Seagate FREEAGENT THEATER PLUS User Manual

FreeAgent Theater

™

User Guide

FreeAgent Theater+™ User Guide

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1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Media Player Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Navigating the Media Player Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Using the Remote with the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Safely Disconnecting External Devices from the Media Player . . . . . . . . . . 12

2. Setting Up the Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Choosing a Menu Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Configuring the Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Menu Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Text Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Contents

Version Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

MAC Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

DivX® Register . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

DivX® Deactivate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Factory Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Audio Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Night Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Digital Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Video Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Aspect Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

TV System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Network Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Firmware Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Online Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

USB Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3. Playing Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Supported File Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 3

Contents

Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Movie Subtitles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Opening a Media Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Searching for a Media File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Browsing Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Playing Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Movie Playback Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Displaying Movie Album Art in DVD Thumbnail View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Getting Movie Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Playing Movies in Slow Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Viewing Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Playing Pictures and Movies from Compatible Digital Cameras and

Camcorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Playing a Slideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Selecting Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Setting Slideshow Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Playing Music with a Slideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Playing Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Music Playback Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Displaying Album Cover Art in Music Thumbnail View . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4. Using Internet Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5. Managing Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

6. Using the FreeAgent Theater for Windows Application . . . . . . . . 31

Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Managing Your Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the My Drives Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Managing Drive Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Getting Drive Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Using the System Tray Status Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Restoring the System Tray Status Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using Media Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using Simple Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using Custom Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Managing Media Sync Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Using Automatic Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 4

Contents

Turning Off Automatic Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

7. Using the FreeAgent Theater for Macintosh Application . . . . . . . 42

Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using Default Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Using Manual Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Turning Off Automatic Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

A. About DivX® Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

About DivX® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 5

Contents

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 6

1. Introduction Overview

1. Introduction

The FreeAgent Theater+™ media player is a home theater solution that makes it simple for you to move your multimedia files from your computer to your TV. Getting started takes only a few minutes. Just connect the media player to your TV; drag your movies, pictures, and music from your computer onto a portable drive; and connect the portable drive to the media player. Use the media player menus and the remote control buttons to navigate to your media files and select viewing options.

Overview

The media player can play digital media files from a variety of sources:

• A FreeAgent Go™ portable drive or any NTFS, FAT32, or HFS/HFS+ formatted external

USB storage device

• A compatible digital camera or camcorder

• Internet media services

• Computers connected to your local network (displays only files and folders shared to the

network)

The media player indexes and creates a database of all the media files stored on external devices connected to it. This allows you to sort and display your media in a variety of ways. For example, you can view files as thumbnails or in a list or sort them alphabetically or according to the date they were saved.

You can use the media player out of the box without installing any software. However, the FreeAgent Theater computer software allows you to synchronize media folders on your drive with those on your computer and access your external drive features. If you want to use the FreeAgent Theater application to manage and sync your media files, see Chapter 6 “Using the FreeAgent Theater for Windows Application” on page 31 or Chapter 7 “Using the FreeAgent Theater for Macintosh Application” on page 42 for instructions on how to install and use the FreeAgent Theater application.

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 7

1. Introduction Overview

IR lens

FreeAgent™ | Go drive in play po sition

USB port

AV Out

Component video

HDMI

Power

Reset button

Optical

Pr Pb Y

USB

LAN

Media Player Components

The media player consists of these components:

• A media player that connects to both standard definition and high definition TVs.

Figure 1: FreeAgent Theater+ Media Player - Front View

Figure 2: FreeAgent Theater+ Media Player - Rear View

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 8

1. Introduction Overview

Power

Reverse

Back

Back Skip

Vol ume

Home

Information

Play/Pause

Fast Forward

Stop

Forward Skip

Zoom

Mute

• A FreeAgent Go™ portable drive that connects directly to both the media player and your

computer for easy transport of media files between computer and TV. (Not available in all packages.)

Figure 3: FreeAgent Go™ Drive

• A CD containing the FreeAgent Theater+ application software and this FreeAgent

Theater+

™

User Guide.

• A remote control to navigate the FreeAgent Theater+ TV menus. All media player

features are controlled using the remote control buttons and the on-screen menus.

Arrow Buttons

Figure 4: Remote Control

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 9

1. Introduction Overview

Power: Turn the media player on and

off.

Arrow Buttons: Press to navigate left, right, up, and down through the menus.

OK: Confirm a menu selection.

(Back): Move one step back to the pre-

vious screen.

 (Fast Reverse): Fast reverse the current

playback. Press repeatedly to select faster reverse speeds.

 (Back Skip): Return to the previous file

when playing music or viewing pictures or to the previous chapter in a movie.

Mute: Press to mute audio output; press

again to resume audio.

Volume + -: Increase or decrease volume. Zoom + -: Zoom in or out when playing pic-

Home: Return to the home screen from

any other screen.

Menu: Display the menu that contains options for the screen currently displayed on your TV.

(Information): Get information about the

content currently displayed on your TV.

 (Play/Pause): Play or pause movies,

music, and pictures.

 (Fast Forward): Fast forward the current

playback. Press repeatedly to select faster forward speeds.

 (Stop): Stop playback

 (Forward Skip): Go to the next file when

playing music or viewing pictures or to the next chapter in a movie.

tures or movies. Press repeatedly to select higher zoom levels.

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 10

1. Introduction Navigating the Media Player Menus

Navigating the Media Player Menus

You use the buttons and directional arrows on the remote control to navigate among the media player screens and menus.

The home screen provides links to the main media player features. From here, you can go directly to the Movies, Pictures, Music, Internet, or Devices screens. To open the home

screen, press the Home (

Figure 5: Home screen

Using the menu is the best way to move among media player screens. The menu appears across the top of any screen when you press the Menu button on the remote. It provides access to all the media player features.

) button on the remote.

Figure 6: Menu

Using the Remote with the Menus

• Press Menu on the remote to display the menu on any screen.

• Use the arrow buttons on the remote to navigate the menu.

• Press OK on the remote to carry out a selected action.

• When a menu is open, press Menu on the remote again to close it.

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 11

1. Introduction Safely Disconnecting External Devices from the Media Player

Safely Disconnecting External Devices from the Media Player

Before you disconnect a FreeAgent Go™ portable drive or other external storage device from the media player, turn off the media player using the power button on the remote. Failure to do this may result in damage to the contents of the external device.

FreeAgent Theater +™ User Guide 12

2. Setting Up the Media Player Choosing a Menu Language

Devices Settings Help

System Setup

Audio Setup

Video Setup

Network Setup

Firmware Upgrade

2. Setting Up the Media Player

The FreeAgent Theater+™ media player is ready for use as soon as you plug it in. However, you can adjust the system, audio, video, network, and firmware upgrade settings for optimal use with your TV.

Choosing a Menu Language

The first time you connect your media player to your TV, a language selection screen asks you to select your menu language from a list of available languages. You can change your language selection at any time by going to System Setup > Menu Language.

Configuring the Media Player

Use the Settings menu to configure the system, audio, video, network, and firmware settings for your media player.

1. Press the arrow buttons on the remote to select Settings in the main menu, then press OK

on the remote.

The Settings menu opens.

Figure 7: Settings Menu

2. Select the feature whose settings you want to adjust and press OK on the remote.

3. To close the Settings menu, press Menu.

Once you’ve opened one of the Settings screens, you can navigate among them all in two ways:

• Press Menu on the remote to display the Settings menu and make a selection.

FreeAgent Theater+™ User Guide 13

2. Setting Up the Media Player Configuring the Media Player

• Use the left and right arrow buttons on the remote to move among the five Settings

screens.

Note: Using the left and right arrow buttons to move between media player screens works

only for the Settings features.

System Setup

Menu Language

Select the language to be used in all media player menus.

Text Encoding

Select the language to be used for media information.

Time

Manually set the date and time.

Version Information

View complete system information for the software version currently installed on your media player.

MAC Address

View the network ID assigned to the media player.

IP Address

Set your Network IP or Wireless IP.

DivX® Register

If you’ve set up a DivX® Video on Demand account at the Video on Demand website, your registration code is displayed here. Go to the website on your computer and enter the code to begin playing the selected video on your media player.

DivX® Deactivate

To deactivate your DivX® Video on Demand account, go to the Video on Demand website on your computer and enter the deactivation code shown here.

Factory Default

Reset all Setup menu functions to the factory default and display the initial language selection screen.

FreeAgent Theater+™ User Guide 14

2. Setting Up the Media Player Configuring the Media Player

Pr Pb Y

Reset

Manually Resetting Your Media Player

The reset button is on the right end of the rear of the media player.

Figure 8: Reset Button

• Press once briefly to restore factory default settings.

• Press and hold for 10 seconds to set the device to the PAL European TV standard.

• Press hold for 10 seconds to reset the device to the NTSC American TV standard.

Audio Setup

Night Mode

Off: Default setting

On: The bass output is automatically lowered so that others are not disturbed when you use

the media player at night.

Comfort: High and low volume levels are automatically adjusted to moderate levels among all media and TV channels so that the volume does not become too loud or too soft to be heard when you change from one device or media format to another.

FreeAgent Theater+™ User Guide 15

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