Big Picture Big Sound

As much as you may want to watch Web content on your TV, the hook up isn't always pretty. While you could plug in your laptop directly, it kind of ruins the experience. And this remains an issue hampering that elusive goal of convergence, which still is often anything but converging. 

Iomega isn't the first to release a media player device intended for the home theater or high definition hearth, but it's added connectivity options and a generous amount of storage for its new ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player make this a device that truly brings union between content sources and the home entertainment system. Iomega raised the curtain on the ScreenPlay recently at a New York press event, and the manufacturer intends to make a bigger showing of the device at CES in Las Vegas in January.

The ScreenPlay Director streams content at resolutions up to 1080p, presenting a picture worthy of any HDTV. The player promises as many connections as a Hollywood super agent, offering an HDMI port, component video, and composite video. In addition to HDMI, sound can be carried carried through an optical audio plug as well as standard definition stereo RCA plugs. It also has three USB 2.0 ports, a USB 2.0 hub/device port, and even a 10/100 Ethernet port for connectivity through a home network.  The one thing the unit seems to lack however is a Wi-Fi connection. Iomega does sell an adaptor separately, though it will take one of the three USB ports.

The device plays a number of CODECs such as H.264; MPEG-1; MPEG-4; WMV; and AVCHD. It plays many file types including video files .mkv; .avi; .asf; .iso; .vob; .mp4; .mov; .wmv; .flv; and .ifo and MP3, AC3 (Dolby Digital Encoding), WAV, OGG, WMA, AAC audio formats. Of course the player can also be used for a slideshow with photos using JPEG, BMP; GIF; PNG; and TIFF formats.

More Information:

• go.iomega.com

Where to buy:

• ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player at Amazon.com