With the highly anticipated Apple TV being a bit of a let down, there is still plenty of room left in the PVR market for a nice sleek looking device. And although I am far from a Sony fanboy, I do have to say that their VAIO VGX-TP1DT does look pretty damn nice.The unit is made up of what can only be described as cylinders – the top unit is the actual PC while the bottom unit is the digital tuner. It's an interesting concept, especially if Sony decides to start releasing peripherals in the same form factor (maybe something like external hard drives or a Blu-ray drive).
The VAIO VGX-TP1DT can stream hi-def broadcasts over Ethernet or WiFi for both viewing and recording at up to 1080i. As far as specs go, the PC runs Windows Vista Home Premium with a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo and sports 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD drive and a terrestrial tuner. It also has HDMI, analog RGB and optical digital outputs.
The system is expected to go on sale in Japan at some point soon for about $1661 USD. Although it is quite a bit more expensive than the Apple TV, it is still sleek looking and it can be used to record TV out of the box.
Via Engadget
