Iomega 35039 1 TB ScreenPlay DX HD Media Player

I bought this device mainly for Netflix, 802.11bgn wifi, 1080p and HDMI output. Based on my past experience with IOMEGA computer peripherals being good, I felt omfortable purchasing this product. However, after registering the box to my wireless network, I could not get the device to connect to Netflix. The setup menu prompts "Do have a Netflix account yes or no" and then does not respond when trying to select yes. I sepnt a couple of hours on this before giving up. I am an engineer by trade and have to say that IOMEGA really missed the mark on their user setup. The remote control kind of looks cool on the picture, but using it is not intuitive either. For those of you looking for an easy box to setup, this one is not it. I saw a previous review that basically said the same thing and thought it must be that user. Well that reviewer was absolutely correct. I am now going to try the SONY with similar specs.

I bought this product to replace my Samsung Blu-Ray player in order to stream movies from my PC/MAC rather than using my current configuration: "A portable hard drive connected directly to the blu-ray player and/or directly from my home network"... There are some limitations in streaming movies via the network on my blu-ray player, so I ordered the IOMEGA 35045 ScreenPlay as an alternative media player. Upon arrival and opening the package, the IOMEGA is nice and compact with a cool keyboard/remote... Setting up was not just a simple plug n play... I plugged the player into my router/switch and it was not able to automatically be detected by the network.. After several attempts trying to sync the player automatically (as per the instructions) and also trying to manually put in the IP/Gateway configs (as per the instructions), this issue was resolved with the simple reset of the router while all the player was plugged in... As for accessing movies from my computer drive this was more of an issue.... The way the player is set up it will read or detect any movies pulled into your windows media player. Unfortunately I have an internal drive which is already organized manually and I do not use Windows media player to organize any of my files. Ok, well this was not my deal breaker because granted I can probably re-organize all my files accordingly in order for the player to work. So I moved a couple of files to the media player to see if the player worked; and it did so....No problem pulling up the files, it read every format, you can fast foward, skip through scene etc, all the subtitles came up... The deal breaker is the quality.... For some reason the quality of the files were lost on this player.... When I play the same files through my blu-ray player, the video looks flawless and crisp. However through the Iomega, the files look grainy. It could be the file quality who knows. All I know is that the quality was bad enough to return the product.... If you want a functional player that plays all file types but the video quality my be just average, this is a great product..... If video quality is preference, don't bother.

I'm a tech junky and I researched so many media players and this was the best one under $100, actually I would say under $200 as well. The newer model has a Netflix button on the remote. If only it had Amazon Prime video streaming...Pros: can play almost any video format lie AVI, MP4, MKV, and a whole bunch of other complicated codecs. The first 3 are 90% of what I need and probably more than what most people need.1TB built in hard drive. This is a big plus. Most other models within a few hundred dollars don't come with a hard drive. One of the biggest features is that it can also be a wireless network storage drive (like a mac time capsule $200+). Also, the price of a simple external TB hard drive is around the same price as the screenplay so this really is an insane value when you think of it.HDMI, component, composite out. Having it be backwards compatible is a plus since everyone is still phasing out standard def tvs.4 usb ports! Ok well technically just 2 for flash drives. The other 2 are for the wireless dongle and pc connection, but 2 is enough.cons:No amazon streaming... yet? An update would be awesomeIR (infrared) remote. This is the worst feature unfortunately. The remote has a keyboard and tons of buttons which seems nice but it's line of sight and the receiver is rather week. It is very hard, almost impossible, to type from accross the room. the slightest movement when typing will affect it reading the signal and letter. A simple bluetooth module that would cost pennies in manufacturing would solve this problem and make it a great system. But for the price I can't complain too much.The fan is large and can be annoying if left on or in quick start mode. I just turn the player off when not in use.

Setup was easy. Updated firmware and connected via ethernet. Netflix worked fine, but what I bought it for was streaming video from my PC. Some files worked...but froze more than I found acceptable...others were not compatible - even though they were formats listed on the box (and Iomega's site) as playable formats.The remote was horrible. Sometimes you hit the center button of the directional pad to select something, sometimes you don't - and it's MUCH smaller than pictures make it appear. I'm no technophobe at all and was really hoping this would work as advertised...sadly it doesn't. I sold it and await something better...though I'm close to going with the Boxee Box. I had thought about considering the Iomega TV with Boxee (settop box not yet available), but with the way this Iomega product disappointed me, I doubt I'll go that route.If all you want to do is watch Netflix or load Divx files to the hard drive and watch them, this unit might satisfy you. Anything more than that most likely will disappoint...