Packard Bell Store & Play 3500

>>>>>>>> PACKARD BELL Store & Play 3500 - REVISED REVIEW <<<<<<<<

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When I first bought this multimedia Hard Disk, these kind of peripherals were still an expensive novelty.
For who doesn't know yet, a multimedia hard disk is an external hard disk where you can store your media files from the computer (video, music and pictures) and then plug it to the TV and ...
...When I saw this 500GB Packard Bell I pulled out my wallet imediately. It was a little pricey (169 euro, about £150, in offer from 189 euro) but well worth it. It has all the latest codec (including DivX 6) and plays almost everything.

It was a bit of a blind purchase because no one ever reviewed this product anywhere but gladly I didn't regret it. I've been using it for months now and it never failed.

In my previous ... more

>>>>>>>> PACKARD BELL Store & Play 3500 - REVISED REVIEW <<<<<<<<

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When I first bought this multimedia Hard Disk, these kind of peripherals were still an expensive novelty.
For who doesn't know yet, a multimedia hard disk is an external hard disk where you can store your media files from the computer (video, music and pictures) and then plug it to the TV and enjoy them on big screen. Before these became widely available (and having the computer usually too far from the TV) I had to write everything on CD or DVDs (which are limited to 700MB and 4.5GB respectively) and then play them on the DVD player.
You can imagine how many hours and CD or DVDs lost for something you might even watch only once and never again.

Needless to say that I've been dreaming of a product like this for years. All my films (and possibly pictures and music, why not) stored on one single hard disk which is easily plugged to the TV, remote controllable and easy to use.

When I saw this 500GB Packard Bell I pulled out my wallet imediately. It was a little pricey (169 euro, about £150, in offer from 189 euro) but well worth it. It has all the latest codec (including DivX 6) and plays almost everything.

It was a bit of a blind purchase because no one ever reviewed this product anywhere but gladly I didn't regret it. I've been using it for months now and it never failed.

In my previous version of this review I stated that I was sure these kind of products will become very popular in the future and cheaper too. I'm happy to see that I was right, now there are a lot of companies producing these kind of products and, while a few months ago not even shop assistants ever heard of them, now shelves are full of all sorts of brands.
Sadly the price hasn't really went down too much yet but you can still find good prices here and there. To give you an idea of a good price, £160 to £180 for 1 Terabyte is a great deal but also very hard to find in the UK where they keep this sort of products at ridiculous prices.

Anyway let's get down to the experience:

This Packard Bell hard disk is VERY easy to use and practical if you have loads of video (divx especially), audio and pictures that you want to watch on your tv.
Installation is not needed, WinXP recognizes it no problem so you don't need to install drivers or utilities. It has 3 folders (Movies, Music, Pictures) and you can create subfolders to store and archive your media files.
Once you have moved all the media files you want from the computer to the hard disk, unplug it from the pc, carry it near the tv, plug it in your scart or composite connection, turn the Packard Bell on and you will see a main menu with 4 options (3 of them are the folders I told you about before + Settings). You can navigate through your folders or change your audio/video settings (for example if you have a Widescreen TV or a 4:3) with your remote control.
You are ready to play your media files wheter they are mp3, avi, divx, jpg etc.

It's really easy.

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THE GOOD

A part from what I just said, this hard disk is not noisy at all.

I converted all my old VHSs into DivX and stored them all in that little box (imagine the amount of space I gained).

Also this is one of the few multimedia HDDs with DivX 6 certification (often, other brands only state up to DivX5). Packard Bell offer a good support with firmware updates etc.

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THE BAD
As every product it also has some bad points which I will explain in detail:

Compared to more recent similar products, this is quite old. I mean, nowadays you can get ones that also record from TV and not just play multimedia files (although they are still very expensive) or have controls on the box too (this one only has the on off switch, all other functions are through the remote).

The remote control is, although, the most annoying thing of all (possibly the only real one). It's very small compared to normal remote controls and uses small flat round batteries like the ones in your wrist watches. Now these batteries are not the easiest to come by in the house when you need to change them and you're going through your drawers to search for more.
It also drains the battery pretty fast so that is best to take the battery out of the remote when you're not using it.

Lastly, the fast forward function on video is not imediate as on VHS or DVD players while I've seen other products (see my review on the LaCie La Cinema Premier) where the fast forward and rewind were as smooth as on DVD players.

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TECH SPECS

Size 165 x 165 x 51.5 mm
Weight 1.3kg

Specifications:
HDD capacity 500GB
HDD format 3.5''
Interface High speed USB 2.0
Speed 7200 rpm
Real data transfer 480 Mb/s
Photo Playback JPEG
Video Playback MPEG 1/2/3, DivX 3/4/5/6, Xvid, AVI, VOB, ISO, Divx VOD
Audio Playback MP3, WMA (No DRM), WAV, OGG Vorbis, AAC (no DRM)

Connectors:
USB yes
Audio Outputs Stereo RCA, Coaxial
Video Outputs S-video, SCART, Composite

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THE BOX INCLUDES ALSO...

Accessories: USB Cable, A/V Cable, Scart Adapter, Remote Control, Power Adapter, Quick start/ User guide CD Companion
OS compatibility Win98se/ME/2000/XP.

Software: Packard Bell Software Suite (The two modules, "Sync" and "Archive", from the Packard Bell Software Suite are free to download for all Packard Bell external disk drive owners from July 2008 via the Updator function or from the Packard Bell support website: http://support.packardbell.com)

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TIPS TO COMMON PROBLEMS:

These are too common problems that I read around from other users, they are not really "problems" that's why I felt like adding these tips to my review:
- After a while the remote might appear faulty and not responsive but changing the battery often fixes the problem.
- Menues can be long to scroll file by file when you have stored many files, the botton "next chapter" helps that issue.

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RATING

My vote for this hard disk moved from Excellent to Good because after trying newer multimedia hard disks, I realised that this has some limitations but it's still a great product that is serving me well.

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PRICE

That's very variable. As I said, I paid mine around £150. I'm not very sure if you can find it cheaper, usually shops and even the packard bell website keeps it high priced, very high priced.
On Packard Bell website the availability of this product changes all the time (I'm guessing it gets bought as soon as they have it back in stock) and if it is out of stock they don't even list it (you have to enquiry for it).
However check their website often and their store locator http://www.packardbell.co.uk/shopping/store_locator.html

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WEBSIT E
http://www.packardbell.co.uk/

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WORTH IT OR NOT?
I selected "Recommended to potential buyers" because I still love my packard bell store&play 3500... ALTHOUGH I wouldn't buy it again simply because I tried the LaCie LaCinema Premier and it's way better, and cheaper. So my suggestion is to look for the LaCie (see also my review about it). Still it doesn't mean that this product is bad, just there is slightly better around for slightly better prices but don't attept to choose completely unknown brands over stuff like Packard Bell or LaCie because some of the unknown ones have lots of problems and virtually no customer support at all (some don't even have a website).

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