Iomega ScreenPlay review

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Verdict:

Iomega's ScreenPlay played all the file types that we threw at it - and it's easy to use.

Review Date: 17 Feb 2006

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Karl Wright

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

If you have a large collection of video and music files, you could play them all on your PC, but it's far better to lie on the couch and play them on your TV using a device like the Iomega's ScreenPlay.

The ScreenPlay is essentially an external hard drive that plugs into your TV and has a few extra bits of electronics for media playback. As well as its manual controls, it also comes with a remote that fits snuggly in the palm of your hand. You plug the drive into either the composite or S-Video ports on your TV, but the connector that plugs into the hard drive is proprietary, so you'll have to take care of the cable.

To transfer files between the ScreenPlay and your PC, you plug the drive into a USB and just treat it like an external hard disk drive. The ScreenPlay is powered by the USB port too, although you'll need to plug it into the means when it's connected to your telly.

Getting the ScreenPlay working couldn't be simpler. Just plug it into the mains, connect it to your TV and then switch to the appropriate AV channel. You'll be presented with a menu screen that shows you folders for music, movies and photos. Select the one you want and its contents are displayed as thumbnail images; select the file you want and it plays or displays straight away.

The problem most devices like this have is that they won't play a full range of file types, particularly when it comes to video. We tested the player with all the file types Iomega claims it supports and only encountered a problem with VOB files ripped directly from a DVD movie. These were played in the right order but with the wrong soundtrack, and there was no way we could choose the English soundtrack, so we were a bit snookered. There were no such problems with DivX and XViD files downloaded from the Internet though.

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