Dreary looks belie beauty within
Japanese personal computer makers such as Sony set the trend two years ago, and now most makers are rushing out home PCs that double as audio-visual entertainment systems.
The latest Hewlett-Packard Pavilion Home PC does not come in a sexy style like Sony's W series. It is a regular boxy PC system in dull grey with an above average-looking liquid-crystal display screen. However, the beauty of the three new Pavilions lies in their powerful preloaded software.
The PCs make multimedia creation and digital editing easy. The two main highlights are the Image Zone and InterVideo Home Theatre software. Image Zone is a kind of image organiser which lets you download, store and edit photos and videos. You can create photo albums, slide shows, greeting cards, invitations and other projects, and then record them all on CD or DVD.
You can upload pictures to the Pavilion using its seven-in-one media reader or via one of its six universal serial bus 2.0 ports. Image Zone software is useful as it lets you organise your photos by date, keywords and location. The software features a photo globe from Rand McNally, so you can organise and find photos by location. It also has a backup system that automatically creates a copy of originals and saves them on the hard drive.
The second preloaded gem is the InterVideo Home Theatre. This software enables television viewing and recording, viewing pictures, music, video and DVD/VCD playback. Not only can you watch TV from your PC screen (programmable up to 16 channels), you can also record programmes on the hard drive.
The new Pavilions come with Logitech webcams so you can video-conference with ease. The three new Pavilions start at $9,998 for a Pentium 4 2.6-gigahertz system with CD-RW drive, HK$11,398 for a Pentium 4 2.6GHz system with DVD+R/RW drive, and $12,998 for a top configuration of Pentium 4 2.8GHz system with 160 gigabytes of hard drive and a DVD+R/RW drive. All prices include a 15-inch LCD monitor. Upgrading to a 17-inch costs an extra $798.
HP Pavilion Home PC
Specifications
Price: $9,998 to $12,998
Pros: Preloaded with easy-to-use, fun software in a power-packed system
Cons: Unimaginative PC design
