We're going to give you just a moment to sit back and peer at the image above, and we'll politely remind you that this object was likely designed in the year 2008. For whatever reason,
Seagate has chosen just about the ugliest design imaginable and applied it to its Free Agent Theater HD, though word on the street is that the user interface is actually a horse of a different color. The drive is simply a
multimedia HDD that enables users to pop drives in that are full of digital media for easy viewing on the TV. It's expected to drop in March for $229.99 (250GB) / $299.99 (500GB), or those on a tight budget (or Free Agent Go HDD owners, actually) can opt for a $129.99 media player / remote control-only version. A very strange demo video is hosted just after the break.
[Via
Notebooks]
posted Jan 8th 2009 12:58AM
Thats not ugly, its retro!
Seconded. (had the exact same words in my head, seriously :P)
Uhh, no... No, that's ugly.
I think this is meant to compete with the WD TV HD Media Player.
Retro or not, I prefer WD's design aesthetics. WD's external drives look cooler too.
Who knew that Texas Instruments' TI-99 would have such a long-standing impact.
I don't know what's uglier, the player or the remote...
Looks like my old answering machine, but several times cooler.
i'd rather have a banana...
This comment has nothing to do with seagate or betamax, but please bear with it.
I want to say a big fat THANK YOU ENGADGET!!! for doing a massive amount of job reporting it all from CES 09.
Thanks guys.
FREE ASIAN THEATER!
(that's what she said)
I heard that, too.
This would be mountains better if they could stream from a PC using the router.
No sale, as far as I'm concerned.
Who cares? She's cute. If she were wearing a low cut top then I would have bought one.
holy "home video demo" batman! this screams for the use of some kind of microphone besides the on camera one.
I think it looks awesome, as a matter of fact.
I like it how you can always spot a DVD rip when they show the movie directories in these products.
I kind of liked that girl. Odd.
The player is fine but the remote is fugly.
What's with the TVs that got a RJ45 jack in the back. Can I just hook those up to a router and access a PC and stream anything from SD to HD movies, pictures and stuff or am I just living in a fantasy right now, as this would be ten times better for me as such devices as my whole house is wired with ethernet cables. Anyone knows?
If it does I just need to buy a TV with a RJ45 and DLNA jack then and I'm set I suppose.
Cool! I actually just picked up a 320GB freeagentGo not long ago for my school stuff, so this may be worth checking out!
If she wasn't hot, that video would have exponentially more strange.
don't mind the hush pc htpc sitting on the shelf on the right.
and is that the girl from the ring in the reflection of the tv?!?!?
I already have a WDTV and this thing looks larger and uglier than it, and it probably can't play mkv.
Safely remove hardware?
Looks more like an RCA Selectavision (non-laser videodisc) player to me.
http://www.mindspring.com/~laserguru/popsci.htm
EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WHOLE PRESENTATION WAS WEIRD AND UGLY!!
(yes IN CAPS!!!)
But man that girl is hot.....
Kisses to her.
or they could've stuck an ethernet port on it. Who in their right mind would want to shuffle a hard drive to and from a computer to 'load' movies on this thing. It SHOULD look retro because Seagate apparently thinks we want to cartridge load new media like a damn Super Nintendo.
Oh, and as to the look, it's obviously supposed to resemble the PS3 (for whatever that's worth).
My money plunked down on the Popcorn Hour A-110 with WN-100, I mean what a killer featureset, tad costly tho. But this El Mucho Sucko.
Here's why it will fail...
1. No HDMI - for a HD product? What on earth? Are they literally CRAZY?
2. Ugly design, looks like a phone answering machine of the Rockford Files era.
2. Locked into FreeAgent Go with that dock, get lost Passporters seems the message, shameless promoing their own hard drives. But that strategy will backfire, as I've never actually seen a FreeAgent Go in the wild, whereas Passports are like sand, everywhere.
4. No 1080p, surely you jest?
5. Costs more and not yet available.
WDTV wins hands down, and with the new firmware update even more so. WD should just skip Fujitsu, and buy up Scotts Valley, put them outta their misery. :)
Well, WDTV doesn't do network either, all about pricepoints, Popcorn Hour is all about networking however, including Wireless N, torrenting, but the $99 goes up to $250 on that front. As far as the shuffling, fill a TB and fire away, even a simple 160 gig portable is not so much of a leap, but true, Ethernet would have been a nice touch. Now maybe if could get XBMC on it (or the WDTV), maybe, just maybe then, assuming I could actually stand to look at the thing. Heh.
2 things....
1) At $229, why not just get an AppleTV? Seems like it does all the same stuff in a much better way.
2) She's hot
How does it compare to: Mediagate MG-800HD SATA Full HD Wi-Fi 11n Network Media Player
See it at: http://www.pccyber.com/?v=product&i=MULTI-MS-MG-800HD
$399 Cdn