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Available in March, the Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD media player can bepurchased as a stand-alone unit for use with any USB storage device, or acomplete solution with a FreeAgent Go portable drive included, starting atjust $129.99.

"Consumers are awakening to the fact that the PC isn't the best place tostore or view their photos and videos," says Chris Chute, research manager forIDC. "Over time the living room and robust storage solutions will go hand-in-hand to facilitate the next-generation of sharing memories."

According to IDC's digital imaging research(1), consumers the world overcapture and archive over 15 billion gigabytes of digital photos and videoevery year, most of which is primarily viewed and stored on the home computer.However, according to a recent survey by Parks Associates(2), more than aquarter of consumers are interested in accessing personal content -- such asphotos and music -- directly on the TV, while nearly a third of respondentsexpressed interest in being able to view movies and other PC-hosted videothrough the TV. Historically the only way to transfer digital files from thecomputer to the home entertainment center was through complicated homenetworking solutions or the time-consuming task of burning multiple DVDs orCDs. Now the Seagate FreeAgent Theatre media player provides a way for peopleto easily store and move their media library between their PC and homeentertainment system so they can share their favorite photos, movies andvideos with family and friends in a familiar and comfortable setting.

Key Features and Benefits

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater media player introduces a new way ofthinking about how an external hard drive is used. Back up, storage andprotection have always been the primary function of an external storagedevice. With FreeAgent Theater, Seagate now introduces enjoyment:

* Experience high-definition movie viewing with DVD-like playback controland surround sound.

* Pair slideshows of high-resolution photo libraries with musiccollections and customize with specialized transition effects.

* Easily synch and organize digital media from multiple computers usingthe FreeAgent Go drive.

* Instantly access entire libraries of digital media by simply popping aFreeAgent Go drive into the media player or connecting another externalstorage device using the external USB port.

* On-screen navigation is a snap with the handy remote with an intuitiveinterface and familiar button layout.

Seagate FreeAgent Theater couples cool functional design with technicalsimplicity. The docking solution eliminates the need for fumbling withexcessive amounts of cables or complicated network setups, while its familiarDVD-style remote control interface makes it a breeze for any member of thefamily to use. Its sleek, piano-black encasing makes this new component lookright at home beside the DVR, DVD-player and television.

The included FreeAgent Theater software is a rich media-specificsynchronization application for the automatic transfer and organization of allthe photos, music, videos and movies stored on your computer. And since theFreeAgent Go drives are now available in a rainbow of colors, it will be easyto catalog and organize digital libraries according to the color of the drive-storing favorite movies on one drive, family photos on a second and music onyet another.

(1) Source: IDC, Worldwide Consumer Video Content and Archive 2007-2011 Forecast: The Video Bible, Doc # 210035, December 2007; IDC, Worldwide Digital Image 2007-2011 Forecast: The Image Archive Bible, Doc # 209873, December 2007 (2) Source: Parks Associates, "Digital Media Habits II," John Barret, director of research, October 2007 "Consumers today are the number one creators and aggregators of digitalcontent-most of which holds a sentimental or emotional value and isunfortunately trapped on their home computers," said Pat King, senior vicepresident of Seagate's Consumer Solutions Division. "For years, Seagate hasprovided solutions for storing, organizing and protecting this personalcontent -- now, with Seagate FreeAgent Theater, we provide the ability forfamilies and friends to share and enjoy these memories together in the comfortof their living rooms."

Technical Specifications

One of the key features that make the Seagate FreeAgent Theater so easy touse is the number of supported Audio/Video formats. The FreeAgent Theatermedia player supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, and DIVX files withvideo resolutions for NTSC, PAL and HD up to 1080i and even provides supportfor subtitles. The audio formats supported include 5.1 channel surround sound,where available, and also plays the popular digital audio formats including:MP3, WMA, WAV and OGG. To download and transfer content to the SeagateFreeAgent Go, a Windows XP or Vista operated PC is required, with 256MB RAMand an available USB port. FreeAgent Theater connects to any TV with eithercomposite, S-video or component video and audio inputs and an AC outlet.

Pricing and Availability

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater media player solution will be available inMarch at select retail outlets in the US and EMEA, as well as throughSeagate.com. The FreeAgent Theater solution is available in three differentconfigurations. It can be purchased as either a standalone media player withthe remote control at a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of$129.99, or with the choice of either a 250GB (MSRP of $229.99) or 500GB (MSRPof $299.99) capacity FreeAgent Go Drive.

For Additional Product Information and Related Multimedia Content: http://www.seagate.com http://media.seagate.com/ces2009 http://media.seagate.com/ http://seagate.mediaseed.tv/ To Subscribe to Seagate Technology's RSS Feeds: Entire Seagate Blog: http://media.seagate.com/feed News Center: http://media.seagate.com/center/newscenter/feed Media Coverage: http://media.seagate.com/center/media-coverage/feed Videos: http://media.seagate.com/center/videos/feed About Seagate

Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketingof hard disk drives and storage solutions, providing products for a wide-rangeof applications, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, and ConsumerSolutions. Seagate's business model leverages technology leadership and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and quality to itsglobal customers, with the goal of being the time-to-market leader in allmarkets in which it participates. The company is committed to providing award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world's growingdemand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and athttp://www.seagate.com

Seagate, Seagate Technology, and the Wave logo are trademarks orregistered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or its affiliates in theUnited States and/or other countries. FreeAgent, FreeAgent Theater, andFreeAgent Go are either trademarks or registered trademarks of SeagateTechnology LLC or one of its affiliated companies in the United States and/orother countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are theproperty of their respective owners. When referring to hard drive capacity,one gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equalsone trillion bytes. Your computer's operating player may use a differentstandard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of thelisted capacity is used for formatting and other functions, and thus will notbe available for data storage. Seagate reserves the right to change, withoutnotice, product offerings or specifications.

SOURCE Seagate