At first glance, motherboard-maker Asus' new DigiMatrix Digital Entertainment PC could be mistaken for the perfect marriage of two highly popular consumer devices: the personal computer and the DVD player.
Like a number of stereo/PC systems that have cropped up in the last few months, the concept of a DVD movie player/PC is compelling. Plug the sleek, silver box into your plasma television, sit on your favourite sofa, and watch DVD movies just by pressing the 'play' button without waiting for Windows and the relevant software to boot up. Want to shop online? Press a button on the remote and Windows boots up, along with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Then take out the cordless mouse and keyboard and shop, e-mail, or play PC games to your heart's content.
But the reality falls disappointingly short. The DigiMatrix is actually a full-fledged 2.4 GHz, Intel Celeron-based PC with a comfortable 512 MB of DDR Ram, 80 GB hard disc, and a DVD writer packaged into a box the size of a DVD movie player.
So in order to play a DVD using this box, Microsoft Windows and Asus' own proprietary home theatre software needs to be booted up (which, admittedly, was quick). Without Windows XP powered up, the DiGiMatrix is just a glorified AM/FM radio and CD player.
Make no mistake, when Asus put this little package together, they did it expertly. In addition to the standard USB 2.0 slots, there is firewire, seven types of memory card readers, 1 gigabit per second LAN connection, and wireless Wi-Fi.
There are three ways to connect to a display, including analogue and digital monitor outputs, a composite output to TV screens. The DiGiMatrix is a well-built machine, just not something that sits next to the TV in the living room. Maybe a company with more consumer electronic background could pull the concept off more smoothly.