HP z556 Digital Entertainment Center | List Price: $1,349.99
|
Brand: Hewlett-Packard
Binding: Personal Computers
Features: - Computer
- Intel Pentium 4 processor 630 (3.0 GHz) with HT Technology
- 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (expandable to 2GB)
- 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi Adapter with removable antenna
- 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Slick Looking - Components are older technology - Keyboard sucks! [Posted on 2005-12-25]
Picked one of these up the other day, mostly for the slick design and for the wireless keyboard with trackball type mouse controller. But that's all it has, is looks...
After using the keyboard, it quickly became tedious to use, since not only are the keys hard to push down, they are in a tight proximity of each other and not in the usual places, and the wireless is hit and miss, possibly because it runs at only 49MHz frequency. It will miss keys here and there, so you have to type very slooow, and check your work very often, and with passwords where you can't see what you are typing, good luck! It quickly becomes a tire... There is no number pad and the trackball mouse is skippy and lacks a scroll feature...
The processor is 1 "generation" older than the current dual core intel processors and the RAM is standard DDR instead of DDR2... Come on, the dual core Pentium D has been out for more than 6 months, what is taking HP? Is it because P4 is inscribed on the casing and they don't want to reinscribe the case?
Unless HP updates the components and the keyboard, this is a terrible value and a POS.
More than adequate PC [Posted on 2006-10-19]
I bought this Media Center PC in January 2006 just in time for the Superbowl. I bought it with the HP LC3200N High def tv. The two work beautifully together. Like all DVRs, the Z556 performs quite well at recording programs as well as whole seasons of shows. The hi def tuner is a great addition. All told, the Z556 has been a good replacement for my desktop PC. I waited to write this review until I had several months to appraise the quality of it. Now, for the negatives. I replaced the RAM with 4-1 GB PC3200 sticks. Unfortunately, the 4th RAM position is buried under the DVD burner, so you have to physically remove the burner in order install it. Also, due to media content restrictions, there are very few tv programs that you can back up to DVD. This is true for most PCs that are running Windows XP Media edition. You would be better off with a stand-alone DVD burner for that. On the same note, some commercial DVDs (Fellowship of the Rings) will not play because the DVD is copy protected. Again, this is an issue with Windows. The other complaint I have is that HP does not include drivers for its own line of HDTVs. This makes it somewhat technically difficult to achieve the proper settings for the tv. That being said, given the technology of today, I would say this unit was well worth the money.
Great buy after the price drop - Great custom designed HTPC [Posted on 2007-06-09]
To the contrary of all the negative review I found the unit to be pretty decent. I think the big thing is that I bought it for $500 instead of $1500 that everyone else seems to have bought it at.
You should fully understand what you are buying though:
- This is a PC not a TiVo or a DVR unit, so you have to wait for the machine to boot up/wake up, you need to install software on it and you have to treat it like any other PC with updates, defrag, AntiVirus updates, firewall setup, router setup, etc. You may experience crashes, etc, but that's mostly due to your setup or if you are running some extra software other than mediaplayer on the machine.
If you are expecting some super easy to use machine like a DVD player, this is not for you.
- This is not a NORMAL PC: if you want to use it for gaming, it probably doesn't have the best in line hardware for more recent games. If you want to use it to type a document, send and e-mail, etc, you need an HDTV, and you need a coffee table together with a wireless keyboard and mouse set that's better suited for that purpose than what's bundled.
I looked at many home theatre PCs (HTPCs) before I bought this one. These are what I like about the unit:
- It's easily extensible - HDD replacement is fairly easy, same with RAM
- GREAT chassis design: it looks great, it has memory card readers, USB, firewire, etc on the front for things you want to easily and quickly feed to/attach to the machine.
- The grouping of connectors on the back pannel is very nicely done, looks pretty close to a home theatre receiver unit unlike a PC which has connectors on edge of cards. You should look at the back of your PC and you will immediately see what I mean: there are connectors for 7.1 speaker set, TV ins, 802.11 antenna, SPDIF coaxial and optical sound output, 4 more USB ports, etc
- To the contrary of what one of the reviewers says it DOES have the normal coaxial stereo output jacks (on the back)
I think this is much more worth than HP's higher end ones (Z565, etc) at over $2000.
Note that you most likely need to add more software for different stuff, so those will add to the cost.
HP Z556 DEC...Good, Customer Support...Bad [Posted on 2007-08-26]
Although the HP Z556 Digital Entertainment Center offers some great Media Center features, I can't say the same for HP support. I purchased this particular type of CPU for my fledgling home theater room, hoping the unit would provide the "brains" to control all of my A/V components. The problem is I haven't been able to use it! After receiving the unit, and upon powering it up, there was no response (defective video and mother boards). After myriad attempts to troubleshoot the problem with HP support (one hour on chat and three hours on the phone), I was finally told to send it back to HP for bench repair support. Long story short, after receiving the unit back and powering it up, the video worked fine, but the audio did not (another 4 hours on the phone). Additionally, an HP certified technician has made two visits to my home with a third planned for later. WHAT'S THE DEAL? Good customer service would dictate that if you purchase a "new" product that is proven to be defective, that it should be exchanged for another "new" product that works...no questions asked! I anxiously await the day I can finally use a properly working unit in my home (it has been almost a month since I purchased the CPU). To HP: a five-star rating on such a wonderful concept and design, but a one-star rating on inadequately meeting the needs of the customer.
nice for the price [Posted on 2008-02-08]
Its a great set up for the price and does a great job of upscaling dvds to 720p. Its a little bigger that I thought it would be but looks real sexy in my home entertainment center. I love the easy to use remote. The only downside is that it cannot record HD from a cable or dish signal, only over air. It is totally worth the money and comes with a free year of norton anti virus.
Click here for more details and discount information...
|
){kind=link}