In reference to our post yesterday on Component Video connections, we received a note from Fred at the EFF alerting us to a great new product from LaCie, The Silverscreen. The Silverscreen is a connected multimedia hard drive, and includes an array of features and connections to use directly with a TV. From their site:

LaCie silverscreen is a USB hard drive that also plugs into TVs, VCRs, cable boxes or satellite tuners with an AV cable for instant playback of stored movies, music or photos. Plug and play on your PC or Mac through Hi-Speed USB to store data and then view your media on almost any TV or monitor. Compatible with HDTV quality video and Dolby® Digital or DTS quality audio, there’s no compromise on quality with home theaters. Share home-movies and photos with friends and family, or use it for exhibitions, promotions, and delivering rough cuts to clients. The LaCie silverscreen’s user-friendly interface and remote control provide for an easy set-up. The VOD (Video On-Demand) feature allows you to go online to rent or buy DivX® VOD movies from the DivX® website. Build your own virtual library of up to 80 MPEG4 DviX movies, 15 MPEG-2 DVD movies* or up to 80,000 photos* or nearly 20,000 MP3s* music and carry them with you anywhere.

This certainly seems like a great addition to the Mac Mini HT and can even be used as a stand-alone device connected directly to your TV. Currently the Silverscreen is available in 40GB now and will be available in 80GB in February. Prices are $249 or $329 respectively.

I currently use two LaCie Firewire drives in my home system and have been very pleased with their performance over time. My only issue was that they prefer to be connected via Firewire Bridge rather than chained through one another, or you might lose the connection with the one further out. The SilverScreen is a USB2 device so that obviously won’t be an issue. I’ll be looking forward to checking this one out when it’s released!

– Jonathan Greene

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 18th, 2005 at 12:59 am and is filed under Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.