HP z558 Digital Entertainment Center

HP z558 Digital Entertainment Center
Manufacturer: hp
Product Type: Personal Computer

Editorial Review:
Product Description
Includes: wireless Keyboard w/ Integrated trackball, remote control, DVI-D cable, S-Video cable, L/R RCA Audio cable, 2 Infrared blasters, 2 RF Coaxial Video cables, 1 Coaxial Video Splitter, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Norton AntiVirus with Update Roll-up 2 w/ 1 year subscription, WinDVD Player, & more. HP z558 Digital Entertainment Center - The z558 is a computer that has been specifically designed to integrate seamlessly with your home theater setup - without sacrificing your computing experience! It provides the best of all worlds - a powerful computer system that's powered by an Intel Pentium 4 Processor 640, a built-in PVR that provides TV viewing, pausing and recording, a DVD player and recorder, an FM tuner, and much more. Storage 300GB 7200RPM SATA 2nd 300GB 7200RPM HDD DVD SuperMulti Writer - (write) 8x DL DVD+R, 16x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R, 32x CD-RW / (read) 16x DVD-ROM & 40x CD-ROM Lightscribe Direct Disc Labeling TV & Video 2 NTSC TV Tuners 1 ATSC TV HD TV Tuner 14-Day Programming Guide NVIDIA GeForce 6600 x16 PCI Express Graphics Card with 128MB of DDR Memory Audio Intel High Definition Audio with 7.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Supports playback of MP3, AAC, WMA, & WAV files FM Tuner External Ports Rear A/V - 1 DVI-D, 1 VGA, 1 Component (YPbPr), 1 S-Video, 1 Composite, 8 RCA Audio, 1 Toslink Optical Digital, & 1 Coaxial Digital TV Inputs - 1 RF Coaxial for Standard TV, 1 RF Coaxial for Digital TV, 2 S-Video, 1 Composite, 2 Sets of RCA Front Headphone, L/R RCA & Microphone In 6 USB 2.0 (2 front) / 2 FireWire (4-pin front / 6-pin rear) Front 9-in-1 Media Card Reader - supports Secure Digital, xD, Smart Media, MultiMedia Card, Compact Flash Types I/II, Microdrive, Memory Stick, & Memory Stick Pro Monitor is not included

HP z558 Digital Entertainment Center All-in-one entertainment source with 600GB of hard drive storage

Average customer rating:

Bought it just before Christmas
so far so good
Ya Baby, this is awesome!
The HP DEC is near perfect
I absolutely love mine!!!

HP z558 Digital Entertainment Center All-in-one entertainment source with 600GB of hard drive storage

Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard
ProductGroup: Personal Computer
Binding: Personal Computers

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Accessories:

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ASIN: B000CGLODO

Product Description

Revolutionize the way you watch TV, plus upgrade your home entertainment options! The z558 Digital Entertainment Center connects to your TV or projector through DVI, VGA, component video, S-Video, or composite video, and lets you control everything with a remote, right from the couch.The HP Digital Entertainment Center will make friends fast with the rest of your home theater equipment. Enjoy digital or analog surround sound output through your A/V receiver. The black, brushed-aluminum finish looks at home in your living room or home theater. An ultraquiet design keeps your focus on your entertainment experience, not on your system.A single remote control gives you instant access to all your digital entertainment - TV, DVD movies, home videos, music, photos and FM radio. Three high-performance TV tuners and a personal video recorder (PVR) let you pause, replay and record from cable, digital cable, digital satellite, or over-the-air TV. Record up to three TV programs simultaneously. You can capture single episodes or entire series onto the HP Digital Entertainment Center. You'll never miss another episode of your favorite show!Make your own CDs or enjoy the ones you already have. You can even select individual songs, create play lists, or search for music by title, artist and album. It's like having a jukebox right in your living room!Play your favorites or download new ones and get ready for crisp, clear images and unbeatable surround sound from your big-screen TV.

Customer Reviews:

Bought it just before Christmas.......2007-01-05

Bought this unit just before Christmas and absolutely hated it. The inital setup was not as straightforward as the instructions seemed, and had repeated issues after setting it up. there was no sound, the personal media drive didn't work, and the video hardware needed to be reinstalled after every bootup. I seriously questions if thi was the experience $2200 bought me. HP send me a box, and I had it back 10 days later completely working with all the current updates applied. Have loved it since.

This box does everything it says it can, flawlessly. I have recorded live TV from a satellite TV(DTV), had a DVD on pause (the MCE DVD player does not have a resume function, but the included HP software does, I justhaven't used it), and watched a over the air HD Eagles game at the same time with not noticable problem. The computer I built to do this *did* have trouble doing more than one thing at a time. I think HP did a great job of matching the hardware and software to make things run smoothly.

The look of the case is top notch. The doors open smoothly, and have catches to keep them closed. The front of the case is brushed black metal, which looks at home with my other AV equipment. The only annoying item is the brightness of the power button: it's blue, and in a dark room stands out like a beacon. The LCD screen is also very bright, and distracting, but you get used to it. On the positive side, it displays the currently selected media or channel, so that is helpful, especially when the TV is off. The machie itself is relatively quiet, so fan noise isn't an issue, especially with a TV going.

The AV hookups are a bear. I know my way around AV equipment, and what's back there is tightly packed and intimidating. I strongly suggest a cable manager of some sort, otherwise the sheer weight of the cabling will eventually break something, trust me. Also, the IR blasters are a bit cheap. the adhesive on them barely works, they have an additional LED that actually flashes RED to distract you while they change channels, and BOTH have to be connected in order for MCE to properly change channels.

Those have been my inital impressions. I continue to use it, and the software takes a lot of playing with. I don't fault HP for MS MCE, but your enjoyment of the box is dependant on MCE. The box is great, MCE is a bit trying at times. There are lots of resources for MCE, and lots of plug-ins that extend it's functionality. There are also lots of software that do what MCE does just a well, and for HP's part, they used high-end parts that are universally supported in almost all software. I would suggest using some type of HD imaging app before doing anything that would break MCE though.

I strongly suggest extending your warranty after the inital 1yr. I do not want to have to track down replacment part for this thing in two years, I'll let HP do it for me. For the $100 or so they want, that more than covers the cost of replacing ANYTHING inside of this box. The audio cable, personal media drive, tv card, and memory they replaced would have run about $500 alone.

Would I buy it again, probably. Can my wife operate it, yes. Does it work, yes. Was it worth the inital $2K, NO. Now that they are down around $900, they are a must have for anyone who wants Tivo functionality and more, but doesn't want to roll thier own.

so far so good.......2006-08-26

This system, the z558 is quite stable... the previous one I got was the HP z556 and it wasn't so stable. (It froze once in a while and let me come back 20 minutes or a few hours later so I can operate it again). This one, the z558 never gave me the problem. I can record two TV programs at a time, and even record one more over the air HDTV program. How about that!

This system includes 600GB of storage and is quite good for storing your TV shows... how about saving all the Seinfeld or Friends in the hard drive?

I think one issue I have is with the clock... it seems hard to set and then it seems like it cannot be set in Media Center... you need to quit Media Center and work with the really tiny "Date and Time" dialog box to set the time... which is quite hard to see on the HDTV. Other than that, good job, HP. This is a great product.

Ya Baby, this is awesome!.......2006-01-27

This product makes me want to invest in HP. It has an nice looking case, will fit in a equipment rack (mine in the future) it can take the place of your DVD player, your CD player your home computer, your cable box and your Tivo. It records uncompressed HD TV with the help of a HD antenna. I watched "24" recorded in HD and skipped thru the commercials with the skip fast forward on the keyboard. It has two 300 Gig hard drives one of which is removable. Not to mention the network capabilities.
I'm thinking of buying a second one to view recorded HD content on my downstairs HD set.
The only thing I would like to see is a 2nd zone audio out to listen to music on my whole house audio system. Other than that AAAAA+++++.
Best new must have.

The HP DEC is near perfect.......2006-01-11

I have a problem with some of the reviews where people focus on the hardware. The real driver for these media centers is the software. The hardware itself is more than sufficient to use as a progressive scan DVD, DVR, music player, slide show presenter and digital movie player.

Issues with performance or functionality are really limitations from the Microsoft XP Media Center OS. But the rollup 2 has really solidified the product, yet there is still room for improvments (hopefully from longhorn - next generation Windows).

The Keyboard is quite good for the use it was intended for and the Media Center Remote is the primary means by which I use the system (and it is really quite good) so I do not have any real complaint as to the human interface to the system.

Media performance for music, dvd and video is excellent, my only complaint is that the NTSC tuners in the unit do not upconvert to provide a cleaner image on HDTV's.

If the HP z558 had HDMI, cable card slot and component inputs, it would be perfect. But as is, it is a more than capable media center.

I absolutely love mine!!!.......2006-01-04

I guess I am alone here in my review because I absolutely love this device. I had a few problems with the software initially but other than that no real issues.
Setup was a breeze and it is networked with my other computers so I can listen to the music or watch my recorded TV programs on them.
I also purchased the Linksys media center extender and was amazed at what I could do with it. I could watch my recorded TV programs on my other TV and even watch the channels from my DEC on another television while watching another station on the DEC. Of course, I could listen to music and view my pictures. I am still in awe at all that I can do.
This is so much more convenient than my TiVo and no monthly fees! I highly recommend this unit. It's just too bad that it is so expensive.

Average customer rating:

Slick Looking - Components are old technology - Keyboard sucks! This is a POS...

HP z558 Digital Entertainment Center

Manufacturer: hp
ProductGroup: Personal Computer
Binding: Personal Computers

All Hewlett-Packard | Hewlett-Packard | Computers Brands | Computers Features | Electronics

Cables Unlimited 6FT HDmi Cable
Creative Labs Fatal1ty 1010 Gaming Mouse
Creative Fatal1ty 2020 Laser Gaming Mouse ( 7300000000422 )
Enhanced-ide (atapi), 2MB Buffer, Latest Burning Software
Creative Fatality Gaming Keyboard Black

Product Features:

Computer
Intel Pentium 4 processor 640 (3.2 GHz) with HT Technology and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology
1GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (expandable to 2GB)
802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi Adapter with removable antenna
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

ASIN: B000BWYXLY

Product Description

Includes: wireless Keyboard w/ Integrated trackball, remote control, DVI-D cable, S-Video cable, L/R RCA Audio cable, 2 Infrared blasters, 2 RF Coaxial Video cables, 1 Coaxial Video Splitter, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Norton AntiVirus with Update Roll-up 2 w/ 1 year subscription, WinDVD Player, & more. HP z558 Digital Entertainment Center - The z558 is a computer that has been specifically designed to integrate seamlessly with your home theater setup - without sacrificing your computing experience! It provides the best of all worlds - a powerful computer system that's powered by an Intel Pentium 4 Processor 640, a built-in PVR that provides TV viewing, pausing and recording, a DVD player and recorder, an FM tuner, and much more. Storage 300GB 7200RPM SATA 2nd 300GB 7200RPM HDD DVD SuperMulti Writer - (write) 8x DL DVD+R, 16x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R, 32x CD-RW / (read) 16x DVD-ROM & 40x CD-ROM Lightscribe Direct Disc Labeling TV & Video 2 NTSC TV Tuners 1 ATSC TV HD TV Tuner 14-Day Programming Guide NVIDIA GeForce 6600 x16 PCI Express Graphics Card with 128MB of DDR Memory Audio Intel High Definition Audio with 7.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Supports playback of MP3, AAC, WMA, & WAV files FM Tuner External Ports Rear A/V - 1 DVI-D, 1 VGA, 1 Component (YPbPr), 1 S-Video, 1 Composite, 8 RCA Audio, 1 Toslink Optical Digital, & 1 Coaxial Digital TV Inputs - 1 RF Coaxial for Standard TV, 1 RF Coaxial for Digital TV, 2 S-Video, 1 Composite, 2 Sets of RCA Front Headphone, L/R RCA & Microphone In 6 USB 2.0 (2 front) / 2 FireWire (4-pin front / 6-pin rear) Front 9-in-1 Media Card Reader - supports Secure Digital, xD, Smart Media, MultiMedia Card, Compact Flash Types I/II, Microdrive, Memory Stick, & Memory Stick Pro Monitor is not included

Customer Reviews:

Slick Looking - Components are old technology - Keyboard sucks! This is a POS..........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.

UPDATE: The processor in this POS is now 3 full "generations" behind the current Intel Dual Core technology, is HP smoking dope or something, maybe it's the people putting $2000+ into this archaic machine...

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