Seagate, one of the world's leading vendors of storage products, has just announced the introduction of its new FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player that has been designed to work with the company's own line of FreeAgent Go potable hard drives. The solution is expected to provide customers with a choice for a digital home media player that can connect the user's media library to their own home-entertainment system.

“There is so much media that is now being captured and created through various methods and stored on the PC, yet the computer is not the ideal way to enjoy these photos and videos,” Terry Cunningham, senior vice president, Seagate Branded Solutions, said. “The FreeAgent Theater provides the easiest way to view and enjoy video and photos on your HDTV. Simply load up a Seagate FreeAgent Go(TM) hard drive and drop it into the FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player dock. It's a behavior we've all been familiar with for years with VHS and DVDs, but now with digital HD enjoyment.”

Among some of the features that have been enabled on Seagate's latest FreeAgent Theater HD media played, the Scotts Valley, California-based company has highlighted the following:

- HDMI with 1080p HD video playback for high-definition content viewing;

- Dolby Digital and DTS 2.0 + Digital Out audio support surround sound where available;

- Docking station;

- Ethernet connectivity through built-in port;

- Optional wireless connectivity (available in October);

- 2 additional USB port, one front-mounted;

- Synchronization software for PC and Mac systems;

- Optical S/PDIF audio and Stereo RCA sound options;

- Component video and Composite video support.

With an impressive list of supported formats, the new FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player is already available through Seagate's website and it comes as a standalone product or with a bundled 500GB FreeAgent Go drive. Price-wise, the standalone product will be available for an MSRP of US$149.99, while the 500GB-bundled version comes with an MSRP of US$289.99. The company is also planning to roll out a separate FreeAgent Theater+ Wireless Adapter, in October, for an MSRP of US$69.99.