LaCie Joins Set Top Arena with Black Series

LaCie, best known for their portable hard drives, has now joined the set top box race with the LaCinema Black Play and Record devices. Check it:

The LaCinema Black Play and Record were crafted by noted designer Neil Poulton and enable using a direct network connection, or built-in Wi-Fi connection, to store music, movies and photos on internal hard drives from any computer on the local network.

A built-in universal plug-and-lay client player rapidly accesses media content from a networked PC or Mac located anywhere in the home.

The LaCinema Black models are available through the LaCie online store or LaCie resellers with storage capacities of 500GBs and 1TB, respectively. Suggested retails start at $430.

The LaCinema Black Play and Record will access downloaded HD movies and television programs directly on the television and will decode 1080p resolution movies, and HD JPEG photos. Standard-definition source material can be up-scaled to 1080i resolution.

Both units will also output surround sound through an optical audio connection.

More and more choices are out there. I’m not so sure LaCie has the staying power though. If you’re not a hard core media file junkie or a professional video editor, chances of you hearing about LaCie are kind of slim. Thanks to Twice.