Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

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Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

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Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Easily enjoy your photos, movies and music on your TV with the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player. The FreeAgent Theater+ features HDMI connectivity and supports 1080p HD video playback! It also offers support for Dolby Digital and DTS audio standards to give you great audio quality. Read on to see how the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ compares to other media players!

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Seagate’s FreeAgent Theater+ is one of the most versatile media players on the market. Based on the Realtek 1073 chipset, the guts of the Theater+ are technically the same as the Patriot Box Office. Doing a side-by-side comparison, however, shows the Seagate to be a tad quicker when navigating around menus and playing files. The operating systems for devices featuring the Realtek processor are notoriously clunky or bland. Not so for the Seagate. The OS is actually quite sleek – almost minimalist. Everything you need is there and is easily accessible. In fact, my 5 year old was able to pick up the remote and navigate successfully to The Clone Wars TV Series Blu-ray-rips that I stored locally on the FreeAgent hard drive.
Article Title: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1156/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $129.99 shipped
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Re: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Post by Pingspike »

For the up sides (the silent operation and wifi) the extra 29 sovs is not a bad increase in price given the benefits. However my big down side (in my opinion) is the dumb proprietary HDD dock which requires you to buy (more cost) their portable drives which are (logical) size limited. Such a shame. Why not have it so we can shove any bare 3.5" HDD in there? Seems like a no-brainer to me.
I'm sure they'll fix the software thing in an update some time. I hope they didnt cripple the wifi so you cant stream 1080p movies.
Other than that, the silence and wifi are a big plus for me. Oh and the FLAC support. thunbs up for that (so often forgotten in media players) :finga:
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Re: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Post by Digital Puppy »

Seagate is saying that some HD content is supported by their WiFi dongle:
Seagate wrote:Regarding the WiFi dongle: There is some HD content that will be supported by our WiFi dongle, but it is not exhaustive.
Still a bit hazy to me.... :-k

At least Seagate are responsive to our questions.
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Re: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Post by hellomofo »

The review clearly stated that the reviewer would choose the FAT+ over the Patriot, but what about the WDTV Live? For a week now, I've browsed a lot of forums regarding WD vs FAT+ (at work :), i am so productive during the holidays) but have not concluded on which to get.

I don't care about internet apps, and I don't care about wireless performance. Most forums claim the WD live OS is better than the FAT+, but I prefer a simple OS. The video and subtitle and menu bugs are all fixable through firmware updates. (assuming that they are working on fixes, etc). They both output 1080p. The Fat+ is larger than the WD. The WD seems to have more bugs (according to other forums). They both have slow ethernet ports. etc, etc, etc.

To keep this short, it seems that there is a tie here. Can anyone here say which one is better and why? (ignoring internet apps and wireless performance)

Thanks
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Re: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Post by Digital Puppy »

hellomofo wrote:The review clearly stated that the reviewer would choose the FAT+ over the Patriot, but what about the WDTV Live? For a week now, I've browsed a lot of forums regarding WD vs FAT+ (at work :), i am so productive during the holidays) but have not concluded on which to get.

I don't care about internet apps, and I don't care about wireless performance. Most forums claim the WD live OS is better than the FAT+, but I prefer a simple OS. The video and subtitle and menu bugs are all fixable through firmware updates. (assuming that they are working on fixes, etc). They both output 1080p. The Fat+ is larger than the WD. The WD seems to have more bugs (according to other forums). They both have slow ethernet ports. etc, etc, etc.

To keep this short, it seems that there is a tie here. Can anyone here say which one is better and why? (ignoring internet apps and wireless performance)

Thanks
First of all, welcome to the forums! 8)

Well, the biggest factor for me is playback, and both the WD and FAT+ have the same playback capability. Both units are not perfect in playing & streaming BD ISOs, but their last firmware upgrades gave both a step forward. I'm not really interested in DVD menu browsing, but many people are and both of these players have pretty much the same capability. They both understand and pass the same digital audio codecs. They play the same number of music formats and handle all versions of picture files. Also, both units are fanless which makes a big difference in a bedroom or small living room.

With all of the above being pretty much equal, I think I would prefer the FAT+ over the WD. The FAT+'s OS speed is a little bit zippier than the WD, and I like the various ways you can display your titles and folders. Even though Seagate kind of traps you into buying another one of their products, I really like the "integrated" FreeAgent Go hard-drive dock. The FA Go is not a bad piece of tech either. (For a long time it was under my radar until I got my hands on it...Now, I'm thinking about buying one for a relative with a little desk dock).

Finally, the last WD firmware and how the company handled the debacle is something that has very cautious to recommend this unit. I didn't brick mine, but most of the people I know who bought theirs did. Some were able to swap theirs out at their local Best Buy, but one is still waiting for his RMA unit...not great. In retrospect, I can't really fault WD's response to the problem, but just feel that WD TV Live adopters shouldn't have been placed in that position.
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Re: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Post by hellomofo »

Thanks for your input digital puppy. So, you have both products?

I was thinking about the WD because it was about 10 big ones less :) and it is smaller, but I agree with your assessment. Since both are capable of 1080p output, and I am not as picky about the other features, quality control should be the final deciding factor. WD's firmware update screw up gives the WD a negative score in quality.

Again thanks for your input. I am going to get the FAT+.
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Re: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Post by Apoptosis »

yeah Ken is the author for all the media player reviews...

He has the WD TV Live, FAT+ and the Box Office in use right now.
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Re: Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Review

Post by Digital Puppy »

hellomofo wrote:Thanks for your input digital puppy. So, you have both products?

I was thinking about the WD because it was about 10 big ones less :) and it is smaller, but I agree with your assessment. Since both are capable of 1080p output, and I am not as picky about the other features, quality control should be the final deciding factor. WD's firmware update screw up gives the WD a negative score in quality.

Again thanks for your input. I am going to get the FAT+.
No problem at all. Hopefully, you can find some good deals out there.

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