We've looked at a few of Lacie's media streamers/jukeboxes over the last couple of years and while the LaCinema Rugged sported an interesting design, performance and usability were sadly lacking. The company has faired better with its core group of devices, which includes the impressive LaCinema Black MAX, and rather sensibly Lacie has opted to plan future projects around this far more stable design.

The most recent fruit of its labour is the LaCinema Mini HD, which offers a similar degree of portability to the Rugged but now backs this up with a far better range of features, performance and control.

Packed into this diminutive design is 802.11 b/g/n wireless, HDMI 1.3 for up to 1080p streaming and a 500GB hard drive. It also offers composite and digital optical audio outputs, Ethernet for wired networks and an impressive range of format support, so on paper at least it seems to tick all the boxes.

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Setup is very straightforward due to a helpful wizard that allows you to configure display and audio settings and set up a wired or wireless network, and there's a nice degree of flexibility in fine-tuning the appearance of the interface and menus.

Like previous devices in the range, Lacie supplies the TwonkyMedia UPnP software for sharing content, though it can also use Windows Media Player or another compatible UPnP application, along with SAMBA folder sharing through Windows.

Files can also be stored locally on the internal drive by dragging and dropping contents across via a USB connection, and there are two USB ports (front and rear) to connect smaller capacity storage directly.

The Mini HD interface is clean and responsive, if a little basic, offering easy access to the video, photos and music accessible to the device. We're a little disappointed to note that content shared across a network doesn't retain the original folder structure, rather opting to lump all shared folders and sub-folders into a single view that can make it frustrating to trawl back and forth through large collections. Other than this, though, we were pleased with the range of category views available to sort media and this includes typical ID3Tag information for audio.

Playback is fast and responsive even at the maximum 1080p resolution over a wireless connection, and we were impressed by how quickly it loads and searches through files without buffering or delay. Format support is also excellent, covering just about all the various filetypes and codecs you'll need, and the vast majority of our test files were handled with aplomb.

Media control is a little limited but all the essentials - such as zoom, rotate and slideshow controls for photos, repeat and randomise functions for audio and subtitle and language track support for video - are present and correct.

Unfortunately, the Flickr photo service represents the only online content accessible through the Mini HD, and it's a real shame not to see better support in this area for popular sites such as YouTube and Internet radio streaming. This is our only real issue with a device that, aside from a few minor foibles, will do an excellent job of offering access to media collections in the home. If the relatively high price is worth paying for the benefits of portability and these issues don't put you off, the Mini is a capable alternative in a burgeoning market.

Lacie has done a nice job with the latest addition to its LaCinema range and while cheaper rivals such as the Western Digital WDTV Live are far better at offering access to online content, few offer built-in wireless and an internal drive so effectively moulded into a sleek and portable enclosure. If these are the kind of features you're looking for, the LaCinema Mini HD will not disappoint.