Iomega's 60GB DivX/XviD-capable ScreenPlay HDD

October 18th, 2005

A while back I made a 6-day journey from Ohio to California, with nought but my tired and true 12GB laptop to keep me entertained at the various motels. Already crammed with MP3s and arcade games, there was simply no room for any of the numerous DVD rips and TV shows I'd encoded on my desktop. Tired of seeing people such as myself being denied their daily dose of DivX, Iomega has followed pursuit of several OEM manufacturers and released an external USB multimedia hard drive of their own.

With a capacity of 60GB, the new Iomega Screenplay is well suited for playing back the majority of today's media on any RCA or S-Video equipped television. With the exception of H.264 and WMV, nearly all the popular video formats are supported, including MPEG-1/2/4, VOB, DivX and the open-source XviD codec.

Music enthusiasts can shuffle through their MP3 collection, and photographers can also get their fix as both progressive and baseline JPEG pictures up to 8 megapixels can be displayed. Best of all, the ScreenPlay's interface can be controled through at a distance via a remote, and directly controlled by media buttons on the top of the unit for when you realize you left the remote on the couch two states back.

When off the road, the drive can also be used as a regular external USB 2.0 hard drive, backing up files at a moderate 4200RPM. Iomega currently lists the ScreenPlay at $219 on their website.

Filed under External Hard Drives & Other USB Storage

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