0404wv02 Sony Vaio

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ON TEST: SONY VAIO PCV-W1 Home media centre PC

1,500 %%%%%

Identity crisis
Sonys PC/TV hybrid seems to offer the perfect work-life balance, but is it a jack-of-all-trades and master of none? Geoff Baines finds out
The PC manufacturers have designs on your living room, but for a computer to make any headway getting out of the office, its got to do a bit more and look a bit better than your average PC. Cue the Sony Vaio PCV-W1. have a nasty cheap feel. The DVD drive is relegated to the side of the machine and is a horrible vertically mounted unit perfect for dropping discs. Despite the fab looks, the PCV-W1 is a computer. It has all the usual interfaces (but on one side, rather than the back) and a slot for PCMCIA cards (the only capacity for add-ons), one for a Memory Stick (since this is Sony, there are no other memory card slots) and four USB connectors. The supplied software is a potpourri. Theres plenty there, but little to bring it all together into a user-friendly home entertainment experience. PictureGear Studio is provided for storing and viewing pictures and SonicStage for playing CDs and copying them to the hard disc. In fact, SonicStage handles accessing the files rather better than Windows Media Player.

DESCRIPTION

Side-loading CD/DVD tray
Socketry isnt quite geared up to home cinema requirements
Intel inside, as well as a TV (but not Freeview)
In addition to incorporating a TV tuner and PVR-like software, the PCV-W1 is styled unlike any other PC. Its all in one unit, finished in satin silver, grey and acrylic. The guts are housed in a vertical box, to which the screen is attached at the front, while the keyboard folds down in front of the screen. It looks far more like a piece of AV gear than a computer. Sporting a 17.5in LCD flat panel screen in a widescreen format, the idea is that this is your TV as well as your PC monitor. It has a resolution of 1,280 x 768 enough for hi-def TV and produces a cracking picture, clearly visible from a wide range of horizontal angles and a reasonable vertical range too. The keyboard expresses the different uses of the PCV-W1. Folded down, the PCV-W1 is a desktop PC. Folded up, flat against the screen, the unit becomes an audio source to play CDs or stored music (or a clock!). Folded down and flipped over so only its underside shows, it becomes a TV/DVD player, with the TV control buttons on the underside of the keyboard. The remote control is sleek and stylish and a little reminiscent of B&O handsets (but far more plasticky). Although its used for TV, DVD and PVR functions, it doesnt stand in for the mouse so you cannot use this machine to the full, from across the room. The elegant design also has its drawbacks. The keyboard cannot be moved from the screen so youre forced to use this PC up close and personal and the keys themselves

PERFORMANCE

The built-in 3W+3W speakers are rather feeble (although they sound good). However, an optical digital socket and stereo analogue outputs are provided for connection to an external sound system. Power DVD handles the DVD rewriter drive, firmly set to play region 2 discs only. Although the remote control gives you all the functions youd find on a DVD player, the images are not too hot. DVDs come out looking rather grainy. Its not the screen, its probably the graphics card a 32MB SiS card that is rather outdated and cant be changed. The PCV-W1 is only available with an analogue tuner. This is a big disappointment. With so many free-to-air channels available on Freeview, in better quality than (digitised) analogue, its a backwards step. You can feed the PCV-W1 with the composite or S-video output of a Freeview receiver (or a Sky Digital receiver, for that matter)
and see the result onscreen, but its not really the same. Again, the pictures are grainy and theres no teletext and no EPG like Windows Media Center provides. Whats more, synchronisation between pictures and sound is often (annoyingly) off, and comparison with other (analogue and digital) tuners show this is down to the
WHATS GOOD Super sleek looks, fold-up keyboard, DVD drive and TV tuner WHATS BAD Relatively poor picture from TV and DVD; not enough integration of the various media functions; no live TV pause PICTURE. SOUND. FEATURES. EASE OF USE VALUE.%%%%%.%%%%%.%%%%%.%%%%%.%%%%%
VERDICT A brave attempt to bridge the gap between computers and AV but the PCV-W1 fails to fully succeed at either
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PC HOME ENTERTAINMENT

SPECIFICATION

PCV-W1. However, the (Nicam stereo) sound is excellent. All might be forgiven if the PCV-W1 delivered full PVR functions, but it doesnt. Handling this is GigaPocket, a combination of software for displaying TV, recording it and handling the recordings. TV is recorded at either 4Mb/s (SP) or 8Mb/s (HQ). Theres only one tuner so you can record a live programme while playing one recorded earlier, but you cannot record a programme while watching another (live) show Dedicated buttons on the remote switch between live TV and playback but many PVR functions are a bit confusing and unsophisticated. The biggest omission is that you cannot pause live TV almost the raison dtre of a PVR. However, GigaPocket handles timed recording and the recorded programme files very well. Theres no EPG but timer events are set using a very simple wizard, and then displayed in GigaPocket Explorer, either as icons, in a list or on a calendar (with screengrab icons for recordings already made). A tiny preview screen is available, independent of the main playback. TV recordings can be exported for editing and use in other programmes or written to DVD. Similarly, other video files can be imported into GigaPocket to reside in your virtual video cabinet. Its a flexible system and while not up to the convenience and transparency of a Sky Plus or many PVRs, it certainly relegates a VCR to the bottom of the AV heap. However, the PCV-W1 presents something of a Catch 22. The AV applications of this machine suggest it should live on a shelf, or a hi-fi stand, but then you cant effectively use it as a PC. Put the PCV-W1 on a table or desk where you can sit at it, and you lose the living-roomfriendly advantages of the design. And theres no point getting a PCV-W1 to replace a PVR and DVD player, if you dont use it as a PC too. But although the screen makes this a nice PC to work with, the poor keyboard and graphics card, and lack of (easy, cheap) expandability makes it less attractive for real PC enthusiasts. And the screen means that the PCV-W1 is unlikely to occupy centre stage in a living room of any size (theres no TV or VGA output of any kind to feed a larger screen). A 17.5in display marks it down for the bedroom, the kitchen or even (a bit ironic, this) the study.

FEATURES High-spec Windows PC Intel Pentium 4, 2.8GHz Processor; 512MB DDR RAM; 160GB hard drive; SiS 651 64MB graphics; 16-bit sound; multi-format DVD writer; analogue TV tuner; mouse; built-in keyboard; remote control; built-in 3W+3W speakers Full screen/window DVD; full-screen/window TV; PVR functions (pause, review, record); CD play/copy; photo/video/audio library Main bundled software: Power DVD; GigaPocket; SonicStage; Microsoft Works; Click To DVD; DragN Drop CD; PictureGear Studio; Photoshop LE; Premiere LE; Windows XP Home DIMENSIONS 519(w) x 318(h) x 350(d)mm (keyboard extended) CONTACT www.sony.co.uk

CONCLUSION

So, is the PCV-W1 a triumph of style over substance? With a powerful PC at its heart, a DVD rewriter, the Sony name on the front, fantastic lifestyle design, a whole stack of software thrown in, and the excellent wide LCD screen, the PCV-W1 is fairly reasonably priced. Its great fun and a real talking point but the PCV-W1 provides neither the quality and functionality demanded for AV, nor the seriousness for a PC of this price. A jack-of-all-trades, but sufficiently master of none
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