Home Entertainment Face-Off

Can your PC replace the latest consumer electronics gadgets? To find out, we pit computers against TiVo, MP3 stereo components, and other video and audio gear.

By PC World Editors

Audio & Video

Don't look now, but your PC is trying to replace your TV and stereo system. And new devices for your living room are horning in on your PC's turf. Compaq has a stereo component that plays MP3s. ATI and Matrox sell graphics cards that perform TiVo-style digital video recording of TV programs.

What's going on here? It's a trend called convergence, in which the lines between PC and consumer electronics blur: PCs integrate capabilities developed in consumer electronics devices and vice versa. Thankfully, these new products are far removed from the false starts and flops (anyone still own an Audrey?) that marked past convergence attempts.

But convergence can just as easily mean duplication and confusion. Do you really need an MP3 stereo component if your PC works great as a digital music center? You might if you want to port your digital music to the living room stereo. Is the convenience of a dedicated digital video recorder (DVR) worth the cost when your PC can do the job with a simple upgrade?

To help you get a handle on your choices, we've assembled a collection of DVRs, MP3 components, and portable DVD players. We looked at stand-alone consumer devices and at PC upgrades and enhancements, then we pared our list down to the best choices on each side for a winner-take-all showdown. When the dust finally settled we had our winners: the best DVR, home digital audio, and portable DVD devices around.

We also produced short reviews of the digital video recording and living room digital audio devices that didn't make the final cut.

Richard Baguley is a senior associate editor, Melissa Perenson is an associate editor, and Michael Lasky is a senior editor for PC World.

The PC vs. Digital Video Recorders

Overall Advantage: Ultimate TV

That rattling sound coming from your entertainment center could be your VCR shaking in its boots. Digital video recorders designed to replace videotape with a hard drive are becoming more affordable and popular. They offer better recording quality and more storage space (up to 35 hours), and they allow you to record an entire season of show episodes with just a couple of clicks of the remote. Meanwhile, PC video cards increasingly have the ability to record video as well, and video card vendors are bundling software that can let you record TV programs and play them back at your convenience.

To assess the two approaches to digital video recording, we tested three DVRs: Sony's $399 TiVo (very user-friendly), Panasonic's $600 ShowStopper ReplayTV (doesn't require a subscription fee), and RCA's $299 Ultimate TV (can record two programs at once). On the PC side, we tested the TV-on-demand talents of the $199 ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon graphics card (comes with TV schedule software), the PC-VCR software that accompanies the $230 Matrox Marvel G450 card, and SnapStream PVS--a $50 stand-alone application compatible with a range of video cards that have TV recording capabilities. NVidia's Personal Cinema was not available for testing at the time of writing; visit NVidia's Web site for more information on DVR-ready NVidia-based graphics boards.

The ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon fared best among the PC video cards, enabling users to view a TV schedule and record TV shows within one program. Ultimate TV proved to be our favorite DVR because of its unique features, such as the ability to record two TV programs at once. Between the two, we found Ultimate TV to be the best product for recording TV programs. It's simpler to use and more convenient than the ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon, and you don't need to run a TV cable to your computer to use it. While the PC may be a jack-of-all-trades, it definitely isn't a master of recording TV.

Features

Advantage: Ultimate TV

The ATI Radeon's big advantage over the DVRs is its flexibility. It allows you to watch live TV on your desktop while you work on something else, or to record programs and play them back on the monitor or on a TV running alongside your PC. You can copy recorded programs onto a CD-R disc--thereby archiving several episodes of, say, The Simpsons, albeit at a fairly heavy compression rate--and watch them later on another PC. You can even create a Video CD of a recorded program to play on a DVD player.

Ultimate TV is, unsurprisingly, linked to the television set. Though it comes with a built-in WebTV device (now renamed MSN TV) that lets you browse the Web or send e-mail for an additional subscription fee of $10 per month, it's less flexible than a PC: You can't copy shows onto discs or other devices (you can automatically archive them onto videotape, however). But as a device designed purely to record TV, Ultimate TV wins hands down. Finding TV programs, selecting which ones to record (the DVR can hold up to 35 hours of TV), and watching them are far easier with Ultimate TV than with a PC sporting the All-in-Wonder Radeon. Ultimate TV can even record two shows at once or record one while you watch another. A PC allows you to do a lot more things, but it is more difficult to use.

Convenience

Advantage: Ultimate TV

Ultimate TV is easy to use and works with your TV without much hassle. The only setup complication is that it's joined at the hip to the DirecTV satellite service: You can't use it with a cable TV connection. (In contrast, TiVo models are available for use with cable or satellite.) And a DVR is quiet, unlike a typical computer: Even older PCs come with several whirring fans that can undermine your TV-watching pleasure. You could put the PC in another room and run a cable to the TV, but then you'd also have to run cables for the mouse and keyboard, because PCs don't come with remote controls. The result would be a cluttered viewing area with inconvenient controls.

But that's not to say that the All-in-Wonder Radeon has nothing in its favor: There are no subscription fees for the TV schedule service that the Radeon uses, and you can use the graphics card to play PC games on your TV or to watch TV while you work at your PC. For general use, however, choosing the shows to record and playing them back are much simpler with Ultimate TV than with an All-in-Wonder-equipped PC.

Price

Advantage: All-in-Wonder Radeon

Ultimate TV costs more up front than a PC upgrade board, and you must also pay a $10-per-month subscription fee to obtain the TV schedules that the device requires. Once you've bought the Radeon board, its TV schedules are free (though they are interspersed with advertisements), and you can use it with normal cable or broadcast TV. If you currently use an older graphics board, the Radeon has the added advantage of boosting your 3D graphics power as well.

--Richard Baguley

Buying Information

ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 4 stars (10/31/2001) $199

Buying Information

RCA Ultimate TV 4 stars (10/31/2001) $299

The PC vs. Living Room Digital Audio

Overall Advantage: Philips FW-i1000

The late, great Napster boosted both our music collections and our collective consciousness of MP3s. In turn, interest in digital audio has skyrocketed, prompting a host of products that try to provide a digital complement to a standard home audio system. After all, what good is 20GB of digitally stored music if you can't listen to it in your living room or den?

Many people can make do by using their PC in lieu of a stereo system. But for this to work satisfactorily, the PC needs a good sound card and speaker system, such as a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy sound card and Boston Acoustics Digital BA735 speakers (two satellites and a powerful subwoofer). These, together with free music player software like MusicMatch Jukebox or RealNetworks' RealJukebox, allow your PC to serve up tunes just fine. The downsides: You can listen only in the room where your PC is located, and you can expect the music playback to have hiccups if you use your PC simultaneously for other computing tasks.

More suitable for use in a multilevel house or apartment are the $300 Rio Digital Audio Receiver by Sonicblue and the $300 Audiotron from Turtle Beach. Each is styled differently--the Audiotron is fashioned after a standard audio component, and the Rio more nearly resembles a compact radio or a cable box--but both are designed to sit between your stereo receiver and your PC. Each comes with a remote control and uses a Home PNA- or ethernet-based network to send audio from your PC to your stereo. That's a boon for wired households that already have a home network, but a potential stumbling block (and an added expense) for those who don't.

A third option is to turn to largely PC-independent devices like Compaq's $800 IPaq Music Center and Philips's digital audio-ready compact stereo, the $500 FW-i1000. The IPaq Music Center can connect to the Internet via either a built-in 56-kbps dial-up modem or integrated Home PNA phone-line networking (ethernet is optional); using its built-in CD player and 20GB hard drive, it can store digitized versions of up to 400 CDs. But at $800--a $500 premium over standard 400-CD audio jukeboxes--this unit is priced beyond the reach of the masses. The Compaq device is the easiest of the component-style products to use: Just plug it in, and connect it to a television (for easy menu navigation and viewing track/title information--though alternatively you can navigate and view track data via a two-line LCD text display on the unit) and to your stereo. Like the Audiotron, the Compaq model fits right in with existing stereo component systems.

Also out there: peripherals that wirelessly connect your PC to your stereo. We tried the $100 U.S. Robotics SoundLink Wireless Audio Delivery System but found it the least impressive of the digital audio products we tested. Sound quality was inconsistent, depending on where we placed the two 900-MHz radio frequency transmitters that came with the kit.

If you already have a good stereo system that you want to enhance with digital audio, the sleek, black Audiotron wins our nod. The $500 Philips FW-i1000 (which integrates Internet radio with MP3 playback via a PC) gets our vote if you're starting from scratch and want to enjoy the best of digital and analog audio.

Sure, your PC can act as a latter-day jukebox--as long as you stay close by and don't use it for other tasks simultaneously. But if you want to listen to MP3s through a stereo system in another room, the real battle is between products that help your PC deliver digital audio, like the Audiotron, and digital audio players that can stand alone like the Philips FW-i1000.

Features

Advantage: Philips FW-i1000

On the features front, both the Audiotron and the FW-i1000 nicely complement a computer's typical music capabilities. Editing track names and title information is easy on the PC, as is crafting playlists--thanks to the keyboard and mouse. The Audiotron's Home PNA capabilities free you to play music and Internet radio in any room of the house via a stereo system and a phone-line network connection. The FW-i1000 offers easy Internet radio, with some 700 channels culled by (free) service provider IM Networks. But the Philips minisystem really shines as the first home stereo to fully tap the power of digital audio: It includes a three-CD changer, an AM/FM radio, a dual-cassette tape deck, two speakers, a host of specialized sound filters, preset buttons, and an ethernet connection for supplying Internet radio and for playing back MP3s from your PC using Philips's software.

Convenience

Advantage: Philips FW-i1000

Okay, you already know how to use a computer. And music software such as RealJukebox or MusicMatch is simple enough. But the PC alone is an impractical digital audio playback choice--unless your computer sits in the room you want to listen to music in, or you're willing to run some cables from room to room.

If you aren't already committed to a stereo system, the all-in-one Philips FW-i1000 is ideal, packaging new digital playback features in a familiar shelf-system chassis. The biggest hassle to using the FW-i1000 or the Audiotron is that you'll need to set up a home network if you don't already have one; once that obstacle is out of the way, you're ready to go. The Audiotron's special advantage is that it can make use of all the MP3 playlists already on your hard drive.

Price

Advantage: Audiotron

Prices for audio peripherals that either stand on their own or stream music in conjunction with your PC range from $300 to $800. Clearly, using a PC alone is cheaper. Nearly every modern PC comes with everything you need to listen to digital audio right out of the box.

--Melissa J. Perenson

Buying Information

Turtle Beach Audiotron 3 stars (10/31/2001) $300

Buying Information

Philips FW-i1000 4 stars (10/31/2001) $500

The (Notebook) PC vs. Portable DVD Player

Overall Advantage: Notebook PC

Eyeing increasing demand for DVD-ROM drives on notebooks, consumer electronics companies began offering Discman-size portable DVD video players (no more than half as big as a typical notebook), with top-end models as expensive as some notebook PCs and budget entries costing as little as tabletop DVD players.

We looked at two portable DVD players and two DVD-ROM-equipped notebooks to uncover the pros and cons of each for DVD video viewing. We evaluated one portable DVD player from each end of the price spectrum: the entry-level $549 RCA RC5400P and the high-end $1200 Toshiba SD-P1500. We pitted them against the $1999 WinBook X1 and the $1799 Fujitsu C Series Model 6591--two notebooks that have DVD/CR-RW combo drives.

The RCA unit's tiny 5.8-inch screen was too small for us to read film credits, unlike the 8-inch, widescreen display of the Toshiba. Sound was remarkably superior on the Toshiba model as well; unlike the RCA, it supported most major digital formats, including DTS (an advanced surround sound format).

Of the two notebooks, the Fujitsu C Series permitted better DVD viewing. Its hardware video support includes an integrated S-Video jack for output to a TV and it has built-in front-panel control buttons.

Features

Advantage: Toshiba SD-P1500

The feature sets of the 5.2-pound RCA and 4.9-pound Toshiba DVD players gave them the advantage over the notebook PCs. Both DVD players included programmable playback, adjustable playback image size, picture zoom, remote control, adjustable sound for speakers or headphones, and a jack for connecting to a TV. Each player uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery that attaches to the unit--the Toshiba's fits as an integrated bottom slice, while the RCA's piggybacks somewhat awkwardly on the player itself. What's more, the RCA player lasted only about 2 hours per battery charge--scarcely enough for us to watch one movie. The Toshiba unit's battery lasted a comfortable 3.5 hours. On the notebook side, the WinBook turned in impressive battery life of almost 3 hours, but the Fujitsu was just behind at 2:47.

Convenience

Advantage: Toshiba SD-P1500

Both portable DVD players have one coveted feature that notebooks don't: instant power-up. If you want to watch a video on a notebook, you'll have to wait for Windows to start up. With a DVD player, you just flip the power switch. Still, if you carry a Windows notebook anyway, the ability to play DVD movies on it is a nice perk. Another plus for playing DVD videos on a PC: Some discs come with DVD-ROM-exclusive features such as Web links, viewable scripts synced to the scene, and PC games.

We connected the Toshiba player and the Fujitsu notebook to a television with the included S-Video cables. The video and audio output of both were close enough in quality that the living-room convenience of the Toshiba's remote gave it an immediate advantage. Using the notebook's controls required face-time with its screen, keyboard, and mouse. And the Toshiba's size made it more convenient as a portable movie machine.

Positioning the Toshiba player on top of the TV was easy because of the player's significantly smaller footprint. Barring the need to access the DVD-ROM features of a video disc, the clear winner on convenience is the Toshiba player.

Price

Advantage: Notebook PC

Convenience must be weighed against the Toshiba's $1200 price tag. With tabletop DVD players available for less than $200, it doesn't make sense to buy a $1200 player only for its portability. Clearly the Toshiba is a luxury item when for $600 more you can buy a DVD player and a notebook.

--Michael S. Lasky

Buying Information

Fujitsu C Series Model 6591 4 stars (10/31/2001) $1799

Buying Information

Toshiba SD-P1500 4.5 stars (10/31/2001) $ 1200

Gaming

The PC vs. Xbox?

A game console in PC-component clothing, Microsoft's Xbox adds another layer to the PC versus consumer electronics battle. The new $300 game console is built around a 733-MHz Pentium III processor, an ethernet port for broadband access, and audio and video systems designed by NVidia. It even uses Microsoft's own DirectX 8 API, making it easy for PC and Xbox games to jump from one system to the other. Microsoft has made it clear that Xbox is a games machine, so don't expect it to replace budget PCs yet. But add a GeForce3-based graphics board to your computer, and you'll have a similar system. So which option is for you? Head to " Microsoft Delays Xbox One Week" for a deeper look at the Xbox.

Digital Video Recording Products That Missed the Cut

Sony Digital Network Recorder SVR2000

Maximum recording capacity: 30 hours

The Sony Digital Network Recorder SVR2000 is a TiVo-based device designed for use with conventional cable TV systems (Sony also has a version with a built-in DirectTV satellite receiver). Installation was a breeze: The unit went through its setup process to control our digital cable box without problems, and it explained every step along the way. The only minor annoyance: After the unit had called TiVo to download the list of TV programs, it took 6 hours to index them (other devices performed this task in just a few minutes).

Selecting shows to record is easy. The SVR2000 guesses the name of the show you're searching for from the letters you've entered, so usually you have to enter only a few characters. You can also set the unit to record every episode of a show by using the Season Pass feature--it will even suggest other shows you might like based on the ones you choose to record.

The Sony's only limitation (which it has in common with ReplayTV) is that it won't let you watch one show and record another simultaneously. The SVR2000 does ask nicely before it changes the channel to record the new program, but it's still frustrating.

Buying Information

Sony Digital Network Recorder SVR2000 3.5 stars (10/31/2001) $399

Panasonic ShowStopper PVHS 2000

Maximum recording capacity: 35 hours

Because the Panasonic ShowStopper is based on ReplayTV, it has one major selling point: You don't have to pay a monthly fee to use a programming service. Although it's more expensive than the other devices, you'd quickly recover the difference by not paying around $10 a month to use it.

The ShowStopper was easy to set up--but nowhere near as simple as setting up TiVo or Ultimate TV. For example, it took some fiddling to get the unit to work with our AT&T Digital Cable box: Every time we changed the channel, the ShowStopper complained that it couldn't find a video signal, although the picture appeared a few seconds later. We also had to experiment to get the device to control the digital cable box. Because the cable box requires three digits to set a channel (002 for channel 2, for example), we had to reset the infrared control codes--a process that the manual barely covered.

We saw some skips when we watched recorded video, and the unit seemed to miss programs occasionally: For instance, though we asked it to record every episode of The Simpsons, it recorded only one episode when two were shown on the same day.

The ShowStopper is also the noisiest of the devices we reviewed. While the built-in hard drives in the Sony TiVo and Ultimate TV were barely audible, we could hear the ShowStopper's hard drive from across the room. And for some reason, every 15 minutes or so the ShowStopper's hard drive ran for a few seconds, even when it was not scheduled to record a program.

Buying Information

Panasonic ShowStopper PVHS 2000 3.5 stars (10/31/2001) $600

Matrox Marvel G450 ETV

The Matrox Marvel G450 ETV graphics card has a built-in TV tuner that can be used to record video from either a cable or broadcast TV signal. Like other cards of this type, the G450 lets you watch recorded programs either on your computer monitor or on a separate TV. The video quality of the recorded programs is good, and you can use the card's Composite and S-Video outputs to connect it to a high-end TV or video recorder.

The package has one major omission, however: Although it's bundled with adequate software to control video recording, the card lacks scheduling software to tell you what's on TV. To record a program you must look up its time and channel and then enter this information into the application. And if you want to record every episode of a program, you'll need to either manually enter dates and times for each show or use the software's "repeat record" facility to record a particular channel at a particular time every day. Either way, it's a far cry from the ability to record a whole season of a show with a couple of clicks.

Playing back the shows isn't all that easy, either. The program creates a playlist of the recorded files, and the fast forward button moves from file to file. But you can only move within a file (to skip over an advertising break, for instance) by clicking on the progress bar at the bottom of the playback window--a sharp contrast to the 30-second skip button on the DVRs we looked at. Overall, the setup is rather unfriendly.

Buying Information

Matrox Marvel G450 ETV 3 stars (10/31/2001) $230

Snapstream PVS

Snapstream PVS software works with a variety of graphics cards that have TV recording capabilities, including the Radeon All-in-Wonder and the Matrox Marvel G450 ETV.

Snapstream adds an interesting range of features. The application allows you to watch recorded TV programs on any PC connected over a network to the PC that does the recording, as well as to view recorded shows on a Pocket PC. The latest version even lets you watch recorded programs over the Internet via the Snapstream Anywhere service. You can encode recorded programs using any compression scheme installed on your computer, so as new compression formats are developed they can be used with Snapstream.

What's missing? Like the software included with the Matrox G450, Snapstream PVS lacks a proper TV scheduler. It does contain a link to a TV schedule Web site, but you can't simply click on a program to record it. Instead, you have to manually input the program's time and channel. Likewise, there's no selection for recording an entire season of a TV show, although you can set the application to repeat recording daily or weekly.

Buying Information

Snapstream PVS 3 stars (10/31/2001) $50

Living Room Digital Audio Products That Missed the Cut

Compaq IPaq Music Center

Keeping a sizable collection of CDs organized can take a lot of time. That's what makes Compaq's IPaq Music Center--which stores all of your music on an internal 20GB hard disk drive--a music lover's nirvana. Imagine being able to remove your favorite CDs from their case just once yet still being able to play any album--or even a specific track--on demand with the click of a button.

The IPaq Music Center's $800 price limits its appeal to early-adopter music aficionados, despite its ability to organize about 400 CDs, or 5000 songs. And the unit does have a few shortcomings: It comes with a CD-ROM drive, not a CD-RW drive; it provides no way to back up data; its remote control is missing a few characters; and it doesn't include a USB keyboard. Future models--and competing products such as Hewlett-Packard's Digital Entertainment Center, due by the end of the year--will address these shortcomings.

Still, the IPaq Music Center is well designed for a first iteration. The sleek black unit looks right at home on a shelf with other stereo system components. Setting it up using a dial-up connection (the unit has a built-in 56-kbps modem) or Home PNA network is easy, though entering ISP information proved tedious. The IPaq Music Center connects to your TV via RCA jacks so that it can display playlists, songs, and album covers (song information also appears on the unit's two-line LCD).

Copying music is a breeze: Just insert a CD, click the record button twice, select specific tracks or the entire CD, and you're set. The unit took 7 to 10 minutes to copy a typical CD to its built-in hard disk as 128-kbps MP3 files (the default setting); at 128 kbps the sound quality was very good, though true audiophiles might find fault.

Buying Information

Compaq IPaq Music Center 3.5 stars (10/31/2001) $800

Rio Digital Audio Receiver

The Sonicblue Rio Digital Audio Receiver offers a compromise between using a stand-alone device like the Compaq IPaq Music Center to play digital audio files and using only your computer. The device relays digital audio files from your PC to your stereo system using a Home PNA or Ethernet network. Installation of this compact console was a snap; you can also use it as a stand-alone receiver with separate powered speakers.

On installation the Rio searches your computer for MP3 and WMA files; additional files can be added through the baseline Audio Manager application. You can select playlists via the Rio's remote control or via the unit itself--a process that can get frustrating if you have thousands of files to search through and organize. Although the Rio offers adequate playback in most situations, when you're multitasking it may skip occasionally (the unit's built-in buffer helps minimize such flaws).

Unfortunately, the Rio may not fit well with your living room décor: It resembles the older generation of cable set-top boxes rather than one of today's sleek stereo components.

Buying Information

Rio Digital Audio Receiver 2.5 stars (10/31/2001) $300

USR SoundLink Wireless Audio Delivery System

The SoundLink Wireless Audio Delivery System from US Robotics uses radio wave technology as an inexpensive means to wirelessly play music stored on your PC (or another device) in a different room. It's easy to set up: Simply plug your audio source and audio output into the appropriate SoundLink units (a transmitter and a receiver are included, as are 3.5 mm and RCA-jack wires for hooking up your devices) and turn on the power for each. Then play music from your audio source--which can be a PC playing back MP3 or WMA files through Windows Media Player or MusicMatch Jukebox; a stand-alone MP3 or CD player; or even a DVD player. The transmitter and the receiver can be placed up to 1000 feet apart; however, playback quality will depend upon the environment (as well as the audio source you're using).

The SoundLink's sound quality was adequate when the transmitter and receiver were near each other, but we found our music to be missing the full audio range we'd come to expect. Another drawback: There's no way to control your audio source remotely, so if you're listening to the SoundLink receiver in the living room and your PC is in the study, you won't be able to switch songs without going back to your PC. The receiver can be operated using batteries or an AC adapter.

The SoundLink package may best serve those who wish to play background music in locations where you wouldn't normally keep a stereo and where top sound quality isn't necessary (for example, in a garage, on the deck, or in the backyard). For other situations, you'll find yourself quickly frustrated by its limitations.

Buying Information

USR SoundLink Wireless Audio Delivery System 2.5 stars (10/31/2001) $100