LaCie's LaCinema Classic Bridge media player: just add storage
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Jun 8th 2009 5:45PM
posted Jun 8th 2009 5:45PM
LaCie's back with another addition to its steadily growing LaCinema family. The Classic Bridge ships for $99, including an HDMI cable and that iconic blue light, yet forgoes the hard drive -- perfect for all you crazy kids who already have plenty in the way of storage, but still need a way to get your media files onto the TV screen. Either install your 3.5-inch SATA HDD (FAT32 only, folks) or plug in an external USB drive, and you'll be watching re-runs of B. J. and the Bear in no time. Supports "flawless" 1080p HD resolution and all of the formats you depend on for your pop-culture fix, including: MPEG4, MP3, JPEG, and HD-JPEG. Not yet available for purchase, but in the meantime feel free to check this bad boy out in the gallery below.
Doesn't FAT32 have file size restrictions? That may cause a problem with HD.
4 GB. It just means that for HD movies you just need to compress the hell out of it or break it into smaller chunks (or both).
Yeah, its file sizes are limited to 4GB. A properly encoded 1080p movie is usually at least 6 to 8gb, typically more. How on earth is this device going to handle it? 720p movies are usually over 4 GB too, so is this going to have seamless file transitions or something?
LOL
A media bridge with a FAT32 limit.
Good thinking, guys.
Yep fat32 has 4gb file size limit so this is pretty useless for hd files.
The western digital (WDTV) seems a better choice. It supports a wide variety of codecs (including 720p and 1080p mkv files as well as subtitle files .srt etc) is small and supports ntfs file system .
And is cheaper!
See here for more details
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572
what the fck are they thinking of limiting the filesystem to only Fat32 ?
it's a shame that the remote does not share the same form factor and continues to appear as a last minute design add-on.
What codecs does this support exactly?
FAT32 = FATFAIL
ISO support and an Ethernet connection, please. I'll give you another $50, LaCie!!
No kidding on the ethernet option.
What's this got to do with iPhone 3G S?
Attention everyone making a 'media streamer'
Go buy a PCH, a Mac Mini w/ Plex, and an old xbox with XBMC.
Make it do what they do, as well or better, or you're just making a big red blotch on your next financial statement.
+1
I have three original Xboxes running XBMC. I'm in the market for a streamer that's better at HD processing than the Xbox but with an interface as good or close to XBMC. Looks like I'll take the HTPC route later this year, maybe ION-based.
@ AJ
The xbox running xbmc can handle 720p - there's a thread on the xbmc forums to get it to work. If u want 1080 anything, you're out of luck.
No mkv support? Come on.
why have hdmi if you don't even decode h264 or vc1
why support spdif with only mp3 or wma support
and why the hell is it fat32 when any decent hd rip is gonna be 8gb
this thing fails on so many levels.
Perhaps you don't want your stuff decoded and sent to your TV in the worst format possible?
HDTVs use HDMI. If you want a nice widescreen upscaled image, it makes a bit of sense to use something that supports that.
at least it looks pretty...
that's about all it's going for it.
-crap codec support
-crap file system support
bleh!
WD HD Media Player over this any day
the Western Digital Media Player supports FAT32, NTFS, and even linux's EXT3.
How is this related to the iPhone ? ;)
When will companies realise that people don't want blue glowy stuff in their HTPC rack!?
Speak for yourself!
feel free to speak for my. i like blue but all the lights look crazy in the dark room.
Does this thing do any lossless audio formats?
It says nothing about a file system limitation on the USB front. Maybe we can use NTFS external drives?
FAT32
idiots.
The kinds of people who are tech-savvy enough to buy this kind of device won't touch anything that lacks MKV support, NTFS and/or ext2 support, and ethernet with SMB support.
That remote looks *exactly* like a Phillips TV remote from the 90's.
These Morons Fat 32 kills it. i can get that from my xbox. WD is a better option. God when will WD just add an ethernet plug to the damn WDTV so i can buy one. buy the way they are 99 bucks at costco if anyone cares.
an what am i going to do with the 1T and 500GB NTFS drives i have with stuff already on them? Reformat the whole thing? Pu-lease.
no Ethernet either???
Fail....
Silly question but what are you supposed to use this thing for? Put another way, aside from the likes of BitTorrent (which I won't touch), where are you supposed to get content from to put on these sorts of devices? Or is it mostly for viewing home videos and other such abominations?
Common buddy, you know whats up! They just want you to re-encode your entire media library to it doesn't break any 4gb file sizes, that's all. Why with a small army of Nehalem based servers you could have that done by next week, so stop complaining and get to it man. chop chop
/sarcasm
I see all the FAT32 comments, but no one cares about ethernet or wifi? I have a xbmc and cancelled my TV service a year ago because everything streams from 3tb on the PC.
personally I could care less about FAT32, it's the lack of ethernet or g/n wifi that's a deal breaker.