to a HD, legally of course, it will play it with menus intact. That is a rather nice touch considering how many DVDs you can put on a 500G drive.
Ports on the back include component, video, S-video and SPDIF, but no HDMI. That is because the Theater will not do HD out or H.264, but then again, for $129, what were you expecting? In any case, there is an HD version in the works, but no promises or time tables yet. In the meantime, this is a decent box to set up for the parents or grandparents so they can dip their toes in the world of digital media. µ
I would say that this is a good try to enter the media player market, but most likely is already doomed from beginning. At least those customers who like their HD material and want the best can get the WD TV for the same money with HDMI output. Bought resently the WD TV and must say that I'm positively surprised. The device just plays about everything and menus are logical. 1080p support just simply rules. If Seagate wants seriously to enter the media player market they should come up with HD capable device quite soon. H and D are the letters of the day.