Sony Vaio XL201 Media Centre £549 + £10.95 P+P

maddoglewis

Reasons to buy this instead of a PS3

- You can record from tv to your hard drive or dvd
- You can save photos to it easily using the memory card slots
- You can play PC games on yor tv
- You can watch freeview with its built in tv tuner
- It has a 250GB hard drive compared to the PS3's 60GB
- The operating system is much better (than Linux on PS3)

Reasons to buy a PS3 instead of this

- You can watch blu-ray movies
- You can play PS3 (and some PS2) games

I cant decide.

cheapskate58

maddoglewis wrote: »

Reasons to buy this instead of a PS3

- You can record from tv to your hard drive or dvd
- You can save photos to it easily using the memory card slots
- You can play PC games on yor tv
- You can watch freeview with its built in tv tuner
- It has a 250GB hard drive compared to the PS3's 60GB
- The operating system is much better (than Linux on PS3)

Reasons to buy a PS3 instead of this

- You can watch blu-ray movies
- You can play PS3 (and some PS2) games

I cant decide.

:rotfl:

Or maybe just get one of the really cheap Dell deals and upgrade to get a top spec HTPC and then trouser the left-over cash;)

PS3? - they're having a laugh surely?:D

hobo28

I'm SO tempted to get this to replace my Tivo + DVD player which also plays xvids.

I could then just download stuff directly to the machine and watch. One question tho if someone can answer me which may tip the balance.

Is there a TV guide and can I program it to tape the entire series of something? Eg. can I tell it to record all CSI's?

alba37

Another question/advice.... what's the best (cheapest) way to get Vista now we have missed the offer?

Thanks

alba37

hobo28 wrote: »

I'm SO tempted to get this to replace my Tivo + DVD player which also plays xvids.

I could then just download stuff directly to the machine and watch. One question tho if someone can answer me which may tip the balance.

Is there a TV guide and can I program it to tape the entire series of something? Eg. can I tell it to record all CSI's?

Media Center has a 14 day downloadable programme guide to help with recording, not sure if you can set it for a series though.

Edit- yes you can record a series, info HERE

hobo28

ok, have bought this now. Was walking through Meadowhall centre in Sheffield and the Sony Centre had 2 in stock at £549 so I managed to save myself the £11 postage and got to take it home that day!

Like a kid with a new toy its all plugged in now.

First impressions is that its pretty cool. Its not as easy to use as the Tivo it replaces and noticably slows down when trying to watch TV and copy 1GB data off an external drive but so far so good.

alba37

I jumped on the bandwagon too! I got it from above link, delivery was next day! I have also noticed the live TV very slow and haven't managed to get sound out of it yet!! Do I need speakers? I thought it would work through the telly.

It does seem really cool though once I get all the settings right

Love the remote & keyboard.

I would love Vista, but it's an expensive upgrade after just missing the microsoft deal Any ideas?

Idiophreak

alba37 wrote: »

Thanks Errole! I was going to buy the humax freeview box with recorder, but this looks tempting now! My laptop's on it's way out so it would this kill 2 birds with one stone?

I'd get the humax without a second thought - will handle all of the TV stuff a whole lot better than any media centre.

This thing will do very little extra for you, other than relieve you of those extra £350 burning a hole in your pocket.

You're much better off with a humax and the lappy.

I don't understand anyone advising people to get the PS3, either.

If you want a bluray player, it's clearly worth it, otherwise it's a bit of a waste of time.

You can just get a humax (for £180) and a half decent DVDR (say £100) - the DVDR will play mp3, divX etc etc etc anyway.

Or is there a *point* of having one of these I just don't understand?

errolevans

It's very much horses for courses really. The Humax series do have a great reputation, and you're right the Sony isn't cheap. The Sony will read memory cards too and so you can store your photos, mp3s, etc on it, you can download video etc off the internet on it, you can use it just to surf the net, you can edit camcorder stuff on it (Some DVDR's don't have firewire ports), you can use it as a normal PC with all your word processing, presentations etc etc.......
In summary it depends what you want out of the machine. It can replace your home computer with the advantage of having freeview and hard drive and DVD recording facilities built in.
I have been very impressed with it so far, and am going to upgrade it with a HDTV Satellite card for another £90.
Also when Bluray drives come down in price, I won't be buying another big box, I will simply upgrade the drive in this box!
I purely like it because I've got rid of a DVD recorder, a Cable Box (used for freeview) and a Sky plus box from under my television.

sipart

Latest 301 model is PCPRO A list Media Centre PC. Check the specs to see the diff's.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/107311/sony-vaio-vgxxl301.html

Cheers