LaCie LaCinema Rugged for the rough-and-tumble media enthusiast

LaCie launched the original LaCinema media drive back in January, and the company is now extending the line of media-playback drives with the LaCinema Rugged. Built in a tasteful black version of the same rubber-coated chassis as LaCie's standard rugged drives, the new unit comes in capacities up to 500GB and features 1080i HDMI output of a variety of codecs, including XviD. The LaCinema remote appears to be redesigned, and the menu system is apparently graphical and pretty, which is always nice. Not a bad way to do playback on the go, we suppose -- now if LaCie would just bring the £219 ($357) drive to the States, we'd be all set.

[Via Pocket-lint]

[phanbouy @ Oct 22nd 2008 3:49PM]

that's a cool waffle iron

[happy_penguin @ Oct 22nd 2008 4:41PM]

All it needs is some tasty rum apples.

[frankenbeans @ Oct 22nd 2008 4:13PM]

Now if they could teach that HDMI port to do a lil of the old in-out (instead of just out)... well, that would be swell.

[Oli D @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:09PM]

call me an ammetuer all you like, but what exactly is it?
An external hard drive with a life of its own?

Please explain not disown :)

[scott @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:13PM]

rabble rabble rabble

:disown:

[Matthew C @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:31PM]

Its actually a very useful device. It works like a regular external Hard drive, so you can put any file on it. However, I also has a pmp-like chip inside, and ca be connecter to a regular or HDTV, allowing you to use and browse your videos using an OSD (on screen display) via the remote. Plus, it hard to breaking, and seeing as you probably want one of these as a portable way to show HD vid, thats big.

So, say your friend has an HDTV, but no BD Player (they went for HD DVD and are all defensive about it now). However, you want to watch your HD movies on their big-ass TV. So instead of Bring youre whole BD player to their house, you can just rip your discs to this drive, and plug it in to their TV via hdmi. And iff your bag, say, gets run over by a tuck on the way to your friendhouse, all your data is still safe, because its rugged.

[Matthew C @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:32PM]

sorry for the spelling mistakes and such - I dont usually tend to write stories as part of my engadget comments, so that got kinda long

[rightbleeding @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:18PM]

It's a media drive with a syrup trap

[nolos @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:54PM]

If it was an Apple product it would be called the iWaffle

[Jim @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:40PM]

They just need to add a 5 inch LCD screen (along with the current standard outputs) and a battery to run it and I would be set.

[Dopefish @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:57PM]

Way to miss the point...

[wayne @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:11PM]

it looks nice, i'm sure i'll buy one...but i've been spoilt using xmbc , what i also need is the ability to view a movie of any format, zipped up, with subtitles..

and probably a tv with hdmi.

[Jared @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:42PM]

Given how the Brits usually get shafted on imported tech, wouldn't the State-side price be closer to $219?

[Mark @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:53PM]

If this had network capabilities, it'd be worth contemplating.

[Mark @ Oct 22nd 2008 6:56PM]

...as an addition to my XBMC setup. Only downfall for XBMC is the inability to playback full HD media files.

[Russ @ Oct 22nd 2008 8:26PM]

..and a torrent client. for, ah, downloading linux distros, yeah, distros..

[rita hainsworth @ Oct 22nd 2008 7:20PM]

The Black Wii Fit.

[Daniel @ Oct 22nd 2008 8:29PM]

$357 is ridiculously expensive for such limited functionality.

For about $340 you can instead get a Popcorn Hour A110 + 1000GB Seagate Barracuda 7,200RPM and also get:

- MKV support
- 1080p output
- Twice the capacity
- Ethernet port with FTP, SMB servers
- USB host port
- Media Services to watch online content like YouTube on your TV
- Torrent client
- Much better remote

Only con would be the lack of rugged padding, easily fixed by any carrying bag.

[jason @ Oct 23rd 2008 1:22PM]

Good suggestion Daniel I'm looking to travel some and that is a pretty sweet suggestion