Play Multimedia On A TV With LaCie silverscreen Hard Drive

One of the most interesting products slated for release in the next few weeks is the LaCie silverscreen, a portable USB hard drive with the ability to plug directly into multi-standard television sets for instant playback of stored movies, music or photos. LaCie silverscreen is ideal for travellers wanting to enjoy digital entertainment or professionals wanting to show clients corporate videos on larger TV screens without the need for a computer.

The ultra slim and quiet drive comes in 40GB or 80GB capacities. The 40GB LaCie silverscreen is immediately available at the suggested retail price of US$249. The 80GB LaCie silverscreen will be available in mid-February at the suggested retail price of US$329.

The LaCie silverscreen is pre-configured to recognize and instantly play back a wide range of movie file formats, including the MPEG-2 ISO format and the popular compressed DivX format. After uploading multimedia from any PC or Mac through the USB interface, LaCie silverscreen enables a real home theater experience with surround sound thanks to the optical digital output that supports compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS pass through. A remote control is included for menu surfing and playback.

This highly portable 10.6oz/300g drive stores up to 14 MPEG-2 movies, 80 MPEG-4/DivX movies, 20,000 MP3s, or one million photos. LaCie silverscreen also includes a Video On-Demand (VOD) feature that allows people to conveniently rent or buy DivX VOD movies directly from the DivX website.