Vireless Vish: Hi, All!

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Every month, Vireless Vish will try and get you high on gadgets, and bring you right back down to earth with cool electronic buys you can use. In this space, he hopes to connect with fellow gizmo junkies, and seduce new ones. For tech queries email him at guide@bpbweekend.com.

Hey Guys,

I thought I’d open the column with a super value-for-money find: The Lacie’s LaCinema Classic, 500 GB multimedia hard drive for a very reasonable Rs 8,990.

There’s no prefix in the electronic world that has been abused as much as ‘multimedia’; it’s been stuck in front of pretty much every content storage device. Before I launch into an angry techno tirade known to drive friends and family away, let me get straight to the point. My latest hunt for a REAL multimedia hard drive has borne fruit – a reasonably priced one that can be directly connected to your television, comes with a remote, and is the perfect way to expand or replace your existing storage devices. Sweet!

Storehouse of Cool

You’re probably wondering why you need this if you already own a DVD player. For starters, this plays all the digital stuff that you might be “legally” downloading and sharing with your friends, as well as video content without having to convert it with subtitles (for AVI- Divx, XVID). That basically means that all your data can be stored on one hard drive with a massive capacity, and accessed directly without having to burn a CD/DVD, or connecting to your computer. Plus, an additional front USB port allows you to connect a friend’s flash drive to stream directly from it too.

Awesome Deal

LaCinema comes with a quality-enhancing HDMI cable for your LCD screen that other companies usually make you buy separately for between Rs 1,500 and Rs 3,000.

Specs

Lacie’s LaCinema Classic 500GB (USB 2.0)
For: Rs 8,990, click here to buy.

Multimedia features:
Video: MPEG-4 AVI, XviD, DivX (3.11, 4.x, 5.x)
Audio: MP3, WMA
Photo: JPEG (includes HD-JPEG mode for improved quality)
Capacity: 500 GB (up to 1 terabyte)
Subtitles: SRT, SSA, ASS, SUB, SMI Output : Video: Composite video (cable included), HDMI (cable included and upscaling to 1080p) Audio: Stereo (L/R), digital coaxial SPDIF, HDMI v1.1
Remote included.