But the Digital Media Center's strengths don't extend into its audio quality.
By CHRISTOPHER AVE
Published June 23, 2003
There are many things you can do with a computer that don't require super fast processors, massive hard drives and loads of memory - e-mail, word processing and even basic photo editing among them. But when it comes to working with video and audio, more really is more.
To edit a video on a PC and burn it to DVD, or to record the latest reality TV show, you need a powerful piece of machinery.
With that in mind, I tested one of a new generation of whiz-bang computers designed for video and audio applications, a ViewSonic NextVision M2000 Digital Media Center, which came with a ViewSonic VX900 LCD monitor. Together they sell for about $1,800. To replicate a real buyer's experience, I was to assemble and use the machine without any assistance other than the manuals and online help.
The large, well-packed boxes arrived forthwith, and soon I was unpacking and setting up the most powerful personal computer I had ever seen.
Getting going
The computer itself, ViewSonic's first consumer PC, is a sleek silver and black design featuring a cool blue "on" light and, more important, more than a dozen inputs for digital video, audio and other data. The user guide is clearly written, although beginners probably would prefer more detail.
A black, wireless keyboard keeps the hip quotient high. The only mouse included is built into the keyboard, which takes some getting used to. It even comes with a remote control. Unfortunately, beverage service is not included.
Under the hood you'll find a 2.86-gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 processor with 512 megabytes of random access memory. Translation: This baby is fast.
And it's got the storage capacity to match. Its 160-gigabyte hard drive is big enough to record 140 hours of television at a low-quality setting, in the unlikely event anyone would want to do that.
But just as I was salivating over such power, I opened the manual for the 19-inch monitor. Although perusing the different languages was fun - instructions are included in Russian, Portuguese and Arabic, among others - the English part was too cryptic. And it avoided one crucial detail: How to hook up the computer's sound card to the monitor's builtin speakers.
I looked at the instructions, which include a stylized sketch of the proper connections, but there was no indication of which of the included dozen-plus cords I should use to make the match.
Despite the unhelpful manual, I finally found the answer: a Y-cord, with the single-line end going into the monitor and the two-line end going into the computer.
With that, I plunged ahead.
Video heaven
I started by transferring some video I had shot over the past year with my Panasonic miniDV camera into the computer. ViewSonic includes a simple DVD authoring software called MyDVD, but I wanted to really push the computer with a more complex video editor. So I used Pinnacle's excellent Studio Version 8 software. (See accompanying review.)
With a lesser computer and a smaller hard drive, I would have chosen to "capture" the video (that is, move it from the camera into the computer) on a reduced quality setting, to save disk space. But there was no such worry with ViewSonic's massive hard drive, so I sent nearly three hours of home video footage there, via the computer's handy front-panel FireWire port.
The footage flowed in almost flawlessly, losing just a handful of frames in the process. And the monitor's sharp, bright display really enhanced the editing experience. In fact, I have it set up next to my 4-year-old CRT monitor, and there's no comparison between them. Which shouldn't be surprising, given ViewSonic's history of producing of high-end monitors.
Editing the video required lots of starts, stops and "rewinds" of the digital images and sound. The computer handled all of it with nary a complaint, only freezing once. But it paused rather than died; after a few minutes, the computer had settled itself down and my editing continued unabated.
The computer also comes with the ability to watch and record television. It was as simple as running the supplied Ethernet cable from the computer to my cable modem, then clicking on the computer's Media Center icon, which is part of Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center operating system that came with the PC.
ViewSonic markets the computer's TV features as a way to avoid having to purchase separate hardware to watch, store and edit television signals. (See accompanying reviews.) And there is a benefit to having it already installed and configured: You avoid a lot of messing around with cables and such.
I remain dubious about how popular watching TV while sitting at your computer desk will become. But I must admit that my inner nerd was smiling broadly as Bay News 9 broadcast from that beautiful computer monitor.
Shortcomings of sound
So I had no complaints about the computer's ability to project and edit video. But what about sound?
Here's where the ViewSonic package doesn't quite measure up to its "Digital Media Center" moniker. The sound card in the computer didn't sound particularly stunning to me. Now that's not a big deal; most computer's stock sound cards don't, prompting many computer audiophiles to invest in a better sound card, with improved digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters.
But the ViewSonic's back panel has no space for a sound card, only the connections for the card that is built into the motherboard. Without ripping up the back panel, it's impossible to install a better sound card. This will surely disappoint those users who value what they hear as well as what they see.
Still, the computer offers multiple audio connections. So you can bypass the small, tinny sounding speakers in the monitor and plug right into your stereo. You still have to rely on the stock sound card's digital-to-analog audio conversion, but your music will sound much better on your stereo than on the computer speakers.
And, if you are a musician who records at home, you might just have a stand-alone device that converts analog audio to digital. In that case, you could bypass the computer's converters when recording audio, using its digital audio input to get the sound file onto the hard drive.
Still, the lack of a professional quality sound card, or at least the ability to easily install one, prevents this computer system from offering users the ultimate digital experience.
But if you are more concerned with video, games, photos and other visual uses, the ViewSonic would be hard to beat.
- Christopher Ave is the Times' Clearwater city editor. He can be reached at cave@sptimes.com
