High rating for this multimedia hard disk. As I predicted in a previous review of mine (about a Packard Bell multimedia hard disk) these kind of products quickly increased their popularity and now we have so many brands that we really don't know which one to pick.
Since these are new products it's also hard to find any kind of review about most of them. Many report weird crashes, others have codec issues. Well, amid all the choices, after long researches around the net I decided to pick up this LaCie LaCinema Premier 500GB and this is my review of it:
First of all, I would like to make clear that this product is EXCELLENT! It comes in a white little square box. Taking out the contents you will find the hard disk itself, CD with manuals (no drivers), USB 2.0 cable , A/V cable, remote with batteries (2AA), power adapter and a (very) Quick Install Guide.
The hard disk looks professional and its weight is not too heavy nor too light (1Kg to be exact). Colour is black with blue led lights on the front when turned on. It has some controls on the front (stop, play, four direction arrows and power button). On the back it presents a USB 2.0 port, 3 A/V plugs (Video+Audio Left & Right), S-Video and others similar to the composite plugs but dedicated to the HD video. Dimensions are: 68x170x125mm (2.68x6.69x4.92in.)
Knowing that they released updates of its firmware I first plugged it into my computer and followed the instructions to apply the upgrades (don't forget to plug it into a USB 2.0/1.1, if Windows doesn't recognize it just try plugging it into another of your USB ports, it worked for me).
The hard disk contains the folders MOVIES, MUSIC, PICTURES and UPDATES. You can easily create your subfolders to make some order if you have plenty of multimedia files to archive (and eventually enjoy on your TV). Easy enough, once you transfer all your multimedia files from your computer to this hard disk you can now plug it to the television through its composite A/V. The remote is also fantastic. Not filmsy at all, it looks just like a normal remote, with lots of functions but very easy to learn. With the remote you can navigate through your files thanks to an easy menu and select to watch or listen to them on your tv. Files supported are: Video: MPEG1/2/4 (avi and xvid), DVD-Video (ISO, IFO, VOB) Audio: MP3, WMA, AC3, Ogg Vorbis Photo: JPEG (up to 8MB pixels), BMP, GIF and PNG Subtitle: SMI, SRT, SSA, SUB
Also: the video and sound quality are excellent. The fast-forward and rewind actually works like on a DVD which is FANTASTIC on this sort of product. Only for that I would have voted it excellent.
Some let downs are: 1) It does support NTFS but it's formatted by the manufacturer in FAT32, this means that you can't store files for sizes bigger than 4GB (a bit stupid since it can support DVD-Video files). I wasn't willing to try to reformat it to NTFS because I'm not planning to store anything but avi video files. 2) Doesn't play MP4, not that I care but some people might. 3) They might have included a A/V-to-SCART plug for people who still have only SCART plugs on their tv (you can buy them for cheap anyway).
On a conclusive note, this product beats by far my previous Packard Bell 3500 and its filmsy remote. It's definitely a great purchase, for its look, silent performance and easiness to use... and the remote on this one is really good ;-).
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