Seagate Theater HD launched

CES 2009: Turn your FreeAgent hard drive into a media centre

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8 January 2009 8:54 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Seagate has announced a new media centre device based around its portable hard drive range.

Rather than sell consumers a completely new system, the FreeAgent Theater HD as it will be called allows you to plug in a FreeAgent Go hard drive and access the information on it via a menu interface on your television.

Users, who can opt to access content off a standard USB drive rather than one of Seagates drives will be able to play MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, and DIVX files with video resolutions for NTSC, PAL and HD up to 1080i.

Audio formats supported include 5.1 channel surround sound, MP3, WMA, WAV and OGG.

To download and transfer content to the Seagate FreeAgent Go, a Windows XP or Vista operated PC is required. FreeAgent Theater connects to any TV with either composite, S-video or component video and audio inputs and an AC outlet.

Available in March, the Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD media player can be purchased as a stand-alone unit for use with any USB storage device, or a complete solution with a FreeAgent Go portable drive included, starting at just $129.99.

UK prices have yet to be announced. We will keep you posted.