Dr Gadget - Gadget Shop - Sony VAIO VGX-TP1E - Cylindrical - 1 x Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.66 GHz - RAM 1 GB - HDD 1 x 500 GB - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - GMA 950 - WLAN : 802.11b/g - Vista Home Premium - Intel VIIV Technology - Monitor : none

	List Price: Our Price: £579.00 Your Save: £ ( % ) Availability: Manufacturer: Sony
Average Customer Rating:
Binding: Electronics Brand: Sony EAN: 4905524452556 Label: Sony Manufacturer: Sony Platform: Windows Vista Home Premium Publisher: Sony Studio: Sony
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Advanced Prototype Comment: Let's look at some reasons to buy this unit: - looks real nice. - practical. Fits equally well inside or on top of a Hi Fi cabinet - IR remote and RF keyboard mouse make working from 3 meters away a possibility - Good hard drive capacity of 500 GB is above average - Priced competitively for a Media Center I don't believe, however, that either the Vista Media Center software or the specific media center PC are ready for an average living room just yet. Why? - Issues with screen resolution on LCD TV via HDMI. After hours on the phone with technical support could not get the unit to display on the entire screen of my Toshiba 32WLT66 (best-selling LCD TV) - left it using about 90% of the screen - Poor performance. Very slow as tested with its standard 1 GB of RAM. Loading Media Center interface takes 30 seconds. Displaying video or photo thumbnails takes about 1 minute - Touchpad is unstable. Works well most of the time but then the curser just runs away from you. - Recording TV is a frustration. Will work well only with an external antenna into RF port. Even though has an AV-in port isn't designed to work with it without an extra IR-blaster (none included and none recommended). This makes recording from Sky or a VCR only possible through the RF-in port - hence difficult set-up and poor recording quality - Issues with the remote control. Periodically stops responding to the remote control. Had it replaced once, the PC itself had been for service once. First fix came in changing a default hibernation setting. Even after that it periodically stops responding to the remote control even though it appears to recognize the IR signal (front panel lights up). Needs a hard re-boot with a power cord unplugged for 30 seconds. - Issues with LCD TV connection via HDMI. Periodically when coming out of stand-by wouldn't display out. Needs a re-boot. - Numerous software defects. My most frustrating is inability to display a slideshow sorted by "Date Taken" - it only does it by "Date Modified" which then upsets the timeline after any editing, e.g. red-eye reduction As a summary: nice idea poorly implemented. Imagine buying a DVD player and facing all these issues. Recommended only for PC enthusiasts with lots of spare time. Customer Rating: Summary: Useless. Absolutely Useless Comment: I had to exchange the first one as this did not even start. Sound and HDMI connection does not work the second one. Sony have refused to exchange it. Vaio helpline v. nice but not very helpful. Complaints line just insulting. I am now stuck with £700 computer that does not work. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. Customer Rating: Summary: Problems with the TP1E are now solved and I love it. Comment: Like Gavin I initially had problems with the remote dying and like Gavin Sony couldn't help me fix it. They sent me a new remote - which I knew wasn't going to help and it didn't. But a week or two later it came back to life - maybe another update or maybe I did something? Anyway its been fine since. I'm not certain but it may as simple as how you start Windows Media Centre - if you start it from the Windows menu using the keyboard it won't recognise the remote but if you shut it down and restart it by pressing the remote button it comes up fine. Anyway its in the past as a problem for me. I love the EPG and recording facilities, the series record options are fantastic. I am amazed at the simple way you can manage scheduling recordings and how it organises them afterwards. Its the attention to detail I like, for example it shows a snapshot for each programme it has recorded but because the recording usually starts before the program it samples the recording about ten minutes in so its always a relevant picture. The music facilities are also excellent allowing slideshows of photographs with music and so on. Windows Movie Maker also allows you to edit out adverts and convert files to other formats etc.. quite easily. Its transformed my living room and viewing habits! I would give it Five stars but it only has one tuner and it doesn't have Blu-Ray. Thats a bit unfair as I knew that when I bought it but it would be a total joy with those two features added. Customer Rating: Summary: Does its job very satisfactorily Comment: I expected to see some fair and balanced reviews for this machine, and was surprised to see only one from a user in 'Europe' I got this machine for Christmas. Intention: plugging into my 37 inch LCD in the bedroom, ability to record TV, browse internet and get rid of bulky(ish) DVD player. The Vaio has done these 3 things perfectly. To start with the setup was a breeze. All software is of course preinstalled and plugging the hardware in was a doddle. Due to the HDMI connector, the audio lead has now been eliminated too which is a bonus. Time taken to plug in / clear up, around 15 minutes. The Windows Media Centre interface is very slick and easy to use. Channel browsing and TV guide has been improved 100's of times over compared to the TV's built in software. WMC offers many more options and planning ahead / recording shows is a joy to do. Browsing the internet from the laziness and comfort of my bed on a large screen is another great joy. No more laptop or PDA required in bedroom. Downsides: The remote control did 'die' after Windows updated itself. I haven't been able to bring it back to life yet, but I'm not completely fussed because the keyboard is a very good substitute. (although I haven't given up on it) The 'mouse' or finger pad on the keyboard can be a little erratic and can require coaxing to point properly. I've never liked these controls even on all my old laptops, so it could just be me and the way I use them. Windows is Windows, and prone to the same old quirks. No more or no less than a desktop PC. The product is a little over priced really for what it offers in terms of hardware. I can't help thinking Sony could have snuck in a blu-ray player for no extra cost... Overall I am very happy with the product. I'm guessing the previous reviewer is a developer, or is not using this PC in the haven of his own bedroom. To give 1 star is extremely harsh and suggests the product was not used as intended. Also, not sure what this bloatware is and finally the machine runs perfectly well with 1gb of ram (although this is easily and cheaply upgradable to 2) Customer Rating: Summary: Dont buy this machine! Comment: I and a colleague have had a really painful experience with this machine. Firstly sony installed far to much shovelware/bloatware with the pre install. secondly and more importantly this machine will not work once you have installed the latest and recommended updates from windowsupdate Basically the remote control does not work once you have installed the latest cumulative update. There is a problem with the driver - something that SONY have not been able to fix despite opening a support call with them. To say dont install the update is crap - you should install all recommended and important OS updates. Sony need to troubleshoot this problem and resolve the issue - everyone who chooses to install all the latest windows updates (which they should) will have a media centre PC that does not have a working remote control! USELESS Other than that the PC is OK - needs to 2gb of RAM to run properly though... More Reviews
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