LG XF1 Ho Hum Multimedia Hard Drive

For a portable home theater, an aesthetically pleasing form factor is as important as versatile format support. What we have here is LG's first mobile multimedia hard drive - XF1. Measuring a 20.8mm in thickness, the XF1 features a gorgeous gloss-black finish with smooth curves, and internally, it has a 500GB and a codec decoder that only reads exclusively FAT32 and NTFS. So, it's not as Mac-friendly as we would have hoped.

Around the back, you'll find a HDMI connector, a power plug, a composite AV output, and a mini-USB jack. The drive, unlike the WD TV HD, has on-onboard touch-sensitive buttons for navigation when you forget to bring along a remote. Video and sound codec compatibility are isn't too shabby, including OGG Vobis and AC3 for audio, but the lack of H.264, WMV and MKV is really a letdown even if the XF1 can playback MPEG-2, DivX and MPEG-4 in HD resolutions, up to 1080i. With choice like LaCie Rugged HD, LG will be fighting an uphill battle if they don't rectify their mistake.

More External Hard Drives & Other USB Storage