The ScreenPlay Pro reminds me of the old Western spoof movie "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". It's a bit of all three.
The Good - It's got a good-sized HD, and plenty of capacity to off-load your DirecTV DVR. It's networkable (see "The Bad"), and has a programmable timer. It can also output to HDMI. It works with many file formats, some of which I have not even heard of.
The Bad - The first bad aspect is probably not Iomega's fault. You can't record HD content, which is the fault of the DRM Nazis.
While networkable, the fastest you'll get out of it is 100 Mbps. You can speed that up with USB, but I've found the USB connection to my laptop is problematic. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It seems related to the USB connection on the Iomega, so I keep that plugged in now.
There is NO PRINTED MANUAL! But, you do get for your money a semi-worthless "quick start quide" printed in FIFTEEN languages (talk about wasting paper).
The cables provided are only 3ft long. I just wish all the connections on my entertainment center were that short. Seriously, how much would it cost Iomega to provide 4ft or 6ft cables?
Also, it looks like the timer clock and the file names (in date/time format) do not agree; though the unit is picking up the right shows.
No YPbPr or S-Video input on this baby, either. I beginning to wonder what sort of cheapskate designed this unit.
One touch recording seems to have a rather short default length, but I really can't tell because of......
....... The ugly. The documentation of this unit is terrible. The "manual" consists of a few HTML pages, and the troubleshooting page is missing from the CD. In the video setup, there is a choice of "16:9 , 4:3 letter box, 4:3 pan". Now I know what these terms mean, but there is no indication of what you are applying this to. Input? Output? Both?
Also ugly is the micro-remote with micro-buttons and micro-font. You can't read what's on the remote because the font is too small, and pushing the right button can be a challenge unless you're one of those people capable of "texting" 60 WPM. I can't believe it is that expensive to provide a decent-sized remote.
What this unit needs is the following :
Larger remote
Better documentation
YPbPr and S-Video input
An IR blaster (I figured a workaround with my DVD player's blaster to control the STB, but this means setting up another timer)
Gigabit Ethernet connection
Get more detail about Iomega ScreenPlay Pro 1 TB USB 2.0/AV/Ethernet HD Multimedia Hard Drive 34151.
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