Hewlett-Packard has unveiled a 17in digital
entertainment notebook that is available with Microsoft's Windows
XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system and a standalone
digital video recorder.
The HP Media Center zd8000 series notebooks will be available 15
December in a variety of configurations on HP's website and in
retail stores, said Kevin Wentzel, technical marketing manager at
HP.
The $1,399 (£759) desktop replacement notebook was designed as a
mobile digital media hub for students, families, or other home
users, he said.
Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 was unveiled
last month. Many analysts feel it is the software maker's best
attempt yet at creating an operating system for consumers to manage
their audio and video entertainment. It improves support for
wireless devices and adds support for two TV tuners and
over-the-air high definition television.
Toshiba has also released a 17in notebook featuring the new
operating system. The Toshiba Qosmio G15-AV501 notebook is
expensive at $2,999, but it comes with some additional features
such as a built-in TV tuner and Intel's Pentium M processor.
Users can watch live television on the HP zd8000 series
notebooks by connecting the HP Dual TV Tuner/Digital Video Recorder
to the notebooks through a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, Wentzel
said. This device also features an FM radio tuner.
The TV and radio tuners are in a standalone device because
connecting and disconnecting PCs to audio entertainment receivers
can be a painstaking task, especially for a device that is somewhat
portable, Wentzel said. At 9.9lbs, users will not want to take
their zd8000 on business trips, but the notebook could be moved
around various rooms within the home, he said.
A dual TV tuner allows users to watch one program while
recording another on their digital video recorder, Wentzel said.
The device includes support for standard cable connections.
Another interesting feature on the zd8000 is the optional
removable USB drive. The drive is the size of a PC Card, fits
inside a special bay in the body of the notebook and can be removed
to transfer files between the zd8000 and another PC.
Building a dedicated slot for the card into the notebook's
chassis cuts down on the opportunity for users to lose the USB
drive, Wentzel said.
The zd8000 is a true desktop replacement notebook in that it
uses desktop processing technology. HP uses the 3.4GHz Pentium 4
processor from Intel alongside the 915P chipset, also known as
Grantsdale. This allows the zd8000 to support DDR2 (double data
rate 2) memory and PCI Express graphics cards.
A base configuration of the zd8000 notebook will cost an
estimated $1,399 after rebates, depending on the retail outlet. HP
has not finalised the configurations for the notebook, even though
it has determined the price, an HP spokeswoman said.
It will be available only in the US at launch, and HP has no
definitive plans to launch the notebook in other markets, she
said.
Tom Krazit writes for IDG News Service