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(More customer reviews)I bought my unit in July, 05. Installation and configuring the unit took ALL DAY, with at least 4 hours on the phone with HP support (including working with senior support folks) just to get it functioning at a basic level. From the beginning I experienced problems. A few of the more serious ones are listed below:
1) television picture quality with my older Sony Trinitron is terrible. The support person working to help me configure the unit eventually simply said, "well, it is a DIGITAL entertainment center," when we couldn't get the picture right. Given that I have digital satellite service and the set top box provided by the satellite provider gives me a crystal clear picture on my TV before I hooked up the DEC, I was not pleased by this response. If the satellite tuner get give me a good picture, I can't see why the DEC couldn't as well. It comes with MULTIPLE tuners - none, apparently for an analog TV monitor.
2) The unit is supposed to work like a TIVO for recording broadcast programs, and allow you to do things like pause a live broadcast to answer the phone or get a snack. Well, on my unit, pausing causes the program to freeze, skip and otherwise freak out. The only cure is to turn the unit off and restart. Of course, I don't use the pause feature any more.
3) For music, this unit comes with iTunes, and also a way to list, play and organize your music that has been imported into iTunes on they're Media Center. Importing my CD's into iTunes worked perfectly well. When I view the "my music" selection in the media center, my individual albums are duplicated, with the play lists segmented among the duplicated listings. So for a given CD with 12 songs, there will be two or three entries for the CD, with one or two songs with one entry and the rest of the CD on the other.
4) Making playlists on My Music is an important feature for me. I find that while I was able to make a couple of playlists when the unit was new, I no longer can. Its not clear why, but, it is another frustration.
These are just a sample of the issues. Calling HP support, which I have had to do MANY times, is an uneven experience. Often the help is good. However, they have not been able to resolve the issues I've listed above. The complexity of the product and the issues with design and testing I'm seeing means that problems that you have with it are also complex, with many layers of related issues. Solving these kinds of problems over the phone (your only option) is extremely frustrating and often doesn't solve the problem.
Given the price of the unit and given that what this product does is to combine technology offered in the past as different products (that is, it contains proven technology) the problems I've encounted are inexcusable. This product was not ready to be put on the market. I would return the z555 and get my money back if I could. Knowing what I know now, instead of buying the DEC, I would get a Tivo and a good iPod with accessories to play my music off of my home stereo instead and save myself a ton of money and frustration.
As it is, I just feel "taken" by HP and my DEC is NOT working now. $2000.00 down the drain.
Click Here to see more reviews about: HP Digital Entertainment Center z555 - DT - 1 x P4 530J / 3 GHz - RAM 512 MB - HDD 1 x 250 GB - DVDRW (+R DL) - GF 6600 - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : 802.11b/g - Win XP MCE 2005 - Monitor : none
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 2005 w/ 60 days of free updates, WinDVD Player, & more. HP z555 Digital Entertainment Center - The z555 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 530j, a built-in PVR that provides TV viewing, pausing and recording, a DVD player and recorder, an FM tuner, and much more.Storage 250GB 7200RPM SATA Double Layer DVD Writer - (write) 2.4x DL DVD+R, 16x DVD+R, 4x DVD+RW, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R, 24x 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, & PCM 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
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