HP z555 Digital Entertainment Center

I bought my unit in July, 05. Installation and configuring the unit took ALL DAY, with at least 4 hours on the phone with HP support (including working with senior support folks) just to get it functioning at a basic level. From the beginning I experienced problems. A few of the more serious ones are listed below:

1) television picture quality with my older Sony Trinitron is terrible. The support person working to help me configure the unit eventually simply said, "well, it is a DIGITAL entertainment center," when we couldn't get the picture right. Given that I have digital satellite service and the set top box provided by the satellite provider gives me a crystal clear picture on my TV before I hooked up the DEC, I was not pleased by this response. If the satellite tuner get give me a good picture, I can't see why the DEC couldn't as well. It comes with MULTIPLE tuners none, apparently for an analog TV monitor.

2) The unit is supposed to work like a TIVO for recording broadcast programs, and allow you to do things like pause a live broadcast to answer the phone or get a snack. Well, on my unit, pausing causes the program to freeze, skip and otherwise freak out. The only cure is to turn the unit off and restart. Of course, I don't use the pause feature any more.

3) For music, this unit comes with iTunes, and also a way to list, play and organize your music that has been imported into iTunes on they're Media Center. Importing my CD's into iTunes worked perfectly well. When I view the "my music" selection in the media center, my individual albums are duplicated, with the play lists segmented among the duplicated listings. So for a given CD with 12 songs, there will be two or three entries for the CD, with one or two songs with one entry and the rest of the CD on the other.

4) Making playlists on My Music is an important feature for me. I find that while I was able to make a couple of playlists when the unit was new, I no longer can. Its not clear why, but, it is another frustration.

These are just a sample of the issues. Calling HP support, which I have had to do MANY times, is an uneven experience. Often the help is good. However, they have not been able to resolve the issues I've listed above. The complexity of the product and the issues with design and testing I'm seeing means that problems that you have with it are also complex, with many layers of related issues. Solving these kinds of problems over the phone (your only option) is extremely frustrating and often doesn't solve the problem.

Given the price of the unit and given that what this product does is to combine technology offered in the past as different products (that is, it contains proven technology) the problems I've encounted are inexcusable. This product was not ready to be put on the market. I would return the z555 and get my money back if I could. Knowing what I know now, instead of buying the DEC, I would get a Tivo and a good iPod with accessories to play my music off of my home stereo instead and save myself a ton of money and frustration.

As it is, I just feel "taken" by HP and my DEC is NOT working now. $2000.00 down the drain.

When I purchased my HP Z560 Digital Entertainment Center it was going to be where I stored all my music and video so I could access it from any computer in my house on my home network. It was going to be the computer that I used to take care of working with all my digital entertainment. What a let down! This thing does not do much of what it says. First there is a big problem with the video card and the display set up. I swear that the NVIDIA graphics card they put in this unit is incompatible with the rest of the system. I think it would be better off with a different card. They say it will work like a TIVO. It will as long as you don't try to pause the program you are watching and recording. If you do the unit will freeze up and your recording is done. Try to record from a set top or disc and it won't let you.To make a long story short and to quit raising my blood pressure about this unit again. It makes a good desktop computer although fairly slow and antiquated. Try to use it as a media center computer and you will definitely be sorry and disappointed. The personal media device you can get for the computer is kind of nice but not worth buying the computer for. Buy it seperate from HP if you want it. I can not believe that HP put something so junky and glitch ridden on the market. I paid $1600.00 for the unit and it is a POS. I beleive they should buy them back or give credit for a new computer to any one who bought one. Now I know why they pulled them off the market so quick.

Buy HP z555 Digital Entertainment Center Now

Are you ready to access all your media at the touch of a button? If you own an mp3 player, chances are you're hooked. Imagine that capability for all your movies and TV content too.

In essence, the HP Digital Entertainment Center is a PC that looks like a stereo component and hooks to your TV, your other stereo components, and your speaker system. It's intended to hold all your digitized media (movies, TV, music, and photos) and make all your content easily accessible.

I've owned the HP z552 Digital Entertainment Center PC for just over a month, and I am very pleased with this impressive PC. It's a lot of power for the money. (The z555 is a step up, with a larger hard drive and a third TV tuner that receives over-the-air HD programming.)

My HP Digital Entertainment Center is blazing fast and processes my video far better than my other PCs. I've ripped my entire DVD library onto this baby, using easy to use freeware (DVD Shrink). The movies look as good as they do off my DVDs. I've also got all my digital photos on it, and my entire music library. The photos look fantastic on my TV. We use the DVR feature to record shows while watching others, and the TV guide feature is localized to my city and works very well. I find the combo keyboard/mouse easy to use and comfortable while sitting on the couch. The DVD player/burner works well. I haven't tried the cool "Lightscribe" feature yet, but I will soon. It's a special HP technology that burns labels right onto your DVDs.

Set up was far easier than I'd expected. HP did an outstanding job with the instructions. The best I've seen anywhere. I wish my stereo components had explained things this easily. Now I understand why things are connected the way they are. Phone support is also good, and this product comes with 24x7. I had to call the first week to replace the keyboard and HP was courteous and friendly. They sent me a replacement within a few days, no questions asked.

I like how this product comes with two operating system interfaces: Microsoft XP and Microsoft Media Center Edition. That way I can use XP for my computing tasks, and Media Center for my viewing pleasure.

Keep in mind that no Media Center PCs can handle HD content through set-top boxes at this point in time. The z555 and above have over-the-air HD tuners, but that doesn't mean you can access the HD from your cable or satellite. The limitation is with the operating system, not the HP hardware.

If you want to move a lot of data around, be sure to get the HP Personal Media Drive (PMD) to go along with your Digital Entertainment Center PC. This PC has a special PMD docking bay and I just leave my 200GB PMD right in there. It adds nice extra capacity and portability.

This PC also has a 9 in 1 card reader so I can use all my various memory cards directly. It also has good front panel connectivity for games and camcorders. Of course, did I mention how nice this fits in with my stereo components? You'd never know it was a PC sitting there, connected to my TV. It looks very nice.

In short, this product is not your average PC. If you're ready to digitize your world, this is the device for you. HP didn't leave any stone unturned. This is the future!

update (Nov 29): Microsoft has some work to do on the Windows Media Center interface. It has its unstable moments. For example, if I press "standby" while in Media Center mode, the software hangs and requires a reboot. So I have to return to the XP interface to go into standby. There's definitely room for improvement.

Read Best Reviews of HP z555 Digital Entertainment Center Here

Picked one of these up the other day, mostly for the slick design and for the wireless keyboard with trackball type mouse controller. But that's all it has, is looks...

After using the keyboard, it quickly became tedious to use, since not only are the keys hard to push down, they are in a tight proximity of each other and not in the usual places, and the wireless is hit and miss, possibly because it runs at only 49MHz frequency. It will miss keys here and there, so you have to type very slooow, and check your work very often, and with passwords where you can't see what you are typing, good luck! It quickly becomes a tire... There is no number pad and the trackball mouse is skippy and lacks a scroll feature...

The processor is 2 "generations" older than the current dual core intel processors and the RAM is standard DDR instead of DDR2...

Unless HP updates the components and the keyboard, this is a terrible value and a POS.

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