Iomega surges ahead with a half-terabyte home theater drive
On its way to becoming an EMC division, Iomega today announced its new 500 GB ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive, designed to let users watch entertainment content on their TVs and home theater systems without the need of a PC.
The ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive measures 7.7" x 2.3" x 5" and weights two pounds, which is the equivalent of a regular-sized paperback book. The USB 2.0-powered drive is a 3.5-inch 7200 rpm hard drive connectable to PCs using Microsoft Windows 2000, XP or Vista.
But it doesn't have to stay connected there. After plugging the HD into a TV using HDMI or component video outputs, users can navigate through video, music, and photo content using the Iomega remote and navigation system through the TV. Iomega allows video playback through the hard drive at 480i, 480p, 720p, or 1080 resolution.
According to Iomega, 500 GB of HD storage can store up to 2 million photos, 750 hours of video, or 9,250 hours of music, in MP3, AC3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and JPEG content formats.
The ScreenPlay is now available in North America with a $209.95 MSRP. Iomega plans to release the drive to the international market late next month for €179.99 (~$286).
External hard drives are becoming more popular as price per gigabyte continues to drop and storage capacities increase. Western Digital's My DVR Expander hard drive is an example of an Iomega competitor, with a retail price of $199.99; it allows users to directly record up to 60 hours of TV content through an eSATA cable.
After EMC announced two weeks ago it would purchase Iomega, it is not likely the acquisition will immediately impact Iomega's chosen components manufacturers. Once the deal is completed before the start of the third quarter, barring legal complications, Iomega may continue to choose its own suppliers.