Sony Vaio reborn for the living room

If you don’t want a laptop or desktop PC cluttering up your living room, but miss the emotional tech attachment, then Sony may hold the key. It has designed a PC specifically for the living room, but one so, well, un-PC that it’s sure to put bums on sofas. First announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas in January …

[John Browne]

HDMI

I wonder will it carry the sound out of the PC through the HDMI port to the TV because it would be really annoying if the HDMI port was just sitting on the graphics card without the sound component.

[stu]

ooo hold me back

what a bargain. for only twice as much as a mac mini, I get twice as big a computer with a similar spec....

don't get me wrong, I'm a vaio fan and owner! - I also have a mac mini, but it's running vista so I'm no fanboy...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bit expensive

Its about twice the price of the mac Mini, looks a little bigger too, and is a bit more pricey then the shuttle 100 (the thing that looks like a retro nentendo Wii).

It is better speced then the mac Mini. Just a pity it runs Vista.

Wonder if it has a circular circuit board like the old iMac's.

Nice styling, no doubt a bit on the iPod.white side though for some people.

[Dave]

Why

Or you could just build yourself a better spec one and put it in a slim line case like I did for around £300. They must think we were born yesterday. Looks too much like a stupid mac for my tastes

[ton]

10 for looks 1 for features

Like so many box producers sony annoys by making a product that looks good and then forget to give us the features we need

a machine like that should have a decent gpu to play hd, not the intel igp crap that has to struggle to even display vista, and why does a leading tv maker like sony don't include hdmi

now if they change that and lob 50% off the price

[Dillon Pyron]

HDMI

I'm exactly the opposite. Right now I don't have an HDMI capable AV receiver (mine is a three year old antique). So I used optical out from my cable box and equally antique p-scan DVD player (both Sonys). And I don't really see many HDMI AV receivers out there. At least not below the $800 level. So you're stuck with stereo TVs.

[elder norm]

Sounds good..... but

It looks nice and sounds interesting, ...... but....... wait.

Isn't Vista that DRM crippled software, especially when you are talking HD????

Yea, if any one of the components that are connected are not on the MS approved list, it degraded or stops your HD viewing.

Hmmmm, maybe I should just play it safe and get a MacBook and AppleTV and an iPod, all for the same price. ?????

Now that sounds like a plan. :-)

[dek]

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Oh yeah I have a Sony. I bought the PCG-505FX when it came out ten years ago. Wonderful then and now, especially as it runs Puppy Linux flawlessly (apart from firewire because Sony used some crappy chip). But... (pregnant pause) from the outset I begun hating Sony more and more for it's absolute disregard for after-sales support and a maze of a website that disappeared up its own backside. And dare I remind ye all that this is *the* company that thought it had a right to infect your computers? 'nough said.

[Anonymous Coward]

No Blue-Ray?

Seems a bit pointless producing a TV oriented product which as mentioned doesn't even have a high end enough GPU and then lacks support for HD via Blue-Ray, which given the fact it's a new machine should really be a feature it supports.

[Anonymous Coward]

How noisy is it?

Well?

dek: Don't forget Sony's nasty Microsoft-esque obsession with proprietary things, like the overpriced Memory Stick. How I laughed when it had to cave in and support MP3 instead of just ATRAC.

[Reg Sim]

How noisy is it? - lol I had forgoten that.

The stupid format ATRAC when all you wanted to do was drop a few MP3's from your HDD onto the damm player and go out and listen to music.

Its also partly the reason why I have never got an ipod, as I do not like proprietary and Sony is a company that does like that sorta thing.

Just look at my stupid W850, just like my S750 before its got a stupid Sony Memory stick Duo, WHY!!!!!, I want a mini-SD or somthing, somthing that does not cost 50% more just because its sony!.

With that said, they tend no to mess around with there computer hardware to much, but it does seem a bit pricey this new product, but then most Sony stuff is, but they know there customers will swallow it, because 'its a sony'.

And I for one have not forgotten it was "company that thought it had a right to infect your computers?" - gits.

-sin