HP's TV-PC is real hot
All-in-one machine: can mix and burn CDs, DVDs
record your favourite TV shows
store your digital photos
is priced at only about $2,400
CUPERTINO (California) - Hewlett-Packard's most modern line of PCs, which can record and make copies of television shows, hit the market a month late and 35 per cent over its intended price.
Mr Andy Dietler could not care less. The 22-year-old website developer uses the HP Media Center PC to listen to his music collection and to mix and burn CDs. When he is not at home, the Media Center records his favourite television shows.
He said: 'It's easier to add your own hard drive and other functionality. And there's the possibility of burning DVDs. Seems pretty much everything I'd want is in there.'
HP does not release sales figures, but analysts say its version of the new breed of PC is so popular that some stores have not had enough of them in stock to meet demand.
In fact, some say, multifunction TV-PCs could rekindle the sluggish PC market by appealing to consumers eager to replace their computers, photo albums, CD, DVD and VCR players and television sets with one single machine.
The machines are not available in Singapore yet, but could get here in July.
That is all good news for HP, which has been losing PC market share to Dell Computer Corp; PC revenue at HP was down 18 per cent in the fourth quarter, while Dell's was up 20 per cent.
'The Media Center was a notable win' for HP, said Mr Roger Kay, director of client computing at technology market researcher IDC. 'I think it's really going to revive computer sales this year.'
Just last year, the Media Center was not looking so promising. Engineers and product developers at HP's labs in Cupertino had put their heads together in autumn of 2000 to come up with the next big thing.
Working closely with Microsoft, the HP team settled on an ambitious project to merge computing and entertainment - to build a device that would edit, store and burn CDs or DVDs, music, photos, digital video and even television shows.
Team members were still wrestling with design and functions while they watched their deadline, last September, hurtling closer.
'We completely missed that target,' recalled Mr Dick Grote, HP's vice-president for consumer PC product development. Another goal, he added, was to price the system starting at US$999 (S$1,778), including monitor. Instead, it became US$1,350.
When the HP Media Center PC was launched, it garnered generally good reviews. PC World Magazine wrote that it 'enables you to do more than merely create digital content: It also gives you new ways to luxuriate in it'.
Now, HP is launching two new Media Center PCs with more power. They will have faster Pentium 4 processors and larger graphics memory.
And they will be able to burn DVDs of TV shows that can be viewed on virtually any DVD player - a trick that until now required downloading a software patch or purchasing an additional program.
The model without speakers will be priced at US$1,400 and come with a 120-gigabyte hard drive that stores up to 80 hours of recorded television; the US$1,700 model will have a 160-gigabyte hard drive capable of holding up to 100 hours of television shows.
Hooked up to the Internet, the Media Center automatically retrieves television-guide information about two weeks ahead of the air date and displays TV broadcasts clearly.
By clicking through menu choices with a remote control or mouse, users can choose to play TV shows or record them.
HP joined Samsung and NEC in collaborating with Microsoft to develop the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system. But HP was the most deeply involved.
HP and Microsoft would not comment on the full range of capabilities of the next-generation Media Center PC, due out later this year. But sources say it will integrate at least one more entertainment function: FM radio reception. -- LAT-WP |
