Good HTPC Value
Written: May 09 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice looking and will work with a standard definition TV.
Cons: A bit noisy.
The Bottom Line: Want a good HTPC on a budget. Find one of these if you can.
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| rbinck's Full Review: Hewlett Packard z556 (EG651AA#ABA) PC Desktop |
Introduction
The HP z556 Digital Entertainment Center started out a much higher priced item than what I paid for this one. I originally bought the z556 with the idea of being able to switch out the DVD drive for a LG combo Blu-ray HD DVD DVD burner drive. After doing that, which is pretty involved for this PC, I found out that the CPU and graphics card was just not up to the task of playing the high definition discs. I had a friend that wanted a new PC to attach to his HDTV for internet surfing and playing DVDs, so he agreed to buy the z556 from me and I essentially traded up to the HP z560. Other than the processor, RAM and hard drive the two are very similar. All of the front panel controls and connections both in the front of the unit as well as in the rear of the unit are exactly the same. The wireless keyboard and remote control is also identical.
What You Get
In the box along with the PC itself, all of the cables you would need to connect it to a HDTV was included. Also a RF splitter and a couple of short RF coax cables for connecting the OTA antenna to both the NTSC and ATSC tuners. Additionally there was a dipole FM antenna, a wireless network antenna and various interconnect cables. Of course there was manuals, the wireless keyboard/trackball, remote control. They even included two DVD-Rs and a CD-R with light scribe label for making the restore discs. Finally, there are two infrared emitters used to control connected equipment.
Setup
The PC is ready to go and needs only to be connected to a monitor or HDTV to get started. It is recommended you also hook up the antenna connections to allow complete setup of the media center software. Here it should be noted that the system is going to work the best with a HDTV that is suitable for connecting to a PC. I used my Westinghouse 42” HD monitor that allows 1920x1080 full HD resolution. 1280X720 would also be acceptable. I used the HDMI connection, but I also tested the HDMI to DVI and VGA connections as well.
PC Description
This is a pretty well powered PC with a 3.0 GHz hyperthread Intel processor that comes stock with 512 Mb of RAM. The hard drive is a 250 Gb SATA drive preloaded with Microsoft XP Media Center 2005. The DVD drive is a burner with Light Scribe capabilities. The z560 by comparison has a 3.0 GHz dual core processor with 1 Gb of RAM and a 300 Gb hard drive.
The case is a horizontal design that looks like a piece of electronic equipment and would be right at home in a cabinet with a surround amplifier, satellite tuner, etc. The front panel includes three drop down doors that allow access to front panel connections, memory card readers and a HP Personal Media drive slot. Also on the front panel is a Lighted Display and media transport buttons for control of the DVD operation. Of course all of these buttons are duplicated on the remote control as well as on the remote wireless keyboard.
Behind the lower left front door are the A/V (red-white-yellow) inputs, s-video input, Digital camera 1394 input, headphone output and microphone input. Behind the lower right front door are the four different memory card slots and two USB 2.0 connections. Behind the upper right door is a HP Personal Media Drive bay. The HP Personal Media Drives are available in various sizes up to 750 Gb and allow an easy method for expanding your storage requirements. Also the HP Personal Media Drives come with a USB cable and power supply so they can be used on any computer, so they wind up being very versatile.
On the back panel there a myriad of connections including stereo audio outputs, 7.1 audio outputs, coaxial digital audio and optical audio outputs. There is a HDMI output, VGA output and a set of component (Y-Pb-Pr) outputs for connecting to a PC monitor or HDTV. Also there is a composite video and a s-video output for connecting to a standard definition television. There are 4 USB 2.0 connections, a 1394 connection and a Ethernet connection for hard wired LAN support.
A wireless LAN antenna connection, a NTSC antenna connection, a ATSC antenna connection, a FM radio antenna connection are also provided. Finally there are two sets of SD A/V connections for input from a satellite or cable box and two infrared transmitter outputs.
Software
The HP z556 like the z560 comes with the Microsoft Media Center 2005 software installed as mentioned earlier. One of the first things that should be done is to make the recovery discs that may be used to reload the software should the hard drive need to be replaced at a later date. This requires two recordable DVDs which are furnished. The Media Center software has all of the support for both of the NTSC and ATSC tuners as well as the FM tuner, DVD player and photo viewer. It features a fairly user friendly interface that can be run via the keyboard or the remote control.
Of course all of the XP basic software is also included and any XP compatible software can be loaded and run just like any PC with the XP operating system.
One of the features that probably was a great thing in prior years is the ability of the system to control a cable box or satellite receiver. I say was because if the unit is used with a HDTV, this feature is not used due to there not being any HD video inputs to utilize with a satellite or cable box. If you are going to use the system with a standard definition TV and source box, the unit can control the source to allow for schedule recordings and running the source via the supplied remote.
Performance
The performance of the z556 ranks up there with any of the hyperthread Intel computers. There is not much more performance to be had from a hyperthread than this one. I considered upgrading the processor to a 3.4 GHz version and upgrading the graphics card, but my friend changed those plans with the offer to buy the z556 from me. The 3.4 GHz hyperthread processor would have been enough to play Blu-ray and HD DVD discs once I had made that upgrade. That is a pretty good benchmark for high performance PCs these days being able to play high definition discs.
Picture Quality
The picture quality with the PC connected to a HDTV is as good as any other OTA HDTV tuner. There is a pretty good calibration procedure that will help you set up your TV as well. I have not connected a standard TV to the z556 so I can't say what that would look like. One thing that would be better than the z560 is the ability to connect to a standard definition television that has a composite or s-video input.
Summary
The HP z556 is a very nice package, especially for the price I paid for it. The only thing I noticed that I wish to be better is the noise and unfortunately is was just a bit less capable than what I needed. It is a bit noisy for a HTPC that gets placed near a HDTV. Fortunately the CPU fan is variable and is on the low speed most of the time. Overall I'd say this is an outstanding value if you can still find one.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 430
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
rbinck
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Member: Richard Binckley
Location: Houston, Texas
Reviews written: 125
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
Retired A/V professional, likes Hawaii and Classic Cars
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