It’s a small black box just 8” long. It can play nearly any kind of video file, on any television, and at any resolution. With an entire terabyte of storage (1,000 GB) it can do this for a movie collection as large as 1,400 titles. It upconverts DVD-quality movies to High Definition and, moving on the other end of the scale, can play Blu-ray movies on a traditional “Tube” Television. Although it has an ungainly name, LaCie LaCinema Classic HD, Design By Neil Poulton, and isn’t exactly well-known, it is my answer to the question I get asked every day, “What’s your favourite gadget?”

It excites me in the same way the iPod did when it first launched in 2001. When you turn on your iPod you’re given access to every song you own through an experience you can take with you and plug into speaker systems to share. The LaCinema does the same thing for movies. On a recent road trip I slipped the black box, which is about the size of three stacked DVD cases, into a satchel. Our destination was a small rural home out in the country and when we arrived I found a dusty old CRT television waiting for me in the living room. After connecting the LaCinema to it with the exact same composite cables used for a DVD player, I turned it on and instantly had access to every movie, television show, home video, and internet clip in my collection.

It comes with a little remote and when I handed that to my gathered family to make their selections they gasped and shook their heads as the titles just scrolled down the screen in the same way song titles can endlessly fill an iPod’s display. It was like having a Video on Demand service, but one where there was no waiting, no annoying previews, no adverts, and no charges. More importantly it was a collection that wasn’t limited to one company’s product catalog, but one that reflected my own personality and tastes, my idiosyncrasies, and so in addition to studio releases there were Criterion Collection titles, recorded television broadcasts, nature films, animated shorts, home videos, and an array of content not available on DVD . Because I had copied these movies myself, they also included director’s commentaries, subtitles, and DVD extras.

The playback is exemplary. Not only is the image quality exceptional, but even with 1080p High Definition content, the largest of video files, it can both fast-forward and rewind at up to 16 times normal speed, still crisp and clear. During playback you can zoom into the movie and then scroll the display the explore the frame.

Not only will it play that content on non-HDTVs (and do it very well) but you can adjust the aspect ratio in the settings to suit either widescreen or normal televisions. Both stereo and digital audio (two-channel Dolby Digital and DTS) is available along with the option to play different audio tracks, and for those who enjoy foreign films you can even adjust the subtitles through five different font sizes.

 

 

What’s missing is that clever feature that Apple’s iTunes offers, where you can easily convert your existing CDs into MP3s for your iPod. This allows those who have already invested large amounts of music to carry over their collection without having to buy them again. Movie studios aren’t keen on this and in fact have blocked any company looking to create a system that would offer this same feature for DVDs.

This means that LaCinema owners are left to explore illegitimate means to copy their DVDs, of which there are many free solutions available for both PC and Mac across the internet. DVDs are more complex than CDs, and many include copy-protection technologies, so the task can require two programs, one to deactivate the copy-protection, AnyDVD for example, and another to make the actual copy, such as Auto Gordian Knot which can convert movie content with both director’s commentaries and subtitles intact. There are some excellent tutorials on YouTube that help make using these programs easier.

The selection of software available is vast and reflective of a community made up of both hobbyists and conservationists, who are interested in making exact back-up copies, and pirates who are keen on stripping movies into small files that can be easier to distributed online or burn to blank DVD-Rs for illegal resale.

While movies converted into digital files this way will not include DVD menus, photo galleries, or scene selections, they do leave out the mandatory FBI warnings, studio previews, and ads that often delay the start of a movie on DVD. Generally, the process can take an hour or two for a single movie which, depending on the quality and included extras can range from 700 MB up to 8 GB in size.

Since manufacturer LaCie cannot offer a legitimate way for their customers to copy DVDs the way Apple can for music CDs, they have taken the extraordinary step of designing the LaCinema to support all of the different solutions and software in use by hobbyists and conservationists online.

In the case of video the LaCinema can play MPEG-1, MPEG-2 /HD, MPEG4, DivX /HD, Xvid, H.264 HD, WMV9 HD, VC-1, AVI, MOV, DAT, VOB, ASF, TS, TP, TRP, M2TS, and DVR-MS.

Of special note is its ability to play Matroska (.MKV) files which is a popular format for Blu-ray titles and Disc Image files including ISO and Video-TS.

Subtitles supported include SRT, SMI, SSA, PSB, SUB, and ASS.

In addition to playing videos, the LaCinema can also be used for music and photos (and both in the case of slideshows) and again, it supports a wide range of file types:

Audio support includes MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AC3, MP4, and MKA. This also includes playlists files M3U, PLS, and WPL.

Photos include PNG, GIF, BMP, JPEG, and TIFF.

Music playback screen 

This long list of file types is what immediately separates the LaCinema from competing products. By making their device so open LaCie helps eliminate the confusion (whatever you have it will play) and allows their product to evolve as the process of copying DVDs changes and gets better. The LaCinema can connect to the internet through an Ethernet port and so has the option to receive new software updates for just this purpose.

There are a number of different options for adding or playing content. You can connect the LaCinema to your home computer (formatting it for either Mac or PC) using a mini-USB cable or through your home network with an Ethernet cable and then simply drag-and-drop the files in place.

You can also use the LaCinema to play files on other devices, such as a USB drive or external hard drive, by using either of the two USB ports included. This is the only way to expand its storage capacity.

Finally, you can stream content from your home computer over to the LaCinema for playback on your television through a home network connection, a feature I found rather easy to set-up thanks to UPnP support and one that works well.

Where the LaCinema needs more work is in its controls and menu system. The device itself has no external buttons, just a soft, blue LED light to let you know that it’s turned on. All control, from turning on the power to playback, is done using a small, plastic remote that has a limited signal range. Lose the remote and there’s no way to use the LaCinema. Hopefully LaCie will release software or a mobile app to fill that void.

The menu system is basic, but it works. It’s a simple cross-bar design with large, elegant icons that divide your content by category (music, photos, movies) and settings. The titles of your movies are taken from the files and the folders you’ve created for them on your computer. While this means there’s no cover art or added details, it does mean you can organize your content as you wish, so you can place all the movies directed by Martin Scorsese, for example, into a folder with his name on it and that’s how they will be organized on the menu system.

2009 has seen a number of exceptional gadgets including updated smartphones, LED LCD televisions, eBook readers, and even handheld game systems, but the LaCinema stands out as something new, a concept that has existed on paper for years, but is now finally realized. Several products have tried to become an iPod for your television, including the Apple TV, but LaCinema is the first to really deliver and give a real sense of where the future of home video entertainment is headed. No wonder it sold out within weeks of its release earlier this month.