Traxdata USB Player

Back in Issue 199, we reviewed a device from Iomega called the ScreenPlay TV Link. Despite coming from Traxdata rather than Iomega, the USB Player is effectively its big brother – they’re so similar we wouldn’t be surprised if they were manufactured by the same third party and rebadged. It offers the same features but with a better remote control and a slightly revamped interface. However, it also has the same foibles of the Iomega device.

As before, you simply plug any USB storage device (memory drive or external hard disk) containing video, music and photos into the device, hook it up to your TV (via Composite, Component or HDMI connections), and the device’s interface lets you browse through your content and play it on screen.

However, you can only browse what’s on the disk – there’s no further way of controlling its contents. If you want to view a slideshow of photos with music playing in the background, for example, you have to set it up on the disk before hand, making sure your pictures and music are in the same folder.

It handles a reasonable selection of media files, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Xvid, MP3, WAV, JPEG, VOB and AVI, but there’s no support for Microsoft or Apple’s video and audio formats. It’s great for home movies, digital photos and ripped CDs/DVDs, but you won’t be able to play copy-protected music, even if you can store them on a USB disk.

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