Iomega ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive, USB 2.0/AV, 500GB - 34200

List Price: $229.95 Discount Price: $190.02

Features:

• Convenient - Enjoy watching digital files on your home theatre or TV without being connected to the computer
• Cost Effective Multimedia player/hard drive storage
• Audio Media Formats - MP3, AC3 (Dolby Digital Encoding) and WAV
• Video Media Formats - MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4
• Photo Formats - JPEG

Customer Reviews:

Complete waste - HDMI flawed, playback clunky, performance weak [Posted on 2008-06-09]
Unfortunately, all the features that are supposed to make this device stand-out, fall on their face. The HDMI port is a joke. I plugged this into two different model HDTVs (both 720p/1080i max resolution). When you power it on (which takes about 30-45 seconds to initialize) the display color isn't correct. In fact it's missing two of the color channels - RED and GREEN.

I had to actually plug the included (non-standard) component adapter into the TV, turn the drive on (without HDMI plugged in), get into the menu, switch the drive's display settings to 720p. Then while leaving it on, plug in the HDMI cable and switch the input on the TV for it to display all the colors. If you turned the drive off - or it froze and you had to reset it, you had to complete all those steps from the beginning.

Also, the device tends to freeze - A LOT. I had to reboot it by holding the power switch in the back so many times I lost count (it was over 10 times in one sitting). If you do actually get it to play back an AVI DivX movie, don't hold your breath. It completely froze 5 times with 5 different movies, all of which play fine on my Xbox360, Xbox (softmodded), and computer. This device, though potentially the most useful device for storing and playing back a large library of ripped DVDs, doesn't even work like its manual and ads say it should. On top of that Iomega decided to format the drive NTFS - which means you have to reformat it if you want to plug the USB into a Mac or Linux computer to start copying your library to it.

Avoid this thing like the plague. You can get a 500GB external drive, and a Philips upconverting DivX DVD player with HDMI and a USB port to plug a drive into for $40 less - and it works better than this piece of garbage.

No Virgina, it doesn't mean high definition [Posted on 2008-06-09]
I also bought this unit to archive video from my new hidef camcorder. Since it won't handle HD, it's just another external hard drive with somewhat buggy software. Oh well, back to the return bin.

Compact Portable Movie Library [Posted on 2008-06-11]
This drive is exactly what I expected it to be - a compact, portable drive that will play a library of movies without having to get up and change the DVD's. I can take the drive over to a friend's if we're in the mood for a movie, but cannot decide which one, or leave it in my bedroom so I can tap into the uncut, unedited version of my favorite movies if inspired by a showing on cable TV. Transferring files are easy via a simple "click and drag" or saving directly onto the unit as though it were a portable hard drive.

The unit comes with RCA, component, and HDMI ports to accommodate the various connectivity options a user has. I have it hooked up via the HDMI and have had no problems. Audio and video are crisp. There is also a credt card sized remote that conveniently snaps onto the bottom of the drive for storage/transport ease. The only thing I wish was better is the setup features. There are no explanations for what the different audio options are unless I test it out via trial and error. The instruction manual on the installation CD will tell me if no "x" then no "y," but I can still get the unit to produce different results despite what the instructions say.

I'm not sure why the other reviewers believed this drive is meant for high definition (HD). The box says it upconverts the picture and processed the "HD" picture. I processed "HD" to mean Hard Disk. It's the same shorthand used for camcorders - HDD is hard disk drive.

Nice HD storage unit, easy to use remote  [Posted on 2008-06-24]
This unit installed effortlessly on my main computer via a USB connection. After loading it full of pictures & videos, I took it over to a TV at a friends house. Using the ordinary yellow red white audio video out cable, it plugged right into the TV front panel. It displayed all the movies, image files, & even the audio files stored on it. It's nice and small, easy to carry. Will fit in a small handbag. Has very good outputs for audio & video including HDMI, & component video, and digital audio coax. It doesn't have a fiber optic audio output connection. It does have some type of European standard socket that kind of looks like a VGA or printer output but it's not. I am not familiar with it either. The internal operating system seems to handle most all of the ordinary mp3, mp4, avi, divx, jpeg type files I copied, but on it's own - it doesn't play back everything. There were some files that will play through on my desktop computer, but won't play on the internal operating system of the drive when connected to an external audio/video device. Overall, it's a really neat little external hard drive, and a really oustanding value at the $220 or so selling price. I like the portability, the remote control, & the fact that it will plug into just about any kind of t.v. set or projector. Audio & video quality are very high quality. And, I like it's very large 500gb capacity.

Nice machine! [Posted on 2008-07-16]
I have 2. One for my music collection & one for videos, both home-made movies and back-ups of favorites. Have had them 6 months & have no complaints. Very easy to use.

Click here for more details and discount information...