Reviews

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday February 18, 2008

Edmund Tadros

LACIE LACINEMA PREMIER MULTIMEDIA HARD DRIVE.

$359 (500GB)

www.lacie.com/au

Rating: 3.5/5

The problem with having an active digital life - photos, music and videos - is that the files are trapped on the computer.

These files would be much more useful if they were beamed through the most watchable place in the house, the television.

There are multimedia-to-TV options (such as game consoles and multimedia streamers) but they all have problems. They are too expensive, too complicated, too picky about file formats or, in one case, unable to sort files into directories.

I've tried connecting my laptop to the TV but there's no remote control, so it makes for an annoying solution.

The Lacie LaCinema Premier is not a perfect way of watching your photos and videos and listening to music through your TV but it does its job well.

It is simple and plays most file formats (except, for some odd reason, the AVI movie files my Canon camera creates) with files that are loaded into the unit through a USB connection.

After that, it's a matter of attaching the LaCinema to the TV using the supplied A/V cable (it also has other more high-definition output options). Once this is done you can sit back and use the remote control to select the file you wish to watch or listen to.

Most of the time it works well. However, the interface is quite idiosyncratic and there are a few video formats that can crash the LaCinema.

You can view all those photos you've ignored or forgotten about in a slideshow but the function is quite rudimentary with few options.

The music function will play songs well but there are no pretty screen-savers, only a drab information screen.

The LaCinema is a little pricey but it does allow you to finally and easily make use of those digital files you've amassed.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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