Seagate professes to have designed the FreeAgent Theater for the widest possible mainstream audience. That's why the ports include composite, S-Video, and component video along with RCA stereo and coaxial SPDIF audio connectors. But not HDMI or optical SPDIF, which are the de facto video and audio connectors for high-def, digital entertainment systems. Why omit them? Cost and lack of universality. Seagate feels that component and coax are good enough quality for the compressed files most of us have on our hard drives. Even so, people willing to spend money for a gadget that brings digital media from PC to TV probably are interested in high-def as well.
Seagate fits its codec support to its output ports. The box will play MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI/VOB/ISO), and MPEG-4 (AVI/DivX /XviD) video along with SAMI, SRT and SUB subtitles. When we plugged in a Flip MobiHD camera, we confirmed that the Theater does not support AVC/H.264-based MPEG-4s (and 1080i video rather than 1080p). The Theater will upscale video to fit your chosen screen resolution, but don’t expect miracles. Our blocky QVGA video shot on an old HP camera still looks blocky and old. The only photo format supported is JPEG (up to 20MP). For audio, the Theater handles a decent assortment: MP3, 5.1 Dolby Digital, WMA, WAV, and OGG. The Theater doesn’t support AAC audio files. So while it plays regular MP3s purchased through Amazon, for example, it won’t play the DRM-free tracks bought on iTunes Plus.