Ordinary Gweilo

A few months ago I looked at HP’s Media Centre PC and was completely underwhelmed by the quality of the TV picture.  Admittedly this was in Fortress, but even allowing for that it didn’t seem at all promising.

Now Windows XP Media Edition has been officially launched in Hong Kong, and there are a wider range of PCs that want to sit in your living room and take the place of the TV. 

Fujitsu has a 32" model that looks absolutely stunning (and so it should for HK$28,800).  The picture quality on the video clip was excellent (though it seems to have the typical problem that LCD screens have with anything fast-moving) and it certainly appears to function as a normal PC – perfect for anyone who wants a really, really, large Excel spreadsheet (though you can already do this with an ordinary PC and a large monitor). 

A local company with the enigmatic name of Shooting have a range of PCs that are styled to look like DVD players.  If you’ve ever wanted a DVD recorder that takes five minutes to boot up then it should be just the job.

I’m not totally sure that the world is ready for a PC that is also a TV, but maybe there’s a market for them if the price is right.  Which I reckon means less than HK$10k rather than nearly three times as much.  Still, the Fujitsu one does look very nice.