Sony's Digital Studio: Popcorn Optional

VAIO PC entertains with CD audio, Internet radio, and TV recording features.

Jon L. Jacobi

DESKTOP

The most potent argument yet for using your PC as a home entertainment center: The VAIO Digital Studio PCV-RX490TV from Sony. The VAIO Digital Studio packs such usual PC multimedia features as CD audio and Internet radio, but also has a TV tuner/video capture card that records TV programs to your hard drive à la TiVo. It even offers one-touch scheduling of recordings via the Internet, and an infrared remote control.

The VAIO's array of video workstation features includes a DVD-R/RW drive for burning your video to DVD-player-compatible media, IEEE 1394 ports, and S-Video-in and-out. Sony even throws in a large bundle of third-party software--Sonic's DVDit, Prassi's PrimoDVD, Microsoft Word 2002, and Sony's own TV/video capture software and multimedia apps. Performance isn't bad, either. My shipping PC scored 176 in PC WorldBench 2000 tests--about average for its class.

When the VAIO Digital Studio is used as a personal video recorder, its massive 80GB hard drive can hold up to 18 hours of high-quality MPEG-2 video, 35 hours of standard-quality MPEG-2, or almost 100 hours of MPEG-1 in long-play mode. The MPEG-1 suffered from jaggies and other compression defects in my tests, but MPEG-2 video was excellent in both modes.

All this AV prowess doesn't come cheap: The stylish VAIO retails for $2600--sans monitor (look for $100 PC rebates, good at least through August). The steep price is partly due to components like the DVD-R/RW drive, the 1.7-GHz Pentium 4 processor, 128MB of RDRAM, and the 32MB GeForce2 MX graphics card. You pay a bit extra for the Sony name, but if you don't already have home audio and video components, the system would be a great substitute.

Unfortunately, the VAIO's components aren't quite as easy to use as their consumer electronics counterparts: The remote doesn't control all features, the interface should be larger to permit easier viewing on a TV and from a distance, and there's no subwoofer to beef up audio playback.

Still, this PC is a bargain for people who want an all-in-one AV entertainment center--provided you don't mind getting up now and again to use the mouse. Now, if it would only butter the popcorn.

Buying Information

VAIO Digital Studio PCV-RX490TV Stylish PC includes TV tuner, MPEG-2 recording, remote control, Internet program scheduling, and video editing software. Interface a bit complicated. A PC, home entertainment center, and video workstation. List price: $2600 Sony 800/476-6972 http://www.sonystyle.com/vaio