Sony Vaio VGC-RA304 Review

[Jeremy Charette]

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1900

"Over the past year or so we’ve looked at a fair number of media PCs at TR, enough to show that the there is some belief in the concept; if not quite the huge take-up that some in the industry had hoped for. Most of these systems have been based on Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, but it's dissapointing that Dell, the world’s largest PC company, still doesn’t offer any MCE 2005 systems at all. Not surprisingly, Sony, a brand virtually synonymous with AV, offers media PCs, but it also doesn’t use MCE 2005. But then, if there’s one company that likes to furrow its own path it’s Sony. Unlike the all-in-one media PC Sony system we looked at here, this is a tower system that ships without a monitor, but if you want one included, Sony will no doubt be happy to sell you one."



Oy. As usual, Sony makes outstanding hardware, then cripples it with it's proprietary software and formats. Why couldn't they just use Windows XP MCE and give people what they want? As it is, this great PC, with some pretty promising possibilities, turns out to be nothing more than expensive dud.

[Jeremy Charette]

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1900

"Over the past year or so we’ve looked at a fair number of media PCs at TR, enough to show that the there is some belief in the concept; if not quite the huge take-up that some in the industry had hoped for. Most of these systems have been based on Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, but it's dissapointing that Dell, the world’s largest PC company, still doesn’t offer any MCE 2005 systems at all. Not surprisingly, Sony, a brand virtually synonymous with AV, offers media PCs, but it also doesn’t use MCE 2005. But then, if there’s one company that likes to furrow its own path it’s Sony. Unlike the all-in-one media PC Sony system we looked at here, this is a tower system that ships without a monitor, but if you want one included, Sony will no doubt be happy to sell you one."



Oy. As usual, Sony makes outstanding hardware, then cripples it with it's proprietary software and formats. Why couldn't they just use Windows XP MCE and give people what they want? As it is, this great PC, with some pretty promising possibilities, turns out to be nothing more than expensive dud.

[jmulder]

I think Sony is always looking for "licensable" technologies. The problem is that they try to do it by supplanting an already existing standard.

They produce their own proprietary system in wild hope that the world will flock to it (forsaking all others) and they can charge the world licensing fees for their answer to a question nobody asked.

What I don't understand is why they keep trying it? It hasn't worked the last few times (Atrac3, MemoryStick, etc.). Isn't the definition of insanity doing the sme thing over and over and expecting different results?

[Jeremy Charette]

Well said, and exactly what I was thinking.

[sojourner753]

Dell is shipping some machines with MCE. Actually, a co-worker and I was looking at laptops that came installed with MCE. They came with the option of purchasing a USB tuner.

I would imagine that if they're selling laptops with MCE, then they might also be selling desktops.