Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Released

Written on Sep 15, 2009 by Brian and filed under News

Seagate has launched a new product in their home theater line – the FreeAgent Theater+ HD. This upgraded model of their FreeAgent Theater adds true HD output and support for Dolby Digital Surround Sound Technology – along with an HDMI out port and Ethernet. OF course if you have Seagate portable drives, you’ll love the docking system that easily connects these drives to the FreeAgent Theater+ HD.

In addition to the Seagate dock, the media player offers two USB ports for connecting storage devices. To access content on your network, there’s an included Ethernet port and Seagate intends to offer a USB wireless dongle in the coming months.

Seagate has also added additional audio/video support to the FreeAgent Theater+ HD including: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG-4 (DivX /Xvid formats), DivX HD, Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC-1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T, JPEG files up to 20 megapixels, BMP, GIF, PNG and TIFF. Audio formats supported include 5.1 channel surround sound, AAC, MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, ASF, FLAC, WMA, LPCM, ADPCM, WAV and OGG.

The only thing missing really is support for online services like Hulu, YouTube and the like. With recent announcements from Netgear and Brite-View, Seagate may have a difficult time differentiating itself in this increasingly crowded market of media streaming boxes.

Pricing and Availability

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player is available as a stand alone unit for $149.99, or bundled with a 500GB FreeAgent Go drive for $289.99.