HP Pavilion m370n Media Center Desktop PC (2.80-GHz Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), 512 MB DDR RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD+RW/CD-RW Drive)

[Archived in HP Pavilion Desktops, Hewlett Packard, Hewlett-Packard, Products]

Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard
Price at amazon.com: Used from $1100.00

List price $1,349.99

Product Description:

In the world of computers, customers pay a premium price for top-level state-of-the-art gear. Fortunately, there are plenty of powerful, capable choices just a notch or two below the pricey state-of-the art trendsetters. One such computer is the HP Pavilion m370n Media Center Desktop PC, a unit that's suitable for virtually any business, home, home office, or even home entertainment environment but may shine brightest when operating multimedia applications. Driving this powerful machine is a fast 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with Hyper-Threading technology (Intel's new process whereby single CPU systems mimic dual-CPU systems -- thus boosting performance during high-drain procedures such as multitasking). HP has added 512 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM memory (expandable to 1 full gigabyte) and an ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card with 128 MB dedicated video memory. With a setup like this, you're ready for anything from high-end 3-D gaming to television broadcast recording or 3-D animations. The Pavilion m370n delivers an impressive array of data handling facilities, including a mammoth 160 GB hard disk and two optical drives -- a 48-speed CD drive for playing audio discs and loading programs, and a DVD+RW/CD-RW combo drive through which you can listen to and burn audio discs, create home movie DVDs and backup your files. To upload and download information from external devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras, the system also features six fast USB 2.0 ports (two on the front), two FireWire interfaces (one front, one rear), and a 7-in-1 media card reader. Other key amenities include a top of the line Media Center keyboard with multimedia hotkeys, a hassle-free PS/2 optical scroller mouse (no moving mechanical parts), a 5.1 surround sound audio chipset, and Personal Video Recording functionality for direct capture of TV broadcasts. To keep you in touch, the unit also features a low-speed 56K modem and high-speed 10/100Base-T networking. HP has not included a display monitor, although it has enclosed an impressive stereo speaker setup, the highly rated Altec-Lansing 221 2.1 satellite and subwoofer system. More About Microsoft Windows XP Media Center What sets this PC apart is that it is powered by Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, which offers the features, reliability, and power of Windows XP Professional, plus advanced digital entertainment capabilities. The Media Center interface offers you more types of entertainment to enjoy: TV, Personal Video Recording (PVR), Movies, Music, Photos, Videos, Radio, and DVD. Use the remote control to enjoy from anywhere in your room. TV & Movies  Watch TV when and how you want, and never miss a moment of your favorite programs. Pause and rewind live TV. Record a TV episode, series, or category. Automatically record a personalized selection of TV programs using Keyword Record. Media Center downloads the latest program listings for you and even wakes up from power-saving standby mode to record programs, so you can watch shows on your schedule.    Photos & Video Easily edit your digital pictures and digital videos, and then launch a dynamic slideshow complete with animated transitions and your favorite soundtrack. While viewing a picture, zoom in to see more detail. You can rotate, correct red-eye, and print your pictures using the remote. Play slide-shows straight from digital storage devices.    Music & Radio  All your music is stored in one digital jukebox and using the remote, shuffle your entire music collection according to artist or genre or listen to your tunes through playlists that learn what you like. Tune in FM stations and pause live radio. Full-screen visualizations pulse to the beat of the music. Cool on-screen effects show music information, such as track title, track time, and artist.

Description from Manufacturer: In the world of computers, customers pay a premium price for top-level state-of-the-art gear. Fortunately, there are plenty of powerful, capable choices just a notch or two below the pricey state-of-the art trendsetters. One such computer is the HP Pavilion m370n Media Center Desktop PC, a unit that's suitable for virtually any business, home, home office, or even home entertainment environment but may shine brightest when operating multimedia applications.

Driving this powerful machine is a fast 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with Hyper-Threading technology (Intel's new process whereby single CPU systems mimic dual-CPU systems -- thus boosting performance during high-drain procedures such as multitasking). HP has added 512 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM memory (expandable to 1 full gigabyte) and an ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card with 128 MB dedicated video memory. With a setup like this, you're ready for anything from high-end 3-D gaming to television broadcast recording or 3-D animations.

The Pavilion m370n delivers an impressive array of data handling facilities, including a mammoth 160 GB hard disk and two optical drives -- a 48-speed CD drive for playing audio discs and loading programs, and a DVD+RW/CD-RW combo drive through which you can listen to and burn audio discs, create home movie DVDs and backup your files. To upload and download information from external devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras, the system also features six fast USB 2.0 ports (two on the front), two FireWire interfaces (one front, one rear), and a 7-in-1 media card reader.

Other key amenities include a top of the line Media Center keyboard with multimedia hotkeys, a hassle-free PS/2 optical scroller mouse (no moving mechanical parts), a 5.1 surround sound audio chipset, and Personal Video Recording functionality for direct capture of TV broadcasts. To keep you in touch, the unit also features a low-speed 56K modem and high-speed 10/100Base-T networking. HP has not included a display monitor, although it has enclosed an impressive stereo speaker setup, the highly rated Altec-Lansing 221 2.1 satellite and subwoofer system.

More About Microsoft Windows XP Media Center

What sets this PC apart is that it is powered by Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, which offers the features, reliability, and power of Windows XP Professional, plus advanced digital entertainment capabilities. The Media Center interface offers you more types of entertainment to enjoy: TV, Personal Video Recording (PVR), Movies, Music, Photos, Videos, Radio, and DVD. Use the remote control to enjoy from anywhere in your room.

TV & Movies
Watch TV when and how you want, and never miss a moment of your favorite programs. Pause and rewind live TV. Record a TV episode, series, or category. Automatically record a personalized selection of TV programs using Keyword Record. Media Center downloads the latest program listings for you and even wakes up from power-saving standby mode to record programs, so you can watch shows on your schedule.
	Photos & Video
	Easily edit your digital pictures and digital videos, and then launch a dynamic slideshow complete with animated transitions and your favorite soundtrack. While viewing a picture, zoom in to see more detail. You can rotate, correct red-eye, and print your pictures using the remote. Play slide-shows straight from digital storage devices.
Music & Radio
All your music is stored in one digital jukebox and using the remote, shuffle your entire music collection according to artist or genre or listen to your tunes through playlists that learn what you like. Tune in FM stations and pause live radio. Full-screen visualizations pulse to the beat of the music. Cool on-screen effects show music information, such as track title, track time, and artist.

Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: Buy it only if you are a computer whiz Rating:
I was considering various options for Digital Video Recorders (DVR) like TiVO, and since I am one of those computer geeks, I decided to go for HP Media Center m370n. It has been a month that I have owned this machine, and it has given me problems almost every couple of days. As much as I am a fan of the Windows XP Professional operating system, I think the Media Center Edition coupled with HP machines is truly a bad combination. Read on to know why:

1. HP comes pre-installed with loads of software. Now you may think this is great. But most of them manage to hang your Media Center. This means that you would have to reboot or kill some programs while watching TV. The three biggest culprits in this category are HP online help software, WeatherBug, Norton Anti-virus. The solution: use msconfig (from the Start -> run) and disable these from starting automatically. (For the anti-virus, I would just recommend live with the problem or try a different one - you wouldn't want to risk your system with viruses).
2. My system came pre-installed with nVidia GeForce FX5200 graphics card. It seems that the designers of this card have completely ignored the fact that the card could be used to send video output to TV. First, it does not have an RCA TV output. This means that you will need an S-video to RCA converter (Which is shipped with the m370n). Second, the card driver has a bug that resets its output mode to monitor only. This means that you will also be required to own a monitor even if you are planning to use the computer only with the TV - just to configure the graphics card to output video on TV every few days.
3. The entire process of configuring your media center to work with your TV signal and TV guide can be quite dauting if you dont get it right the first time. I have had to reset my media center a couple of times (no simple feat... you have to call support and they will walk you through the process which involves deleting some hidden files and system registry settings) when I upgraded my cable service from standard to digital.
4. The synchronization of the PC infra red controller with set-top box provided by cable operators is poor. there is a more than 50% failure rate in changing channels, that is, when you change your TV channel using the HP remote control, media center thinks it has changed the channel, but the channel actually does not change on the set top box. This could be painful when you are watching TV and trying to change channels. The real problem is if you have scheduled recordings - chances are the wrong program would get recorded because the channel simply did not change on the set-top box. I have changed 3 set-top boxes till now, and have finally got one with a serial connection to see if this would work better (the manual recommends only one way of connecting - using Infra Red port - the one which causes all kinds of problems).
5. On the usability side - its still quite complex to use. My wife (who has a BS in Computer Science) nor my mom can use it comfortably (which could be considered a plus - I get the control of the remote - just kidding ;)
6. Another word of caution - do not attempt to do anything else while burning CDs or DVDs.. it is quite likely that your system will crash (yes even such a powerful system ...512MB RAM, 2.8GhZ processor with 800MHz bus capable of hyperthreading - the very technology that is supposed to make multi-taking efficient - cannot still handle any other program with DVD/CD burning).
7. The machine comes out-of-the-box with the original release of Windows XP Media Center operating system. HP and Microsoft provided me with a free upgrade to the 2004 edition, which is claimed to solve issues with the previous version. It may have solved a few issues, but none which I encounter on a day-to-day basis.

On the plus side, if you have the patience (like I have), the media center is a pretty cool concept - you have your own home media server - a single repository for all your video, audio, and pictures. What is more appealing as compared to owning a TiVO or a replay TV is you can upgrade the machine with advanced video cards and larger disks for a fraction of cost as newer technologies are introduced.

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Comment: problems after problems Rating:
I was really excited to buy a new computer. after few hours of installing stuffs and experiencing the fastness, problems started to show up. First of all i think hp computer doesn't match well with ATI radeon graphic cards. It would often show error messages and when it tries to resize the moniter, it would just restart the computer. and the hp printer doesn't work well with hp computer. Have to try 4~5 times to get a copy (waste of paper). Its just a pc with flaws.

Posted at November 11, 2003 05:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)