Lacie Lacinema Bridge

There are quite a few multimedia hard disks available now, which in addition to connecting to computers to store files, can be connected to a TV to play music or video files stored on them. However, Lacie’s Lacinema Bridge takes a slightly different approach.

The Lacinema Bridge is a do-it-yourself kit. Like the Qnap TS-119 the glossy black box is supplied empty, meaning the user has to buy and install a hard disk or connect an external one to the USB socket on the front. That makes for a cheap product but you do need to budget for the disk if you don’t have one already. Fitting the hard disk, which has to be of the Sata kind, was easy: there are two screws to open the back of the case and then the disk just slides in.

On the back of the box there’s an HDMI socket that can be used to connect it to a flat-screen TV. There are also composite video and stereo audio connectors for use with older televisions, with all relevant cables in the box. Copying music and video files onto the Bridge was very straightforward. It can be connected to a computer’s USB port and treated like an ordinary external hard disk, so all you have to do is use the mouse to drag music and video files from the computer’s hard disk onto the Bridge.

The device was easy to use, with the supplied remote control making on-screen menus simple to navigate.

We were disappointed to find that it could not play some common music and video formats, though. The Bridge can play MP3 and WMA music files, and MP4, XviD and DivX video files. But it can’t play AAC music files H.264 or video. Those are the main formats used by the all-conquering iPod, and Playstation Portable, which means that some people will find that the Bridge can’t play their music and video files.

This is not an uncommon problem with multimedia hard disks, so before buying the Bridge or any similar device it’s worth checking that it can play the file formats in which your music and video collection is stored.