HP Officially Announces 40g MP3 Stereo Component

jspectre writes "HP announced their new de100c "digital entertainment center." Containing a 40g drive and a built in CDRW drive it will store "up to 750 CDs of music" or 9000 tracks. You can make your own playlists and burn them out to CDR/CDRW's. All of this for $999.99. No mention of any digital management controls on the device." I totally need a review model! I saw this thing at the last LinuxWorld and it looked good, but only really playing with it for a few weeks will let me know if it's better then the audiotron that I've been using in my home system.

Kenwood Sovereign Line

[Overzeetop]

I think I'd be more likely to buy an Entre' Hub from Kenwood. It's only got a 20GB drive (you just gotta bea able to hack those things!), but it'll link up to their 400+3 CD/DVD changers and will catalog and provide an interface for your real disks as well as the cool MP3 functions. List on the Entre' is $1800 or so, but street should be about $1000.

Combine it with the Kenwood Sovereign amplifier (a bit pricey at $3k list, $2k street) and you can distribute audio via telephone jacks throughout your home and play multiple MP3s simultaneously in different locations.

Me, I'm just drooling over the 400+3 disk progessive player...

Good but some problems.

[SevenTowers]

This is from the pdf :
Write Speed Rips up to 4x (encoding MP3 compressed audio) CD-R media: up to 8x CD-RW media: up to 4x Disc finalization time: 2 minutes typical at 2X Audio Performance Encoding rate: 96 Kb/sec, 128 Kb/sec, 160 Kb/sec, 256 KB/sec Default encoding rate: 128 Kb/sec ***************** Operating temperature: 5 to 35 C (41 to 95 F) Operating humidity: 20% to 80% RH non-condensing

- First of all, the website advertises "CDRW write speed up to 8X " although the pdf clearly specifies 4x.
-The encoding rate is quite low... why didn't they include 320Kb? its a 40 gig hard drive!
-35 celsius maximum operating temperature??? ever heard of summer? It often goes over 35 where I live.
-And finally the price. Look at the components, lets give 50$ for the box and power supply, 100$ for the motherboard, 40 for the cpu, 100 for the HD, maybe 30$ for some kind of ram, 15 for some wires and 80 for the burner (8x4x32 probably, am I forgetting something? The total of that is 415... 999 anybody?

But the concept is good, just needs a little tweaking maybe.

specs

[uslinux.net]

internal storage
[definition] 40 GB IDE Ultra DMA drive

CDRW write speed
up to 8X

minimum system requirements
connection to stereo system with a receiver/amplifier via standard audio jacks, TV with composite video or S-video input|connection to internet service, router and appropriate cables for broadband connection

internet connectivity
dial-up: 56K V.90 modem

processor
Intel Pentium® II 566MHz Celeron

music library
create up to 99 play lists

internet radio
listen to worldwide internet radio stations

music storage
stores 750 CDs, 9000 tracks, 635 hours of music

--
Seems pretty cool, but at almost $1k, that seems pretty pricey for consumer electronics. And, I don't quite like how it's limited to 99 playlists. Also, a basic network interface which would grab a DHCP address (or automatically use something like 10.0.0.1) seems like it would be MUCH more useful than a modem.

Hacking time, anyone? :-)

Re:why?

[FatRatBastard]

True, but you can also put together something that looks nice (in a small form factor case: BookPC for example) that also has quality stereo/video/tv output for a lot less money.

The only kicker would be the user interface. I've seen a couple of things on Freshmeat that put a nice front end (that's TV resolution friendly) for a "media" computer. I guess it comes down to a) how much you're willing to spend and b) how much sweat you want to invest.

At close to a grand its for me its worth building my own. Once it comes down to within $50 or so of building something comparable I'd be willing to plunk my money down.

Re:why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Creative SB Live will output digital

Re:why?

[rcw-work]

The ~50Hz hum you're hearing is actually 60Hz AC. This is usually caused by a ground loop. It can be eliminated using a ground loop isolator or (more cheaply) hooking the stereo and computer to the same power strip. Removing the ground connection from the computer via a 2-prong to 3-prong adapter can also eliminate it (although you're not supposed to do that. :)