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Seagate offers up new media player

11 January 2009 0:31 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 8 comments

Seagate is extending upon its external storage product line-up to offer a home media console that can play media directly on a TV. The Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD media player, designed for a Seagate FreeAgent Go portable hard drive, can display digital photos, video, audio and similar contents on a connected television. It is controlled by a remote. The media player is plugged into the TV once and then users can easily plug in their FreeAgent Go hard drive without any hassle.

Surveys have indicated that consumers are becoming increasingly interested in products such as this, which bridge the gap between computers and televisions. A Parks Associates survey in 2007 found that more than a quarter of respondents were interested in accessing personal content directly on their TVs, while a third expressed interest in watching videos from a computer on a TV.

Consumer electronics companies are rushing to fill the gap as Internet-sourced content continues to grow. The challenge is to make a good product that can be used by almost anyone. In addition to watching movies, Seagate said owners will also be able to view pictures in HD quality, which can be arranged into slideshows with audio and transition effects being added.

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater media console will be available in March for $129 as a stand-alone player, or with a 250GB or 500GB FreeAgent Go drive for $229 and $299 respectively.

Permalink to this article | Topic: Home Theater

Seagate announces 1.5 Terabyte SATA drive (11 July 2008)

Seagate CEO says Blu-ray or HD DVD victory not important (13 January 2008)

Seagate designs new HDDs for HD video performance (7 January 2008)

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Discuss this article!
glenmike (Newbie) 11 January 2009 22:37
WD TV HD already available for the same price and works great. All you lack is a HDMI cable which you can pick up online for about $5.00. Go to http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572 for information. [ + quote]
emugamer (Member) 12 January 2009 8:32
*Originally posted by glenmike:* WD TV HD already available for the same price and works great. All you lack is a HDMI cable which you can pick up online for about $5.00. Go to http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572 for information. WD TV is buggy at best. It's the poor man's version. It's a media tank with plastic wheels. How well it plays depends on the rip. A friend of mine had trouble playing a lot of 1080p from different sources and even a some 720p. [ + quote]
glenmike (Newbie) 12 January 2009 9:21
I have never had a problem. Plays all my files perfectly. It could be because I updated to the latest firmware version at: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=1001&lang=en [ + quote]
DXR88 (Member) 15 January 2009 0:47
Seagate should stick with what it does best, storage devices. [ + quote]
wdtv (Newbie) 15 January 2009 10:19
I love my WDTV, can't be beat for $99 usd. I have a 1.5 TB hooked up to it and now I am saving money on dvd-r and building up a media machine. I am glad to see WD with a quick firmware to fix most problems, they actually listened to their customers! My friend did have some problems playing 720 and 1080 content, mostly audio problems, but for me I haven't had any issues. [ + quote]
187mr (Newbie) 26 January 2009 0:36
edited due to multi-posting. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/743641 edited by ddp [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26 January 2009 17:38
DXR88 (Member) 26 January 2009 10:08
*Originally posted by 187mr:* hey is anyone know how to put split vc-1 files back together to play with a wd tv hd media player.its plays 4 out of 5 file i wanna put them back together see if that works. (file i be getting it from torrnet) post that question here http://forums.afterdawn.com/forum_view.cfm/4 and im sure you'll get the answer your looking for. [ + quote]
nprfan (Newbie) 9 February 2009 6:06
Where's the lossless (FLAC, etc.) support? [ + quote]