Introduction

Every now and then you buy a Blue Ray movie and some of them come with "Digital Copy" version of the movie. Watching it on the computer screen is not as fun as on the 50 inch Plasma TV. How about the home made movies? Still connect your camera to the TV or burn dvds? Isn't it about time to step up and get a media server system? Sure but how much would that come up to? You are looking at lump sum of about 400$ for all the parts for a media system. There is another solution. Don't you wish there could be a cheaper way to access all those home movies and music files from one simple system? Now there is. Today we have a great privilege of reviewing FreeAgent Theater+ by Seagate. FreeAgent Theater or FAT+ for short offers all in one access to your digital entertainment. One of the signature features of FAT+ is that it delivers a stunning video in 1080p. Lets take a closer look at FAT+ and see what else it has to offer.

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Seagate web site.

Overview

You’ve got countless movies, music and photos on your computer, and an incredible home theater system in your living room. What if you could bring them both together and enjoy all of your digital entertainment without ever leaving your couch? Now you can do all that and more, with the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player.

• Lets you watch, share and store your music, movies and photos from your TV
• Delivers stunning 1080p HD image quality with rich Dolby Digital® and DTS® audio (if supported in your digital media files)
• Sets up in seconds via a single digital HDMI® cable
• Includes an optional 500GB FreeAgent Go hard drive for easy docking, or use you own FreeAgent Go, BlackArmor® PS 110 or other external hard drive

Get the most from your digital media

The FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player makes it easy to move, view and play your digital media files. And because it works with just about every format available, you can enjoy all of your entertainment on your TV—from Flip videos to photos to DVDs—regardless of resolution.

• Accesses and plays content from your computer to a tv and directly from your digital camera, flash drive or external drives via two included USB ports
• Connects to your PC or Mac computer, network and the Internet via Ethernet or wirelessly with the optional Wi–Fi Adapter
• Lets you watch streaming media directly from the Internet, your computer and your USB devices
• Delivers all the content that’s included with your DVDs, including menus, commentator tracks and subtitles
• Makes navigating and managing your digital media files easy with the included remote control and intuitive on–screen menus
• Creates exciting slideshows with your own music track for sharing with friends and family

• Your FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player
• AV, component and Ethernet cables
• Remote control
• 1–Year Limited Warranty
• Optional: 500GB FreeAgent Go with USB 2.0 cable

Specifications

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at Seagate's FreeAgent Theater+.

Closer look

Front shot		Rear shot

Now a days everyone is trying to stay on the green side and Seagate takes necessary steps to stay green as well. FAT+ comes in a cardboard box which looks like it has been fabricated out of the recycling material. It has brown, black and brown style but yet very colorful imagery of FAT+. FAT+ has ability to access media from some of the Seagate hard drive enclosures. We will go over this information later in the review.

Detailed Information		Features and Specifications

On the left side of the packaging we found a descriptive information about FAT+ and its rear panel. This is very handy as this displays all of the connections which has to offer. What jumps at you is the HDMI 1.3 connector which enables for FAT+ to broadcast a 1080p signal directly to your TV. On the right side of FAT+ box we found the rest of features and specifications.

Out of the box		Contents

Taking FAT+ out of the box was not too hard. Just a few pulls and everything came out nicely. I do have to admit that the FAT+ is nicely packaged so that none of the components would be lose while shipping. The contents of the FAT+ are, Ethernet cable, power supply, a pair of batteries, remote, AV cable, component cable and FAT+ player. To my surprise, Seagate didn't include a HDMI cable.

FreeAgent Theater+		Back shot

FAT+ has two USB 2.0 ports, one in the front and one in the back. This would come very handy when you need to connect an external usb storage to FAT+. On the back of the unit we found a av connector, component connectors, digital audio connector, hdmi connector, lan connector, usb connector and power connectors.

Connectors		External Hard Drive

At the very right side of the panel there is a reset switch. Incase you forgot your password you can reset FAT+ to the factory default settings and start from scratch. This sure as heck beats sending the device back to Seagate so they can reset it for you. Looking at the front of the FAT+ we found a small trick door for an external hard drives to be directly connected to FAT+. The drives which could easily connect in to this slot are FreeAgent Go, BlackArmor® PS 110. Both made by Seagate.

Mini USB connector		Ready to go

Since the mentioned hard drives are usb based, we found a mini usb connector inside of the FAT+. Connecting and setting up FAT+ was easy. We have used LAN integration with FAT+ to access our media server so we have used LAN cable, HDMI cable and a power cable to get the system running. The remote which came with FAT+ has a lot of buttons and just like every VCR remote has play, stop, forward and reverse buttons as well as many others. What we found difficult is that you have to aim the remote directly at the unit for commands to register.

Initial Setup		Menu

When first powered on, FAT+ prompts you for basic initial setup information. Everything is pretty easy to configure as you could imagine. Once all of the configurations has been completed, FAT+ presents you with a nice menu from which you are able to access your media. Following menus are Movies, Pictures, Music, Internet and Browse. What We thought was cool is that you can access internet sites like you tube and NetFlix.

Internet Video		NetFlix Integration

The NetFlix integration is nothing more than great! If you have NetFlix account, you can integrate it with FAT+ and watch your movies right there on your TV without any media what so ever! I love it!

Testing

Sample 1		Sample 2

We have played around with FAT+ and to tell you the truth it takes some time to get used to the interface as its a bit confusing at start. But as you continue to use this device you will become acknowledged with the controls and behaviors of FAT+. The video playback really does look astonishing. As you can see from the images the clarity of the images is great!

Sample 3		Sample 4

Audio playback from FAT+ has the same cd like quality of your cd or mp3 player. We have not noticed anything that would interfere with listening enjoyment. Personal images playback had no issues either. If you have a high quality camera you would see every detail on the screen. For our testing we have used 42 inch Panasonic Plasma TV and Canon 50D. The amount of detail in our images was nothing more than breath taking.

Conclusion

What can I say, another great product from Seagate!. FreeAgent Theater+ really does make home entertainment easy and fast. No more looking for the way to connect your computer to your TV to view a video or looking trough a card readers to find the set of pictures of your child. FreeAgent Theater+ does it all! What had me at the sale point is the NetFlix integrations with FreeAgent Theater+. This feature is truly amazing and deserves every award. Lets not forget that FreeAgent Theater+ is able to broadcast a video signal in 1080p or full HD. The quality of still images and video is also great as we found virtually no problems with this unit. The remote control of FreeAgent Theater+ could use some work as we found buttons were tough to press and the field of view for the IR was pretty limited. Regardless these little problems FreeAgent Theater+ make one fine media player for all of your media. It gives me a great pleasure to award Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player a 10/10! Great product guys!

Some pros we found:

Video in 1080p HD.

NetFlix integration.

Ability to attach external hard drives.

Emits no noise.

Great quality and speed.

Some cons we found:

IR Remote buttons tough to press.

Field of view on IR is limited.