[zaza4]

Anyone have any info on when HP's Digital Entertainment Centers will be available?

 

[michaeltscott]

That is a very sweet lookin' product! Thanks for pointing it out.


If you click the " Overview " link at the top of that page, and then the " Read full news release " link at the start of that page, you get a PDF of a PR which contains this information:
Quote:

Availability and pricing(7) The HP Digital Entertainment Center, Media Center Extender and Media Center m1100 series Photosmart PCs are expected to be available this month both direct from HP via www.hpshopping.com and at retail partners nationwide. HP is releasing two models of the HP Digital Entertainment Center. The HP z540 Digital Entertainment Center – featuring a single NTSC TV tuner and 160GB internal hard drive – has an estimated U.S. street price of $1,499. The HP z545-b Digital Entertainment Center – with dual NTSC TV tuners, 200GB internal hard drive and the HP Personal Media Drive offering an additional 160GB of removable storage – has an estimated U.S. street price of $1,999. The HP Media Center Extender has an estimated U.S. street price of $299 and the HP Media Center m1100 series Photosmart PC has an estimated U.S. street price starting at $999 after rebate.

So, they're supposed to be available later this month. Earlier, the PR states:
Quote:

HP expects to launch a Digital Entertainment Center that will support ATSC high-definition recording in the first half of 2005.

It would seem that these units do not have HD OTA tuners in them and may or may not be upgradeable to have them, so if you want an HD OTA DVR, you might want to wait.


Since that PR was dated yesterday, it more or less has to be the freshess information about this thing.

 

[Paul_PDX]

Another not so HD friendly device (pandering to the movie industry).


Among the Hilites --


• Progressive Scan DVD movie playback at 480p(10)


(10) Via DVI or component video out; desktop resolution must be set to 640 x 480 for DVD playback via component video.


Give me a Sigma Designs based box or a real HTPC...

 

[michaeltscott]

Microsoft made a big announcement of XP Media Center Edition 2005 yesterday (HP's announcement of these machines was probably not altogether coincidental). In the FAQ linked to there, beneath "What's new in the 2005 version of Windows XP Media Center Edition?", one of the bullet points is:
Quote:

The Complete High Definition Experience - The first home computer operating system with built-in support for high definition2 (HD) via TV with over-the-air High Definition TV (HDTV) tuning, DVD and the Web with WMV HD support built-in, delivering up to six times the quality of normal TV.

Exactly how HD is support on DVD is unclear--probably WMVHD on red-laser discs. What hardware you'd need to deal with that isn't stated, but you can definitely play them with 3 GHz and better P4 processors with decent graphics cards from files on hard disk--I've downloaded files and done it. One of the editions of Terminator 2 came with a WMVHD disc that could be played on a Windows XP machine. These announced HP models may not be capable of it, but lord only knows why not.


There's some stuff in the FAQ (under "Recorded TV and Content Protection") which indicates that their DVR software will honor the Broadcast Flag, no doubt using Microsoft's own DRM system (recordings are completely tethered to the PC on which they were made).