[Seagate]

The goal here is simple: Play all the videos that I have ripped from DVD, downloaded from the web, shot with my own cameras or obtained in some other manner, no matter what the format. It sounds simple but Apple TV can’t do it. Video codecs and containers are a nightmare to keep track of, and even more of a nightmare to convert.

This isn’t about photos and music. Apple TV is better at both of those than any of this stuff. It’s also not about renting movies or buying movies, or even streaming movies. Roku has a nice cheap box for that, and Apple TV is suitable if you just want to live inside Steve Jobs’ media store. This is about playing non-DRM movies, pure and simple.

The names might be familiar to you: The Popcorn Hour C-200 by Syabas is quickly gaining cult status (and has its own hacker wiki), while the other four smaller boxes come from brands you probably have experience with, including WD, Seagate, Netgear and Patriot.

My two main tests were simple — I loaded PC and Mac formatted external hard drives with a variety of files ranging from H.264 MP4s to WMVs of several vintages, from raw AVCHD files in MTS wrappers to the hot new DivX 7 MKV. Then I browsed through my local network to a NAS that had a cache of similar files. Could I see them? Could I play them? These shouldn’t be issues, but they’re big issues.

Here’s a rundown of each machine and how they fared in testing:

As you can see, there were clear leaders given my criteria above, but what struck me was how each one differed. Truth is, depending on who you are, any one of these might be the best fit. Here’s what really separates them:

WD TV Live

I would have given this thing the solo spot at the top if it weren’t for a few dings that might very well be fixed in a firmware update: It won’t show you DVD menus on ripped DVD images, and when you play files with the suffix .m4v it won’t fast forward or rewind. Weird bug that can be fixed if you just change .m4v to .mp4, but since that’s the default file naming for Handbrake’s “Apple TV” profile it could be a problem for people, like me, who spent months ripping their entire DVD collection that way.

WD’s strengths include a friendly user-interface with handy video previews, some promising early online services (including Pandora), and the most reasonable photo and music handling I’ve seen in this cluster of gadgets.

Seagate FreeAgent Theater+

I loved this when I tested it a few weeks ago, despite its fugly interface, and it holds up under testing. It does better with ripped .ISO files than WD, doing both DVD menus and chapters (and it doesn’t have that weird .m4v bug either). Video was better, especially when running 1080p content.

The tradeoff is that the interface is bad, and there’s almost nothing in the way of online services. It gets points for making an attempt at sorting music and displaying photos, but if that’s a priority, WD is the better call.

Popcorn Hour C-200

Hardcore AV nerds love this thing, and I understand why. There are more ways to get at video content than in any other set-top box I’ve ever seen, and if you really know how to hack, there’s really not much it can’t do.

It’s a big ole thing — they call it a “network tank” and — despite reminding me of the far cooler ones in Tron — I get it. It has an internal BitTorrent client and you can plug in a Blu-ray drive, for god’s sake. I found very few video formats that it wouldn’t support (FLV was one) but I had to take major points off because for being so big, it has a lame interface, and it comes with an RF remote that only worked when I stood within 1m of it. They even mention that there might be problems with interference, and if people experience that they can buy the IR remote. Great, thanks.

My only question — and it’s not rhetorical — is why spend $US300/$AU599 on this (plus extra for the optional internal HDD and the IR remote) when you can just buy a home-theatre PC?

Patriot Box Office

This was the dark horse of the group, being a late entry by a company known only for computer memory. I was surprised at how well it held up. It actually could decode more tested formats than any other device in this lineup — it did Flash video (FLV), which the three above can’t render. Only the WD and the Patriot show you video previews, too. As small as it is, there’s space for a 2.5-inch SATA drive in there and even a BitTorrent client. You can copy files to and from different drives and the network, and it’s the cheapest of the lot at $US130.

So why did it come in a distant third? Unlike the three above, it can’t read Mac-formatted hard drives, and its video quality was noticeably the worst of the batch. That said, if you are a hacker sort and want something to play with that doesn’t cost as much as Popcorn, set your sights on this.

Netgear Digital Entertainer Live

As you can probably tell by now, Netgear had the most disappointing box of the lineup, despite its Apple TV ripoff look and feel. Lack of Mac media support and the inability to read key file formats — like DivX 7 and AVCHD — meant it couldn’t pass muster with real video fanatics. Its biggest point of woe was the fact that it didn’t support any file over 720p in resolution — whether that’s a software thing or a hardware thing, it’s sure not future-proof and probably best to stay away.

I also didn’t like the fact that its interface is laid out entirely for retail, like an Apple TV without the panache, or a Roku box that costs more and doesn’t do Netflix. Local files were not a priority, and despite the friendly interface, it doesn’t even make an attempt to differentiate photos and music. I did give it a gold star for online services, but only because it had the most in this group — if online services are what you love, buy a Roku, or a TiVo, or an Xbox, or a friggin’ Apple TV.

Still not sure what you’re looking for, check the spec comparisons here:

The good news is that these things work well, despite the larger drive and lower power. They’re not about performance — 5400 rpm only — but when I tested moving a 1GB file to and from, I got it in under 30 seconds, just a hair slower than the same file moved to and from faster FireWire 800 drives. I didn’t do any real benchmarking, but I am convinced that the USB is going to be the bottleneck, not the bigger drive (shown below with a 320GB USB-only and a 500GB FW800/USB combo). The FreeAgent was even designed to fit the USB dock and FreeAgent Theater+, though not subtly.

That brings us to the bad news, which many of you already know: Despite being portable bus-powered 2.5-inch drives, the three-platter HDDs inside these casings are not capable of being ripped out and stuck into your laptop, at least, not without some hackery I am not qualified to endorse. So, in lieu of a full review, I offer this: It works, it’s not noticeably sluggish given the added weight, and it feels really good to be able to carry a whole terabyte wherever I want. [Seagate]

The Price

$US150 without drive; $US290 with 500GB drive included.

The Praise

As I mentioned, the video decoding on this is better than anything I’ve ever seen in a $US150 box. The Theater+ is very comfortable with HD video, not only because of its HDMI output but because when I dumped some QuickTime 1080p movie trailers on a drive and docked it, the trailers played back without a single hiccup. Ditto for high-def MKVs I downloaded from the DivX 7 showcase. If you encoded a video with subtitles or variable audio tracks, the choice appears up when you hit the menu button during playback. And disc images of DVDs? It’s like there’s a real live DVD in there, only there isn’t!

Some more coolness: It remembers where you are in a movie, so you don’t have to worry about stopping then coming back and having to find your place, even when you’re viewing a DVD image. And since it’s connected, it can hop on your NAS drives to pick up movies and other files. Again, no problems playing back. (Note: I didn’t try the wireless option, which will sell separately for $US70 later on — I used Ethernet through a Linksys powerline adaptor).

The chart of accepted video codecs is long, but unlike most players of this price range, there are very few fine-print exceptions. What can’t you play? Very very low-res (viral) WMVs got the ix-nay — higher rez WMVs play just fine. What else? DVD disc images in the .img format don’t show up, but switching a .img to the supported .iso is surprisingly easy. That’s it. It didn’t brick any other assorted video in my library, out of hundreds of files.

The Scorn

I won’t lie, the interface on this baby is pretty heinous. It’s media manager circa 2002, which means that I would expressly stay away from photos and music, despite its ability to read any of those files too. Movies are good because you don’t need a lot of browsing — I just switched it from the ridiculously blocky “thumbnail” view to a standard list view, and skimmed my movies in alphabetical order. The good news is, you can change filenames to make it look a little prettier: dont_tempt_me.m4v becomes Don’t Tempt Me.m4v.

I also wouldn’t bother with Seagate’s media manager software for “syncing” content to the hard drive. Maybe run it once for it to set up a folder structure on your drive, then copy video files over to it to your heart’s content. You don’t even have to use a FreeAgent Go drive, though it looks nice, nestled in there. You can plug just about any drive (NTFS, HFS+ or FAT are all fine, format wise) into a USB port, and navigate to it through the “devices” list.

As I mentioned, this is a networked device, but the internet options are as of now pretty lame: A non-personalised Flickr feed, a Picasa widget, a stock ticker and a weather program, all of which are bargain basement plug-ins.

The Verdict

What do I personally want? A basic video player that can read the 150 to 200 DVDs I ripped in H.264 to save space, plus all of the crap that Apple TV and the lesser media adapters seem to have a problem with. Video should be either local or on a NAS, and I shouldn’t have to worry about codecs or resolutions or any of the crap others seem to freak out about. I don’t need help with music or photos — it’s strictly about movies and longer-form TV. Because of that, I am a fan of this little box. Once it starts shipping, I encourage you to check it out. Just heed the following rules:

• Don’t buy the 500GB drive bundle for $US290—Amazon sells the 500GB FreeAgent Go right now for $US106, so there’s no way the bundle makes sense (as currently priced).
• And don’t accidentally go buying the old FreeAgent Theater. It’s my understanding that the first go ’round wasn’t so pretty. From the looks of this massive overhaul, Seagate probably should have done more than just add a plus sign. [Product page; Amazon sales page]

In Brief

Decoded every video I selected, with two extremely negotiable exceptions

Compatible with Mac and PC formatted drives, and has no issues with folder hierarchies

HD, HD and more HD—720p and 1080p look good and play back smoothly

No problem locating NAS drives on the network, and no hiccups in playing back DVD disc images over the network

Internet widgets at present are dumb, but a future firmware update could bring something nice

The user interface is pretty ugly — your best bet is to clump your videos together into easy folders (movies, TV, etc.) and to avoid using this to manage photos and music

FreeAgent theatre Media Manager is an insult to anyone who actually knows what this product can do for them

The concept is the same: you plug in the FreeAgent DockStar, from Seagate, and the Network Adaptor will bring the drive online for access from across the internet (or just somewhere in your own home network). Seagate’s solution also includes three extra USB ports to get three other devices online as well, and will be available for $US100, which includes a year of Pogoplug service. Each subsequent year costs $US30 per year. [Seagate]

The FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player leverages a docking system unique to Seagate FreeAgent Go(TM) portable drives and accessories, providing a quick and easy way to connect your external hard drive to your television or home entertainment centre. After loading the drive with your favourite movies, videos, music and pictures from the home PC, simply slide it into the FreeAgent Theater+ dock to get instant access to your digital media library. With the FreeAgent Theater+ player, you can just sit back, relax, point, click and enjoy as digitally captured memories and your favourite movies come to life in 1080p HD video, DTS(TM) 2.0 + Digital Out, or Dolby Digital technology. The interface is easily navigated with the included remote control, and you can choose from video, photos or music with the up/down arrows on the remote to make your selection.

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player includes two additional USB ports for connecting other USB attached storage devices. Also incorporated into FreeAgent Theater+ is an Ethernet port for network connectivity, which allows access to digital media through your home network. Seagate intends to launch a USB Wireless adaptor in October to enable this same access with 802.11n wireless connectivity to a home network. Enjoy it all, with the included new and improved remote control, from the comfort of your couch.

“There is so much media that is now being captured and created through various methods and stored on the PC, yet the computer is not the ideal way to enjoy these photos and videos,” said Terry Cunningham, senior vice president, Seagate Branded Solutions. “The FreeAgent theatre provides the easiest way to view and enjoy video and photos on your HDTV. Simply load up a Seagate FreeAgent Go(TM) hard drive and drop it into the FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player dock. It’s a behaviour we’ve all been familiar with for years with VHS and DVDs, but now with digital HD enjoyment.”

The new FreeAgent Theater+(TM) HD media player solution includes:

HDMI with 1080p HD video playback for high-definition content viewing
Dolby(R) Digital and DTS(TM) 2.0 + Digital Out audio support surround sound where available.
Unique docking system eliminates fumbling with cables and connections
Ethernet connection for accessing shared content on your network or streaming of content from the Internet
The optional wireless connectivity feature, expected to be available in October, will allow you to access stored content on any networked computer in the home at your fingertips
Two additional USB ports and one front-mounted port for digital cameras and additional storage devices
Simple sync software for PC and Mac(R) computers
Intuitive user interface with DVD-style navigation
Support for Windows(R) XP, Windows Vista(R), Windows(R) 7, and Mac OS(R) X operating systems, as well as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, HFS+ file support
Component video and Composite video support
Optical S/PDIF audio and Stereo RCA sound options
The software included with FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player is a rich media-specific synchronisation application that enables the automatic transfer and organisation of all photo, music, video and movie files stored on your computer.

Technical Specifications

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player now supports even more Audio/Video and sound formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG-4 (DivX(R)/Xvid formats), DivX HD, Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC-1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T, JPEG files up to 20 megapixels, BMP, GIF, PNG and TIFF. Audio formats supported include 5.1 channel surround sound, where available, and popular digital audio formats including: AAC, MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, ASF, FLAC, WMA, LPCM, ADPCM, WAV and OGG. The FreeAgent Theater+ player also offers support for SAMI (smi), SRT and SUB subtitles. To download and transfer content to a Seagate FreeAgent Go portable drive using a Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operated PC, a 256MB RAM and an available USB port is required. Mac computer users must be running Mac OS X 10.4.11 or 10.5.6 or later and have an available USB port. FreeAgent theatre connects to any TV with composite, component video or HDMI connection and stereo, optical S/PDIF or HDMI audio connection

Pricing and Availability

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player is available immediately via Seagate.com and other online retailers. It comes as a stand-alone unit for use with any USB storage device for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $US149.99, or bundled with a 500GB FreeAgent Go drive for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $US289.99. The FreeAgent Theater+ Wireless adaptor is expected to be available in October as a separate accessory through Seagate.com for $US69.99.

As a fan of the bus-powered FW800 drives that have the option of USB 2.0, I was pretty happy to learn about this one. We haven’t checked it out yet, though it’s probably worth a Lightning Review.

The only fishy part is that it comes with “required cables and dock,” which makes me wonder if it can’t pull all the necessary current from the FireWire (or USB 2.0) bus to spin that baby at 7200rpm. Does it need an extra power cord? I can’t imagine it would, but I’ll get a firm answer. In the meantime, anyone who’s regularly running around with external disks full of ProTools or Final Cut projects should be on this: $US190 for 500GB of smooth spinning, portable goodness.

And no, there’s no such thing as a true portable 10,000rpm 2.5″ drive. Not yet at least. Check back in a few months.

(I should point out that, in the course of writing this up, I found that OWC also just introduced a 7200rpm 500GB drive with FW800, the Mercury On-The-Go Pro, though they cost about $US50 more.)

From Seagate’s press materials:

FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac Drive Higher performance means faster workflow, and that equals greater productivity for creative professionals who work with digital video, music, photography and graphic arts. The FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac clocks in at 7200RPMs to deliver lightening fast performance and throughput with FireWire 800/400 interface for those that need higher-data transfer, making production and editing of large multi-media files a breeze.

The Seagate FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac storage solution is slim, compact and offers fast throughput with FireWire 800 or FireWire 400 connections and includes the required cables and dock. The Seagate FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $US129.99 USD for 250GB, $US149.99 USD for 320GB and $US189.99 for 500GB.

Their availability and pricing:

• Available in late July, Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220—$449.99 for 2TB and $US699.99 for 4TB

• Available now, Seagate BlackArmor WS 110—$159.99 for 1TB and $US309.99 for 2TB

• Available now, Seagate BlackArmor PS 110—$159.99 for 500GB

The BlackArmor NAS seems interesting to me, just because I’m a big fan of network storage that your entire house can access. Is that $US450 and $US700 price going to be affordable when you can get simiarly-sized NASes (and Windows Home Servers) for cheaper? It depends on what kind of security/backup/restore software Seagate bundles in.

This means that you get a ton of portable storage space, and you still don’t need an AC adaptor. You just plug the drive into a USB 2.0 port and proceed with your business. Simple, easy, nice. Pricing and availability is still up in the air for now, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled. [Seagate]

There’s no HDMI on the dock either, so while it can upscale to 1080i through component, there isn’t the simple, single cable solution. Also disappointing is the file support – audio, for example, doesn’t include support for AAC or Apple lossless, which is incredible considering the number of people who would have their music encoded in this way.

There are a couple of really cool features that do make it stand out though, like the ability to zoom in and pan on a video during playback, and the fact that it is firmware upgradeable. But for the geeks among us (which is pretty much everyone, let’s be honest), this isn’t going to be the ideal solution, despite its attractive $199 price tag. It might suit your mum or grandma, but then you’re going to have to train them how to copy files onto an external drive to make the most of it.