Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Today, HP updated its website to include the Pavilion Media Center m8010y with Digital Cable Tuners. This new system from HP appears to be the cheapest way to get a Digital Cable Tuner. With a base price under $1,000, the m8010y can be purchased with a DCT for an extra $400 and LGs Combo Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive for another $560. The price of the combo drive is tremendous, considering Velocity Micro sells an add-on Blu-ray drive for over $800. As another option, an HD-DVD ROM drive can be added to the system for $200. Once again a great price and almost a no-brainer for a media center. HP is offering a $150 rebate on the system along with free shipping. With the rebate, you can get a low-end media center with a Digital Cable Tuner for just over $1,700, which is by far the lowest entry point for a DCT.

There are two drawbacks on the m8010y: 1) it looks like you can only purchase one Digital Cable Tuner and the largest hard drive you can add to the system is 400 GB. I contacted HP about potentially adding a second Digital Cable Tuner and the customer support person was very confused about the product, providing little help. Overall, you can get a decent media center for about $400 less than at a boutique shop like Velocity Micro PC. I would expect you to get better service at Velocity Micro so there is a trade-off.

I am curious to see what Dell ha in store with both the XPS 410 and Alienware’s Hangar 18. Hopefully the competition will drive the prices down for a media center.