Sony launches the stunning new VGX-XL100 home entertainment VAIO

Maxwell

Sony serves up new home entertainment VAIO system - complete with silent running

Following is the press release from Sony about its first silent entertainment VAIO for the living room…

"Sony launches the stunning new VGX-XL100 home entertainment VAIO, designed to be at the core of the digital home.

The XL100 is styled in black and brushed aluminium and positioned with a horizontal aspect so it will fit perfectly in a living room space, functioning as a TV tuner and recorder, DVD player and burner, music jukebox, PC gaming machine and home office work station.

Designed with the living room in mind, the new VAIO runs in total silence and can be connected directly to a TV through its HDMI™ (High Definition Multimedia Interface) and Component TV outputs – providing outstanding picture quality especially on HD ready screens.

Merging IT with AV is at the core of the XL100’s proposition. It features both an analogue and a digital tuner TV which means that terrestrial and Freeview channels can be viewed on the PC’s screen without the need for a set top box. The slimline XL100 also packs in a massive 250GB hard drive, allowing users to record and playback all their favourite TV shows at the click of a button. With this much memory there is also plenty of space to store an entire collection of music, photos and videos, and play them back through Windows Media Centre software.

As well as functioning as a TV tuner, recorder, DVD player and music library the XL100 is also a gamer’s dream machine. Gamers can now leave the confines of the bedroom or office and enjoy their favourite PC titles in the living room using the wireless keyboard, mouse and remote control. With an Intel® Pentium® D Processor 920 and 128MB NVIDIA® Geforce™ 6600 graphics card this PC offers the most advanced graphics quality ever seen in a VAIO.

For the work-a-holic, the XL100 has fantastic capabilities in personal computing, so sending emails and using the Internet has never been easier. The VGX-XL100 utilises Intel® Viiv™ technology and Microsoft® Windows® XP - Media Centre Edition, making it easy and fast for the whole family to use.

So if you are looking for a single ‘box’ that can offer both advanced computing and entertainment features, the XL100 VAIO is the perfect choice.

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It's a COOL computer. It's meant for the vague, barely-existing world that is "high definition", in which men try to convince themselves that spending £2000 on a TV and £1000 on something to send video to it was a really good idea.

THE FULL STUFF ABOUT IT:

The XL100-Series : Full-Spectrum Entertainment At Its Best
The real entertainment centre for the living room

Brussels, 6 January 2006 - Today sees the launch of the VGX-XL100, a VAIO home entertainment PC which connects directly to the TV. As ever, the emphasis is on the best in AV-IT, providing full support for super-high quality DSD audio and HD video supported by Intel Viiv technology for maximum performance.

The XL100-Series
The XL100 is the core of the digital home. Designed to be used in the living room with a TV as its display, it comes in a stylishly restrained black and brushed silver case which will harmonise with any décor. Ideally, the XL100 should be used with an HD-ready TV as it is the first VAIO system with HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) and Component TV outputs. This means that unlike conventional entertainment PCs, it can output a true HD-quality signal. Setup is simple, and little cabling is required. A wireless keyboard with integrated touchpad and a remote controller are included as standard, so it's easy to use wherever you are in the room.

The XL100's powerful hybrid TV tuner lets you watch both analogue and digital TV rather than just analogue channels. The capacious 250GB hard disk means that the XL100 can act as a video recorder as well, not to mention as a music centre and DVD player. A potent Intel Pentium D Processor 920 and 128MB NVIDIA Geforce 6600 graphics provide the muscle for gaming. In other words, this is the complete entertainment system for the home, but a tap on the touchpad brings true PC functionality to the fore. In seconds you can be shopping online or catching up with your email. And there's one last thing: despite its heavyweight credentials as a PC, painstaking engineering ensures that the XL100 is completely silent.

The XL100 is supplied with Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition for simplified access to media features as well as full PC functionality. In addition, it comes with VAIO Information Flow, a specially designed graphical interface for use at a distance from the screen. This makes interaction with the XL100 a very simple matter, and provides instant access to popular services including RSS feeds, a newsreader, podcasting, picture slideshows and the music player. XL100 also incorporates Intel(r) Viiv technology, Intel's new brand for the digital home, designed to enhance and help manage how consumers enjoy, manage and share digital entertainment in the home. "The XL100, based on Intel Viiv technology will be instrumental in delivering a great digital entertainment experience in the home," said Herbert Weber, Director of Marketing Digital Home, Intel Europe, Middle East, Africa. "Intel looks forward to working with Sony on making digital entertainment effortless and more personal for consumers."

"The XL100 represents the next stage of the entertainment PC concept," says Jun Koyama, Director of IT for VAIO Of Europe (VOE). "By this I mean dual core power, cuttinga edge AV features and seamless PC/entertainment integrtion. All this is wrapped up in the design and quality that is fundamental to VAIO

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I am in the market over the coming months to get a fully functioning and very sleek Media Centre PC to put into my home cinema set up and have been looking at the Elonex Artisan Media Center LXH:


The sony looks well - want to see it in the flesh first and then see if the costs are worth it.


What are other people opinions?

Ru

From what i've heard it'll be out by the end of feb and will retail (without screen) for €1559 inc. VAT

I was told thought that the price is tentative and may change!!!!!!!!

Maxwell

Ru wrote:

From what i've heard it'll be out by the end of feb and will retail (without screen) for €1559 inc. VAT

I was told thought that the price is tentative and may change!!!!!!!!

Oh Jesus!

I hope so!

Not sure if I want to spend 1,500 on a machine that can do things a Dell can for well under a €1k

Still, I will keep an eye as Im a sucker for a nice looking machine!

Morf3h

Wow looks very nice indeed and will go perfectly with my 360