Sony announces VAIO Premium HTPCs

Sony is rolling out their new VAIO HTPC in two flavors -- standard (VGX-TP20E, in polar white) and premium (VGX-TP25E, in piano black). The specs on these is pretty similar: 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processors, 802.11b/g, 500GB storage, HDMI, Blu-ray drive and Vista Home Premium, all wrapped up in the same cylindrical form factor. For the couch surfers, Sony's tossing in a wireless keyboard with integrated touch pad in with these for couch surfers. Rollout of multimedia functionality continue across the notebook and desktop VAIO lines as well. The addition of two external CableCARD tuners differentiates the premium from the standard models. Pricing comes in at $1600 and $3000 for the two, respectively -- seems like a steep premium for those two CableCARD tuners!

EDIT: added Blu-ray drive spec.

[Rick @ Jan 6th 2008 7:48PM]

That's an expensive hat box.

[pcmike @ Jan 6th 2008 7:43PM]

The $20,000 question is would this PC play ripped Blu-ray and HD DVD titles (ie. does it support HDCP and all the other DRM crap I have no clue about)..

[James Ollier @ Jan 6th 2008 7:44PM]

It doesn't take a hugely powerful machine to play 720p MKVs

[ScooterDe @ Jan 6th 2008 7:46PM]

Sony, so it will observe the rules and probably add some of its own...
Nice looking device and we sorely need a winning, mass-market media pc solution in the living room, but the price is wrong and why only b/g?

[James Ollier @ Jan 6th 2008 8:07PM]

25Gb+ movies? Whats the point? You'd be lucky to fit 15 movies on there!
720p MKVs look great and are reletavely small, and you'd fit over 100 movies with in 500Gb instaed of a paltry 15.

[pcmike @ Jan 6th 2008 7:46PM]

I'm not talking about re-encoded content (ala x264 mkv's)... I mean TRUE 25G+ rips, 1:1.

[engadget @ Jan 6th 2008 7:56PM]

I see Sony still doesnt understand the whole function-over-form philosophy most HTPC owners live by.

Why the heck is it round? Tell me 1 single PC Component that is natively round?

[Adnan Osmani @ Jan 6th 2008 8:05PM]

A CD-ROM :)

[James Ollier @ Jan 6th 2008 9:39PM]

A fan

[engadget @ Jan 6th 2008 10:07PM]

Both of which come in Square/Rectangular Casings when put in a PC.

[Jorge @ Jan 6th 2008 8:16PM]

The price is totally wrong..i for one am willing to pay premium for design, but $3K is well over $1K more than a similar PC with dual cable card tuners.

Having said that, am I the only one that thinks this looks like an iRobot Rumba?

[Brandon H @ Jan 6th 2008 8:15PM]

A Tivo series 3, an Apple TV, Blu-ray player and a harmony remote don't cost as much combined as as that thing, and you don't have to deal with Windows Vista.

Why can't these PC makers make a sub-1000 dollar home theater box with INTEGRATED dual cable card tuners like the tivo? I'd totally switch to a Media Center PC if they didn't start at 2 grand (including cable card support, I know there are cheaper options if you go without cable card). It doesn't need to be the fastest computer on the planet, it just needs to be home theater ready!

[Fitz @ Jan 6th 2008 8:24PM]

You can get one with dual-cable card tuners for ~$1200 with the Dell XPS420 base unit.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=19&dgvcode=ss&c=us&l=en&vw=list&oc=dxdwqrs&dgc=CJ&cid=7420&lid=0

[James K @ Jan 6th 2008 8:29PM]

"For the couch surfers, Sony's tossing in a wireless keyboard with integrated touch pad in with these for couch surfers."

So what are these for? Couch surfers?

[darkflame @ Jan 7th 2008 7:05AM]

Id rather use a Divx streaming box and stream from another room.
(unlimited storage space, vastely cheaper price)

I have a sever pc on 24/7 anyway.

[el-emeno @ Jan 6th 2008 9:51PM]

Perhaps for couch-surfing couch surfers...