Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player STCEA101-RK

• Dual-docking system eliminates fumbling with cables and connections
• Automatically syncs with new content on your PC
• 1080i High-Definition playback
• Dolby Digital 5.1 audio surround sound support
• FreeAgent Theater media player- 1-year limited warranty

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater is now cheap because it is old technology and it shows. It is not a bad player for old-school video formats, but the picture is composite like an early years DVD Player, not HD. The firmware is slow, ugly, and buggy. The newer Theater+ model has HDMI, networking, and HD picture, but it is not worth the much higher $ investment (currently over $200 with hard drive and dock). The new firmware is still a D+ at best. I recommend using a netbook with an HDMI port as a media server instead. A netbook will work flawlessly as a media server and you will enjoy all the other PC fuctions it can do for you.

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PLEASE RATE THIS REVIEW, SO IT WILL BE SEEN.

I have tried to use it for videos from flv and wmv, it wont play youtube videos, or much of anything, (except for .AVI), its format list is obfuscated . I spent hours converting many videosto no avail. It plays photos and music, but whatever.

Second: the menu system, It acts randomly and buggy, it will scroll backwards, shift menu's when you press play, press anything, its RANDOM. I'm sending it back.

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I'm surprised it has not been reported here but this unit does not work with some Seagate Freeagent Go drives designed to fit neatly in the special compartment. The drive (as well as other USB drives) works fine as external but does not work as intended.

Seagate has known about the problem all along (their forum is full of complaints about this) but does not have a fix for it and not even trying to address the issue. What is dishonest is that none of the distributors who are selling this unit would tell that upfront.

Otherwise, aside from climsy remote and slow remote response, this is a great unit for the price.

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This product should never have been released. I have tried MPEG-4, AVI and several other file formats and it reports all of them as invalid files. At least one of them should have worked! Yet the files have no trouble in Windows XP with several players and no trouble playing on my Mac or iPod. The only thing that cannot play the files is this Seagate Theater.

The device is also very slow when moving through menus.

If Seagate has very limited file handling capabilities, they should have provide utilities to convert files to their accepted formats. No conversion software is provide AND they don't provide any recommendations either.

The documentation is extremely poor and the website support almost non-existent.

Seagate makes very good disk drives I love the FreeAgents but this product should never have made it to store shelves.

Player is nice if you already have a freeagent go drive and want to play media from the living room. The drives works fine with any USB storage (hard drives, usb sticks, etc)

I like the slideshow transitions for photos(nice for family gatherings), and it plays back my DVD content that I've put on my drive from DVDs which I own.

Like someone already mentioned it has no HDMI, but does support component/composite so it will work with any TV. They should do HDMI on the next version, but it does not limit anything with the current product.

Single most annoying feature for video is the 'preview' that slows you down from scrolling and finding the right file. Overall, solid product and looks nice in living room. The included remote is small and so hard to operate if you have big hands, but it's usable. Don't expect to play any ripped HD movies or anything, but if you are not into that you are fine.

Been using mine for 1+months with no issues and love the look of my red freeagent go drive when it's in the unit.