LaCie is back this time round with not some variant of an external or portable hard drive, but the LaCinema Black Series of media players instead, coming in both PLAY and RECORD varieties. By expanding their range of Wireless HD media players, LaCie has certainly stepped out of their comfort zone, giving some competition to players in this market with Neil Poulton-designed products that are pleasing to the eyes this time round. Both models from the Black range were specially constructed to optimize the way consumers access and play content straight off from their HDTV.

The LaCinema Black PLAY and RECORD will boast some of the most up-to-date home networking capabilities right smack in your living room, at least that’s what the press release claims. Users will be able to select from a direct network connection, but I suspect that more people would prefer to opt for the Wi-Fi connection since that is more or less a given in most homes these days. Regardless of your choice of connectivity, you will be able to use this new player to store music, movies and photos from any computer on the local network. An integrated UPnP client player makes it a snap for users to access media content from a networked PC or Mac from anywhere in the home.

In tandem with the High Definition age that we now live in, the LaCinema Black PLAY and RECORD will enable users to enjoy downloaded HD movies and television programs straight on their new flat panel display, virtually ensuring that you will need to have a HD-ready TV in your home before you decide to pick up either player from LaCie. Shared features among the two include 1080p resolution decoding capability for movies and TV shows, HD JPEG photos and 1080i upscaling of Standard Definition movies. Prices for the LaCinema Black line will start from $429.99 onwards.

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