Reviews: Home entertainment face-off

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By PC World Editors

(IDG) -- Don't look now, but your PC is trying to replace your TV and stereo system.

And new devices for your living room are horning in on your PC's turf.

Compaq has a stereo component that plays MP3s. ATI and Matrox sell graphics cards that perform TiVo-style digital video recording of TV programs.

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What's going on here? It's a trend called convergence, in which the lines between PC and consumer electronics blur: PCs integrate capabilities developed in consumer electronics devices and vice versa. Thankfully, these new products are far removed from the false starts and flops (anyone still own an Audrey?) that marked past convergence attempts.

But convergence can just as easily mean duplication and confusion. Do you really need an MP3 stereo component if your PC works great as a digital music center? You might if you want to port your digital music to the living room stereo. Is the convenience of a dedicated digital video recorder (DVR) worth the cost when your PC can do the job with a simple upgrade?

To help you get a handle on your choices, we've assembled a collection of DVRs, MP3 components, and portable DVD players. We looked at stand-alone consumer devices and at PC upgrades and enhancements, then we pared our list down to the best choices on each side for a winner-take-all showdown. When the dust finally settled we had our winners: the best DVR, home digital audio, and portable DVD devices around.

We also produced short reviews of the digital video recording and living room digital audio devices that didn't make the final cut.

1. The PC vs. digital video recorders: That rattling sound coming from your entertainment center could be your VCR shaking in its boots. Digital video recorders designed to replace videotape with a hard drive are becoming more affordable and popular.

They offer better recording quality and more storage space (up to 35 hours), and they allow you to record an entire season of show episodes with just a couple of clicks of the remote. Meanwhile, PC video cards increasingly have the ability to record video as well, and video card vendors are bundling software that can let you record TV programs and play them back at your convenience.

2. The PC vs. living room digital audio: The late, great Napster -- still set for a return as a pay service in 2002 -- boosted both our music collections and our collective consciousness of MP3s. In turn, interest in digital audio has skyrocketed, prompting a host of products that try to provide a digital complement to a standard home audio system. After all, what good is 20GB of digitally stored music if you can't listen to it in your living room or den?

3. The (notebook) PC vs. portable DVD player: Eyeing increasing demand for DVD-ROM drives on notebooks, consumer electronics companies began offering Discman-size portable DVD video players (no more than half as big as a typical notebook), with top-end models as expensive as some notebook PCs and budget entries costing as little as tabletop DVD players.

4. The PC vs. Xbox?: A game console in PC-component clothing, Microsoft's Xbox adds another layer to the PC vs consumer electronics battle. The new $300 game console is built around a 733-MHz Pentium III processor, an ethernet port for broadband access, and audio and video systems designed by NVidia. It even uses Microsoft's own DirectX 8 API, making it easy for PC and Xbox games to jump from one system to the other. Microsoft has made it clear that Xbox is a games machine, so don't expect it to replace budget PCs yet. But add a GeForce3-based graphics board to your computer, and you'll have a similar system. So which option is for you? Head to "Microsoft Delays Xbox One Week" for a deeper look at the Xbox. (The Xbox is expected to be released November 15 during Comdex 2001.)

5. Digital video recording products that missed the cut: The Sony Digital Network Recorder SVR2000 is a TiVo-based device designed for use with conventional cable TV systems (Sony also has a version with a built-in DirectTV satellite receiver). Installation was a breeze: The unit went through its setup process to control our digital cable box without problems, and it explained every step along the way. The only minor annoyance: After the unit had called TiVo to download the list of TV programs, it took 6 hours to index them (other devices performed this task in just a few minutes).

6. Living room digital audio products that missed the cut: Keeping a sizable collection of CDs organized can take a lot of time. That's what makes Compaq's IPaq Music Center -- which stores all of your music on an internal 20GB hard disk drive -- a music lover's nirvana. Imagine being able to remove your favorite CDs from their case just once yet still being able to play any album -- or even a specific track -- on demand with the click of a button.