LaCie LaCinema Classic HD HDMI USB 2.0 2TB Hard Disk

I really like this small, neat and unobtrusive unit and its brilliant having the entire music collection in one place. This could be an excellent product but falls short of the mark. The following may explain why.

File Upload: I spent the best part of a day uploading a variety of video and MP3 files to the LaCinema. Connecting via USB2 is by far the best way; I managed between 20MB/s (160 Mb/s) and 30 MB/s (240 Mb/s) when transferring video files. The unit is now wired to the 100 Mb/s home network for small additions and updates, here the data rate has been around 80 to 85 Mb/s. I have had no problems uploading files, however on a few occasions the unit has not fully deleted a directory tree or has failed to move files, this is usually accompanied by the unit disconnecting itself from the network. I have had no problems with the timestamp on files (the unit does show 01/01/2000 until the file copy has fully completed).

Temperature: A few reviewers have commented that the unit tends to run warm, I agree, however this is partly because the unit runs even when "off" to allow it to serve media over the network. There are two settings that may help. These are accessed through Settings, System menu. The first is that you can set a Standby Mode time-out, whilst the second is to set the "Quick Start Mode" to off. These setting should allow the unit to turn off the hard disk when not in use and allow it to run cooler.

Video Resolution: Initially the graphics appeared very blocky and on checking discovered that the unit was outputting at a resolution of just 720 x 480 regardless of the media being played. I have since changed the resolution (in Settings Audio/Video) from Auto to match the resolution of my set-up. Much clearer and sharper! However it seems that, if the player can't find a device on the HDMI connection (you turned the player on but not the TV) it reverts back to Auto.

Audio/Video Format Support: To date the LaCinema has had no problem playing mpeg, AVCHD (.m2ts) and DVD (.vob) formats and the picture quality is excellent. It has even managed to play .ts files downloaded from a Humax PVR (standard definition). However it cannot handle disc menus and only plays one title on a DVD disc and not necessarily the main title. On a disk with 8 titles it chose to play the third title regardless of which title (.vob) file was selected. Furthermore the player does not support disk chapters (selecting next skips to the next .VOB file) and you get a slight (2 second) pause when the player moves from one .VOB file to the next. Note: The latest version of the firmware 3.25 should support disk chapters (but NOT menus) but sadly this does not work! You can avoid the pauses between .VOB files my saving DVDs as disk image (.ISO) files.

MP3 playback: Possibly the most annoying omission is its ability to play mp3s in track number order, the only options being by file name or alphabetical order so if you forgot to include the track number at the start of each file name expect some interesting combinations (1812 overture followed by Tina Turner's 1984), or some really boring ones (65 Adagios followed by Addicted to Love!).

Finally update (18-Feb-11). From new my player has exhibited rather strange start-up behaviour. As I mentioned earlier in order that the player retains its video settings the TV must be switched on before the player. However the player seems to spend around 30 seconds hunting around various resolutions before settling on the final chosen (HD) resolution. Shortly after this completes it briefly shows a message indicating "the attached storage device is missing" before reading the (missing?) disk and continuing to work. The suggested solution is to reset the unit, but sadly this (according to the manual, because I haven't tried this) erases all content. So beware. If you value your content back it up.

This hard drive was rubbish as soon as it got above 1T of use it froze up & became completely un responsive, I spent the best part of 2 weeks emailing LaCie back & forth trying to fix this problem & in the end sent it back to Amazon, who were great & gave me a complete refund. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone!!! Also I will never get a LaCie product again.

Where to start. This product is, in theory, a great product. Unpacked it and set it up and at first seems a great product. Loaded all my media and that's when this item falls down. Freezing, Crashing, Really Really Slow etc etc.
Contacted Lacie via the support function online as there was no number to call. The customer sends a message and you wait and wait for Lacie to send a response, a week later your told that your brand new product will have to be repaired under warranty! Now i am having to pay for special delivery to return this product back to amazon for a refund as Lacie have now discontinued this model! wonder why.? Not happy with Lacie.