LaCie offers up LaCinema Classic multimedia hard drive

It may not be Premiere or anything, but LaCie's LaCinema Classic can still dish media to your HDTV with the best of 'em. Available in capacities as large as 1TB, the multimedia hard drive weighs in at 33 ounces and promises to upscale your digital media to 1080p over HDMI. Of note, the unit is DivX certified and features a S/PDIF audio output, though it might have trouble handling some of the more exotic formats. It's up for grabs as we speak starting at $159 for a 500GB version.

[Patriks7 @ Jan 8th 2009 6:00AM]

"LaCie offers up LaCinema"
I see what they did there! :p

[mike @ Jan 8th 2009 6:35AM]

I'm not sure what the trend of harddrive manufacturers producing media players is about, but a about a month ago I bought the WD TV HD and I couldn't be more pleased with its compatibility, abilities etc.

[TimmyRaa @ Jan 8th 2009 7:43AM]

Not bad, but the WD looks to be nearly as expensive as the Lacie, but without the 500GB hard drive.

[Verythrax @ Jan 8th 2009 7:00AM]

If no MKV support = fail to me.

I think I'll end buying a Popcorn Hour.

[Jason @ Jan 8th 2009 8:49AM]

Werd.

No MKV, no care.

But I'm passing on Popcorn as well because of all the issues. Guess it's still home built HTPC for me.

[Verythrax @ Jan 8th 2009 9:47AM]

Issues? What issues?

[giuliop @ Jan 8th 2009 10:17AM]

Well, if you don't need HD, a $50 modded XBOX (first model, not 360) wonderfully fits the bill. XBMC supports every format you throw at it; you can mount a fairly large hard drive (I've got 500GB but I think 1TB is supported), and with a simple $10 fan mod it becomes inaudible. Still the media center to beat, price *and* performance wise.

[Rory W @ Jan 9th 2009 9:03AM]

@giuliop
@dj-kenpo

Original XBOX is great, problem is no up conversion or HD output..

[Frank @ Jan 8th 2009 7:30AM]

It's a pitty that so many of these multimedia disks fail to have an ethernet port. What do they expect from us? move the whole thing to my pc just to put some new movies on it? For me it'll be an popcorn hour a110 also.

[FAT32 @ Jan 8th 2009 7:31AM]

Item Number : 301395KUJ
Capacity : 500 GB
Interface : Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 compatible)
Supported File Systems : FAT32

Wait WHAT??? no NTFS...

[Boards of Canada @ Jan 8th 2009 7:51AM]

Cute but since I met Buffalo drives, im not buying anything else. 1 TB for 120$... great value!

[Boards of Canada @ Jan 8th 2009 7:52AM]

Oh sorry, this actually play movies... different beast!

[john @ Jan 8th 2009 8:47AM]

if someone made one of these with ethernet compatibility (for loading new content) and a decent user interface i'd probably pick it up. i'll stick with my xbox 360 and its problems for now.

[dj-kenpo @ Jan 8th 2009 10:10AM]

get an xbox1.
with XBMC it plays ANY media file you throw at it.

$50 for an xbox. I use 360 for games, but sure as hell not media playback. 360 doesn't ahve enough codecs and it's loud

[CosterMonger @ Jan 8th 2009 9:50AM]

let me guess who it is designed by... who could it be...

[AJ @ Jan 8th 2009 9:54AM]

Compared to the LaCinema Premier:
No NTFS support
No MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DVD-Video (ISO**, IFO, VOB)
No AC3, Ogg Vorbis

[nikster @ Jan 8th 2009 10:58AM]

No H264 on either of 'em. Oh well, WD TV is on my shopping list

[clicclic @ Jan 8th 2009 10:22AM]

I saw another version of these puppies with Ethernet at Fry's this weekend.

These are getting closer and closer to VLC and my Mac Mini but I don't see how they will ever keep up with the barrage of CODECs we have to deal with.

[Iomega @ Jan 14th 2009 10:45AM]

If you are looking into a quality Multimedia hard drive you should look into http://store.iomega.com