Iomega Screenplay DX HD media player/streamer

The Screenplay DX HD is the latest addition to Iomega's range of media players.

Like its predecessors, it is essentially a large hard disk that also includes a set of video connectors. It can be attached to a television set so you can enjoy the music, photos or video stored on it.

It's a neat, compact little unit that sits comfortably alongside a TV in the living room, and it comes equipped with either 1TB (1,000GB) or 2TB of storage space, costing £178 and £213 respectively. At the back of the box is an HDMI socket for connecting it to a flat-panel TV, along with composite and component video connectors and stereo audio for use with older TVs.

It has a socket for connecting to a wired network, and Iomega also includes a separate wireless adaptor that can be plugged into one of the three USB ports on the back and front of the device. It will stream files over the network as well as off its own disk. The USB ports can also be used to plug in additional devices, such as a memory key, containing files to play.

Setting up the Screenplay DX HD was straightforward, as Iomega's Discovery software made it easy to connect the device to our network and transfer files onto it from a PC or Mac. It handled a wide range of file formats, including WMV, MP4, and DivX videos and MP3, WMA and AAC music files.

Control is through the supplied remote control and menus that appear on the TV screen. These were more versatile than on previous Screenplay models, but still left a lot to be desired.

For example we were surprised to discover that the album and artist views list tracks in alphabetical order, rather than following the track numbers on an album. The only way to view the correct track listing is to browse through the contents of individual folders, which makes the artist and album viewing modes pointless.

This limitation is shared by a number of similar media players, but it limits the use of what is otherwise an impressive media player.