Picking The Right HDD Player

HDD Player

By Anne Ahira

If you’ve got a lot of files to store, you’ve probably thought about swapping out your existing computer for something with a slightly larger hard drive.

I know that’s what I was thinking when my hard drive became overwhelmed with photos. Then I found a better option: HDD players.

A Little Background

You may not know this but HDD players have been around for a long time. Back in the 1950’s, these hard disk drives (HDD) were being used to store information for an IBM computer that handled accounting.

For a long time, businesses were using them as back-up drives for their important files and resources. It makes sense because they aren’t built into the computer so if something happens to your desktop all of your important stuff would still be safe.

Up until his century, however, these drives weren’t very popular with consumers who didn’t need all that much space, at least not more space than the drives on their computers could offer.

Now things have changed and people have huge numbers of digital files that need to be stored and backed up.

Benefits of HDD Players<

While those older drives were only good for storage, the modern HDD players can do more than that. One of the players available through Amazon is made by a company called Argosy.

The nice thing about this player is you can literally hook it up to other devices which can play or display the digital files stored on the drive.

When I bought mine, for example, I stored tons of pictures of my new baby on it then I could take it with me to relatives’ homes, hook it up to their computer or television, and easily share my photos. I couldn’t easily do that any other way.

But it’s not just pictures I can share on HDD players; I can use music, videos, almost any type of digital file. There are tones of possibilities for this type of device so it’s really exciting.

Another benefit of HDD players is that you can protect your files. You don’t have to worry that if you’re computer’s hard drive is wiped out by a rogue virus or if your cat knocks over a vase full of water that pours all over your laptop (almost happened to me just yesterday) your irreplaceable files will be gone forever.

Those files can be safely stored away on your HDD player.

Cost & Availability

Of course, we all know that great technology comes with a price. But you might be surprised how little you’ll have to pay for HDD players today. At Amazon, two Argosy models are available.

For the 500 GB model, you’re going to pay about $300 – that’s not bad considering you’re also getting a portable media player.

But the real shocker is that for just $60 more, you can get the 1.5 TB – that’s three times as much storage room for just $60. You can fit a lot of photos on HDD players of that size.

Here's HDD Players Selections:

Micca Slim Portable Digital Media Player with HDMI...	Customer Review: Very useful for viewing pictures and video from my cannon sd1100. I bought one for my folks to see their digital images and family movies from video tapes. The hdmi connect is useful. I have used the unit as an external hard drive for my computer. Fo... Read More	$69.95 (21)
Viewsonic NexTV VMP71 Full HD 1080p Network Media ...	Customer Review: Click Here for More Info	$129.99
Argosy HV335T 3.5-Inch HDD 1080P HDMI Mobile Video...	Customer Review: Pros:Nice small design;Friendly user interface;Plays all files known to me;Cons:1. For very compressed MKV 1080P HD files image falls apart and sound is breaking. For example Chronos - 1985 (BluRay.1080p.x264.DTS-HDL)2. If network hard drive is in id... Read More	(10)
LG BD590 250GB HD Network Blu-Ray Disc Player...	Customer Review: Purchased one of these based on features. Also reccomended to a family friend.Mine arrived first, it set up easily however the HDMI connection does not work, it will work with component video cables.Contacted customer service such as it is and report... Read More	(43)
Hornettek Phantom MP-2020 1080P HDMI 2.5-Inch HDD ...	Customer Review: I got this box when it was on sale. It is basically identical to the early batch of Patriot Box Office (Patriot Box Office 1080p High-Definition Media Player PCMPBO25 (Black)) and is very similar to a bunch of other network media players using the sa... Read More	(1)