Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player - Review

Seagate is a familiar name in the PC world as makers of hard drives that are used in PCs, DVRs, and DVD Recorder/Hard Drive Combos. Previously, I reviewed the FreeAgent Theater hard-drive based media player. Now, Seagate offers an updated model, the FreeAgent Theater+, that not only allows you to play back audio, video, still image files stored on a portable hard drive, USB flash drives and many Digital Still cameras, but adds full HD 1080p output via HDMI, as well as home networking and internet access via ethernet. After reading this review, get a closer look at the FreeAgent Theater Plus in my Photo Gallery.

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ is designed to bridge the gap between the PC and Home Theater. I found that it provides an easy way to enjoy content stored on your PC or portable storage devices on your HDTV and home theater system. The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ can be purchased packaged with, or without, a FreeAgent Go 500GB portable hard drive. If you buy the version without the hard drive, you can purchase it separately.

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+, just as its predecessor, is straightforward to use. If you purchase the version that includes the FreeAgent Go portable hard drive, first install the provided software on a PC, then connect the portable hard drive your PC via USB.

The FreeAgent software allows "synching" all the media files from your PC (or a specific folder) to the portable hard drive. Once this is done, place the portable hard drive into the hard drive slot on Seagate FreeAgent Theater and view still images, videos, or listen to audio files that are now stored on the portable hard drive.

As an added convenience, the FreeAgent Theater has its own USB port for access to audio, video, and still image files stored directly on a Flash Drive, other external hard drives, or digital Still cameras.

The FreeAgent Theater+ offers up to 1080p resolution output via HDMI, both analog and digital audio outputs, and an easy-to-use onscreen file navigation system (improved over its predecessor). Of course, the quality of video and audio playback depends on your source material. Low res video files (such as those downloaded from YouTube) will not look good on a large screen, and highly compressed audio files will not have the impact as uncompressed audio files on your audio system. However, as an increased amount of high definition video and high-quality audio becomes available for download off the internet, the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ is ready to handle it.

I was glad to see additions to the original FreeAgent Theater concept, such as the inclusion of the HDMI output and Digital Optical (instead of coaxial) audio output, which makes connection to an HDTV and Home Theater Receiver very easy. Also, the FreeAgent Theater+ provides direct internet/home network access via ethernet. However, available internet content is currently limited; there is no access to streaming content from Netflix, Rhapsody, or related services, as is now becoming available on an increasing number of Blu-ray Disc and other media players.

Taking all into consideration, the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ is an improvement over the original, and can complement your home theater setup for the access of media files from your home network, portable hard drive, or USB devices.

For more details, check out my FreeAgent Theater+ Photo Gallery

If you would like to compare the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player with its predecessor, also check out my previous Review and Photo Gallery of the original Seagate Free Agent Theater.