Iomega ScreenPlay USB 2.0/AV 500 GB HD Multimedia Drive 34200

by Iomega

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 2.3 x 5 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0013IO28E
• Item model number: 34200
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description With the Iomega ScreenPlay HD Multimedia 500 GB Drive, you can watch and listen to digital media files on your home theater or TV without being connected to your computer. With a sleek and compact black style that will complement your home entertainment system, this multimedia player will let you watch your favorite movies and listen to your favorite songs, all from the comfort of your couch.

Watch all your digital media files on your home theater system. View larger.

The remote slides into the bottom of the drive for easy storage. View larger. View remote.

Storage and Multimedia Player in One
The ScreenPlay has 500 GB of storage that can be connected to a computer via USB 2.0, allowing for fast data transfers. Once your media files are on the drive, they can be played back on your standard television or home theater system without the need for a computer. The ScreenPlay supports all the popular audio, video, and photo formats, so you never have to worry about missing out. The drive includes a playlist manager, and you can play music during a slideshow.

The ScreenPlay supports the following file formats: MP3, AC3, WMA, WAV, and OGG audio formats; MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI/VOB), and MPEG-4 (AVI/DiVX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x/XViD) video formats; and the JPEG photo format. For the best picture and video resolution, the ScreenPlay includes an HDMI connection, but it can also connect to your home theater system via the following: SCART (R GB); composite video and audio R/L; component video Y, Pb, and Pr; and Coaxial S/PDIF output.

Sleek, Contemporary Style
The Iomega ScreenPlay is a sleek and compact black box that is designed to complement your home theater system. It features dedicated buttons on the front panel and has a small footprint that will allow it to fit nicely with your home theater components. The drive also includes a handy remote control, so you can navigate through your files from the comfort of your couch. The remote control slides into the bottom of the drive for convenient and elegant storage.

Easy-to-use software is included to make setup as simple as possible. The ScreenPlay requires a PC with Windows 2000 or later and supports both the NTFS and FAT32 file systems.

The Iomega ScreenPlay HD Multimedia 500 GB Drive is backed by a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box
500 GB ScreenPlay HD Drive, remote control, power supply, USB cable, composite video cable, component video cable, quick install guide, solutions CD with user manual, help files, and playlist manager software.

The elegant Screenplay HD fits in the decor of any home.

Product Description

Enjoy the convenience of watching digital files on your home theatre or TV without being connected to the computer! The Iomega ScreenPlay⿢ 500GB Multimedia drive is a cost-effective high quality multimedia player, plus high capacity storage for your media collections of photos, videos and music files. In a compact, sleek black style to complement your home theatre system, the ScreenPlay Multimedia drive is compatible with the latest media formats such as MP3, AC3 (Dolby Digital Encoding), WAV, MPEG-1; MPEG-2 (AVI/VOB); MPEG-4 (AVI/DiVX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x/XViD) and JPEG.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but useful device for playing back audio files on your home stereo system, June 7, 2008

By 

suetonius "seutonius" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iomega ScreenPlay USB 2.0/AV 500 GB HD Multimedia Drive 34200 (Personal Computers)

The Screenplay HD Multimedia Drive allows 500 GB worth of files to be stored on one small device and played back on your tv or stereo system without the need for a computer. The unit is smaller than most 5" external hard drive enclosures. It includes a small remote that conveniently snaps into the base for storage.

The connections provided are HDMI (for picture and sound), component video, stereo audio and video (Red white yellow connectors) and digital audio (via a single RCA cable). A SCART connection is provided for users in France other countries where this unusual connection is used.

The unit has an on-screen display that allows it to be controlled by looking at a menu on your TV screen.

I found that the unit handles video files poorly. Very large files (more than 300 MB) take a long time to load and sometimes the device crashes completely. The quality of 640 x 480 video on a 32 inch LCD looks surprisingly good, better than the display on my computer monitor. HD files are not recognized. The on-screen display doesn't even show them even though they are visible when looking at the directory with the unit USB connected to your computer as an external hard drive.

Jpgs are handled well enough but there is an annoying delay between pressing next on the remote and the next image being displayed. If the folders created by the user contain too many files (near a thousand rather than a hundred or so) response time becomes unusably slow. The slide show mode allows changing the time between dissolves but the time is far longer than indicated. It does not recognize the Raw digital image formats Nikon NEF or Canon CR2. Given that these are slow to load on a fast computer it is probably best that they didn't try to include that feature.

Music files are handled best by the Screenplay. It will play mp3, WAV and WMA files. It does not recognize FLAC and EAC. Response time is acceptably fast keeping in mind folder size. When opening a folder containing audio it will automatically play the entire folder. Alternatively, the user can stop the autoplay and look for a particular audio file within the folder.

It is capable of playing back sound through the television's built in speakers but I have instead connected it to an amplifier. The quality of the sound coming as amplified by my Sony receiver was very good. Playing back my music library of WAV files ripped from CDs was my primary reason for purchase. Given that, I will rate the device as acceptable for that purpose especially since 500GB is currently plenty of storage space for me. Users who wish to primarily playback video may have less positive opinions. It can do that and display images but with some drawbacks related to the limited amount of processing power available. Since very large video files can slow down even a fast computer it isn't surprising that this little gadget has problems with them as well.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works as advertised, no issues, July 30, 2008

By 

T. Ali Al Raisi (Muscat- Oman) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Iomega ScreenPlay USB 2.0/AV 500 GB HD Multimedia Drive 34200 (Personal Computers)

Bought this player recently to handle my digital video library.

Before doing anything, I checked at the manufacturers website for a firmware update. Found one and installed it before doing anything else. This review refers to a machine that was updated with the latest firmware. I am not aware of any issues that existed prior to the firmware, since I never used the machine prior to installing the update.

I uploaded more than 150 GB of video files and some audio files.

Machine works as advertised.

I tried connecting it with Composite and Component. Component connectors provide superior picture on my system. My TV has only one HDMI connection, which is being used by my PS3.

I tried high quality DVD files including some that are bigger than 4 GB. All work fine with no stall or issues. Both picture and audio quality is better than I expected after reading the reviews. I set it up to produce progressive standard definition picture over component. Works really good. Picture looks fine on Sony Bravia HD screen with Denon Amp through a home theater setup.

I do not think that you can get better for the price.

Small, light weight, nice remote, and big storage. Nothing to complain about.

Highly recommended.

Lost one star because it says HD on the box, but probably does not run HD movies. I have not tested that though, so I am just going by what I hear.

I would not hesitate buying it again.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compact Portable Movie Library, June 11, 2008

By 

Gloria (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Iomega ScreenPlay USB 2.0/AV 500 GB HD Multimedia Drive 34200 (Personal Computers)

This drive is exactly what I expected it to be - a compact, portable drive that will play a library of movies without having to get up and change the DVD's. I can take the drive over to a friend's if we're in the mood for a movie, but cannot decide which one, or leave it in my bedroom so I can tap into the uncut, unedited version of my favorite movies if inspired by a showing on cable TV. Transferring files are easy via a simple "click and drag" or saving directly onto the unit as though it were a portable hard drive.

The unit comes with RCA, component, and HDMI ports to accommodate the various connectivity options a user has. I have it hooked up via the HDMI and have had no problems. Audio and video are crisp. There is also a credt card sized remote that conveniently snaps onto the bottom of the drive for storage/transport ease. The only thing I wish was better is the setup features. There are no explanations for what the different audio options are unless I test it out via trial and error. The instruction manual on the installation CD will tell me if no "x" then no "y," but I can still get the unit to produce different results despite what the instructions say.

I'm not sure why the other reviewers believed this drive is meant for high definition (HD). The box says it upconverts the picture and processed the "HD" picture. I processed "HD" to mean Hard Disk. It's the same shorthand used for camcorders - HDD is hard disk drive.