Customer Reviews

Iomega ScreenPlay Pro 1 TB USB 2.0/AV/Ethernet HD Multimedia Hard Drive 34151

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

You can not go wrong with this Multimedia Drive from Iomega unless you get a faulty unit. It worked as advertised out of the box.
It plays most video, photo and audio files from 1.) The inbuilt 1TB drive 2.) A usb external drive 3.) From computers and NAS boxes attached to your network. It connects to your Display via HDMI (supplied), component and composite cables and the picture quality is great. It also accept composite input and display the input on your display. You can then chose to record the input. The recordings played on my Windows Media Player without any additional software.
You can transfer files to the Iomega via the network even while playing or recording. You can also use it as NAS and even for backup.
And most importantly the PSU is rated 100-240V. It means you can use it anywhere in the world!
I wouldn't give 5 stars because 1.) The interface is functional but ugly. It is mostly black and no pictures and no way to change that in the present firmware. 2.) The remote have a very narrow angle. You have to aim directly for it to work. 3.) The network transfer is quite slow, about 2Mbps maximum.
Overall, I think is a good buy and I hope that Iomega will improve on the firmware to iron out some of the issues raised above.

I own a screenplay HD 500Gb and really liked it. So I bought the new Screenplay Pro HD 1Tb. First thing I noticed was the new remote, the older model tended to develop problems over extended use. Buttons started to fail. I then noticed the straight RCA to RCA connections. The older screenplay used a RCA to stereo type plug for the component connection. The interface is very different, the previous one went straight to the file structure. The new one goes to a general menu first. Overall is runs better and cooler because of the added fan. I then noticed the input connections and the ability to record straight to the drive(tivo). It has a ethernet port (NAS), hdmi and divx video on demand (not yet supported as a certified device). I am still trying to get the wireless connection to work (only a few supported USB wireless adapters and no idea on setting it up right). The only downside I have found was they removed the shuffle random feature. I used that I lot on the previous drive for my music.

Living in the USA since 30 month I got bored by the commercials on each of the 72 channels.
I was longing for the German TV contents quality and through a hint of a friend I found www.save.tv a web site that gave me the opportunity to subscribe and to record 25 German TV stations on a network recorder with a capacity of 3000 minutes. With a free provided download manager I could download all records on my PC anytime with 720 X 525 pixels.
Impressed by the quantity of commercial free features and documentary, magazines and political talk shows the rest of the family wanted also to watch. In order to make it visible on the big living room screen I needed to burn the videos on DVD. Mostly that took hours and hours to cut and to convert and to burn. I was looking for a mass storage media that provides the easy operating and high capacity. After a long search I found it: Iomega Screenplay Pro HD! When I received it I plugged it in and it worked right away on HDMI. Copying a 60 minutes video by USB 2 from my internal HD to Screenplay takes 3 minutes. I do not need to take out German commercials to bring it to the size of a DVD.
The drive has become the hottest gadget in my family.
I hope that will keep operating like it does right now.
Worth every dollar.

I bought this device about a week ago and have had a lot of issues since then. This product is NOT ready for public use!

I left the drive on overnight and then I could not turn it off using the remote! I hard to keep the power button on the drive pressed for about 10 seconds to shut it down. It has hung up on me atleast 2 times in the past 3-4 days. This issue is in addition to the following issues I've had with the pro HD

1) wifi USB does not work with WEP or unsecure SSIDs.
2) ability to browse the shared folders on your PC is not guaranteed. You have to try couple of times and if you are lucky you will see your PC.
3) for *.mov extensions it plays the video but not the audio.
4) when connected to my HD TV through an HDMI cable it chooses 480p instead of "auto hdmi" as the video output.
5) Cannot transfer files > 2GB over the network.
6) Remote and the UI in general are very very user unfriendly. You have to point the remote directly at the device for it to respond.
7) Using the soft keyboard to enter username/password is a nightmare. If you have a long username/password then best of luck entering that!
divx VoD *does not work*. This is a pure and simple breach of contract as the device claims to be "divx" certified.
9) cannot map the Iomega to drives on two PCs. If you want it mapped on the second one then you have to disconnect it from the 1st PC.
10) Transferring 1 GB of data is a very very slow process (close to 10 mins).

I have had this device for about 4 weeks, here are the lowlights:
1. As other reviewers noted, only one PC can connect over a network to this device. The first PC to connect to this device is the only PC that can use the device from that point on. If you want another PC to connect, this device has to be powered off/on.

2. There is no way to just shuffle all your music and play the tunes. You have to create a playlist

3. The playlist software that comes with the drive has no option to grab all music, you have to pick songs one-by-one for a playlist.

4. The playlist software only works if the drive is connected via USB.

5. Deleting large files seems to crash the drive's operating system, forcing a restart.

6. The remote control signal is weak, the device frequently misses a button being pressed

7. MP4 video files are not supported.

After some deliberation I decided to keep it anyway, mostly because of the 15% restocking fee. I have found decent workarounds to the major limitations, such as:

1. I use the drive as a backup to my other network drive (Buffalo Linkstation) using a pretty slick freeware program called SyncBack. I have to keep a PC on to actually run the scheduled backups.

2. I create a shuffled playist using Windows Media Player, then edit the file manually to match the Playlist program format.

3. I programmed a universal remote as a replacement for the device remote.

And now the highlights:
1. The drive plays supported video files in HD as advertised
2. Plays WMA and MP3 music files as advertised

This is exactly the device I was looking for: An external terrabyte hard drive that will play all kinds of media files, including DVD files & high-def movies. This is an improved version over the previous Screenplay, in that the rear connections are better suited for home theater setups. The interface is also improved greatly in look and feel, with some new features, like a DVR/Tivo type of functionality which I have yet to try out. HD video looks amazing, although so far, I've only tried HD movie trailers downloaded from Apple's website. I haven't tried any Blu-Ray content yet as I don't have a Blu-ray drive. I also like the verticle format of the drive, which is small enough for any computer desk or entertainment stand. My only complaint so far is when you hit the "stop" button on the remote, it would be nice if it returned you back to the root level of the folder, rather than 2 folders deep. But that is a very minor complaint- not enough to take away a star. Great product!

UPDATE #3 - 2 years 2 months and it's dead/useless. It works when connected to PC, e.i. the hard drive storage function works fine, but now the IO player software says "hard disk failure" despite the fact we cleaned, cleared, scanned and formatted and tested and it works fine as a drive and has no errors. From what I have read around the web IO does fine with hardware but crappy with software and even worse with support, so despite this being a great unit for 2 years, no more IO for me. especially when there are $30-50 alternatives to $250 MM players.


UPDATE #2 - Well over year and the best piece of A/V I have ever purchased!!

Plays music, photos, most video files except real, wmv/wma, apple. Record PC playable video from TV or DVR. Plays ISOs and my own archived DVD rips/files, play Pal format video right to US format TV without converting and like to vice versa, network able for loading and editing, play files on the network and so much more. So good i am surprised IOMEGA is not getting used by RIAA and Film Studios. The only thing that would make it better would be a drive with direct rip to archive DVDs for easier play.
--
It's about 30 days since it arrived and I am still pleased all around. It's easy to connect with a USB cable or to network for easy transfers from the PC to ScreenPlay. If you have a large amount of PC video and need TV access this is better than sliced bread.

Plays photos, music and video. Light enough to pick up and take to Moms for Sunday dinner to show family movies with nearly every connection port and plug know to man except fire wire. Comes with most cables too!
--
I fully recommend this unit but you must understand the following

You must update the firmware even if your Screenplay says/thinks it has the latest update - it's does not. It's simple enough to do so don't sweat this aspect of this unit.

Does not play .wmv format

Does not play some web only codecs

Remote is small and pretty wimpy

If used on a standard 4:3 ratio tv screen the video is blown up to full height and the edges are cut off. It does not show letterbox unless it's hard formatted into the video.

Otherwise it's a winner and does double duty as PC back up drive too!

The ScreenPlay Pro reminds me of the old Western spoof movie "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". It's a bit of all three.

The Good - It's got a good-sized HD, and plenty of capacity to off-load your DirecTV DVR. It's networkable (see "The Bad"), and has a programmable timer. It can also output to HDMI. It works with many file formats, some of which I have not even heard of.

The Bad - The first bad aspect is probably not Iomega's fault. You can't record HD content, which is the fault of the DRM Nazis.

While networkable, the fastest you'll get out of it is 100 Mbps. You can speed that up with USB, but I've found the USB connection to my laptop is problematic. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It seems related to the USB connection on the Iomega, so I keep that plugged in now. Also, starting up the unit has on a couple of ocassions caused my desktop to crash (XP SP3).

There is NO PRINTED MANUAL! But, what you do get for your money a semi-worthless "quick start quide" printed in FIFTEEN languages (talk about wasting paper).

The cables provided are only 3ft long. I just wish all the connections on my entertainment center were that short. Seriously, how much would it cost Iomega to provide 4ft or 6ft cables?

Also, it looks like the timer clock and the file names (in date/time format) do not agree; though the unit is picking up the right shows.

No YPbPr or S-Video input on this baby, either. I beginning to wonder what sort of cheapskate designed this unit.

One touch recording seems to have a rather short default length, but I really can't tell because of......

....... The ugly. The documentation of this unit is terrible. The "manual" consists of a few HTML pages, and the troubleshooting page is missing from the CD. In the video setup, there is a choice of "16:9 , 4:3 letter box, 4:3 pan". Now I know what these terms mean, but there is no indication of what you are applying this to. Input? Output? Both?

Also ugly is the micro-remote with micro-buttons and micro-font. You can't read what's on the remote because the font is too small, and pushing the right button can be a challenge unless you're one of those people capable of "texting" 60 WPM. I can't believe it is that expensive to provide a decent-sized remote.

What this unit needs is the following :

Larger remote
Better documentation
YPbPr and S-Video input
An IR blaster (I figured a workaround with my DVD player's blaster to control the STB, but this means setting up another timer)
Gigabit Ethernet connection

Horrible. I am truely having a hard time saying anything positive about this... umm... it looks ok?

I pulled it out of its box, plugged it in, copied a few files over USB. so far so good. I presumed that it would be viewable over the network, but you have to plug it into the TV first, and go to the settings and set it to DHCP. ok fine, annoying but fine. got on the network. Not a blazing fast network ,but it was on a wire 100Mb. I tried to copy more files over the network... wow... that was sloooooowwwwww... I could download faster from the internet than I could transfer files to the device.

Menus are horrible... not clear, no search (1 TB and no search... brilliant). the picture was never good. The settings to change the picture resolution (720P, 1080i...) would cause the screen to go black. I could only see a picture on 480P, and it was a really bad picture on 480P. it is hard to tell how bad the picture is in the menu system because it is all black with some grey text.

Virtually no documentation on how to do things. Can only connect 1 network drive to it at a time.

It is boxed up and ready to return as soon as I get a chance. Awful product. I would give it zero stars if I could. Look at xbmc, or mythtv... not as cheap (needs more hardware) but they work, are intuitive, and work well.

Do not punish yourself by wasting any time in your life with this awful thing.

I thought long and hard about buying one of these based on the mixed reviews on them. However now that I own one I'm really quite happy with it.
The documentation that comes with it isn't great but there is a wiki (search for it on Wikia) that provides a really good information. The firmware updates from Iomega have resolved several of the early issues with this product.
O.k the onscreen interface is basic, but it's functional.
Yet to try wireless networking with this, but as with anything else done so far I'll be relying on the info in the wiki - it gives some very clear recommendations on what works and what doesn't.
I didn't buy this with rose coloured glasses on so maybe that's why I'm happy with it - it does exactly what I want it to do.

Post Script - had now been using it for a couple of weeks. It's been great just to be able to move files straight from my computer and to be able to watch them on the TV. Been very impressed that subtitles have been so easy to deal with as well.

One hint. The remote has been a bit of a frustration. Sometimes difficult to get the unit to respond to it. However I have a universal remote which I've programmed to operate the Screenplay. This actually works better than the original remote!