Onkyo plans media PC
By Marc Perton 
posted October 27th 2005 11:35AM
posted October 27th 2005 11:35AM
Onkyo isn't exactly the first company you'd think of when it comes to media PCs, but its move into the sector may
bode well for the platform, given that the company has carved out a decent niche for itself in the home theater biz.
Onkyo showed off a demo home theater PC at the recent Digital Life expo, and from the looks of it, the company has
leveraged its living-room expertise to come up with a box that's family-friendly, with front-mounted ports and a
definite "component" look to it. The company plans to ship the box sometime next year.
[Via Chris Lanier]
Erm, it looks like an old VCR.
Why don't companies make snap on fronts for these devices like mobile phone companies do, so you can choose the look to match your other kit.
If I look at the picture the casing and ports do look exactly the same as my Paradigit MCE PC, and also for example the Alienware DH2 and the Philips Showline Media Center MCP9350i. All are based on the same Intel hardware.
So to me it seems that its not Onkyo that 'has leveraged its living-room expertise to come up with a box thats family-friendly', Onkyo just is using an allready available platform under its own brand, just as Philips is doing and several PC manufacturers.
Links:
http://www.paradigit.nl/php/viewtext.php?textid=1078
http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/DHS_2/dhs_2_features.aspx?SysCode=PC-DHS2&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
http://www.press.ce.philips.com/apps/c_dir/e3379701.nsf/0/7D66986646D9CCBFC125705900433D79?OpenDocument
I've seen that case with the same front panel array before, on a Mexican computer from a company called Q-Media. Hopefully Onkyo will make better inroads with this model than Q-Media did. If you can find them still (they're discontinued), CompUSA sells the Q-Media version for $799 (originally $1499).
Hopefully they'll put something more than the ATI X300 in theirs (unlike Alienware). What sense does make to build a media center PC without component out?
I'm more surprised at the lack of HDMI than I am about the lack of component. It does have DVI though.
As an Onkyo fan myself, I hope they aren't just putting their name on someone else's box.
They really need a new company, a company called Onkyo is bound to get sued.