HP Media Center M370N Photosmart PC Review

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All Modern Conveniences

Oh, that HP, coddling consumers like we're big babies. We're perfectly capable of installing a TV tuner or ATI All-in-Wonder card to turn our desktop PC into an entertainment center ... but it is kind of nice to have it all done for us by Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, with simple, attractive menus easily operated by a few buttons on a remote control.

Though not rocket scientists, we know how to connect a USB cable and AC adapter, thanks very much ... although it's handy to just plop a digital camera into a dock to take care of image transfer and battery-recharging, or to have the dock itself docked atop the PC where it doesn't take any more desk space and keeps cables tidy.

We don't mind reaching a few inches to push the button ejecting or retracting our DVD or CD drive ... but having eject buttons right on the wireless keyboard, next to the multimedia and audio controls? Well, if you insist. But we don't need any of this luxury stuff, you understand. The next thing you know, they'll be inventing a graphical interface to save us the trouble of typing DOS commands.

The M370N Photosmart PC, bottom of the line of HP's holiday-2003 Media Center PC lineup, is a seductive example of coddling convergence. At $1,425 without monitor ($1,505 counting the optional dock for HP's Photosmart 435, 635, 735, or 935 digital cameras), it's a few hundred bucks more than your average desktop. But it's better designed, with a handsome, home-electronics-style case featuring front-mounted photo, video, music, and TV buttons as well as four flash-memory-card slots; S-Video, composite, and left and right audio inputs; and headphone, microphone, IEEE 1394, and two USB 2.0 ports.

It's better equipped, with Intel's 2.8GHz (800MHz bus) Hyper-Threading Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of DDR333 memory, hefty 160GB hard disk, DVD+RW and CD-ROM drives, and 50-watt Altec Lansing 221 three-piece speaker set; gamers will wish for a faster graphics card, but the provided 128MB ATI Radeon 9200 is no disgrace. The HP is noticeably quieter than most desktop PCs, too.

And it's got Microsoft's latest version of Windows XP Media Center Edition, for TiVo-style TV viewing, instant-replaying, and recording, as well as FM radio listening and digital video- or photo-slide-show-viewing, with HP providing first-class additional software for image- and video-editing and -managing. The feature that keeps this from being a five-star review -- Media Center Edition's refusal to let you watch your saved TV shows on your TV, rather than solely on the PC -- is Microsoft's fault, not HP's.

The M370N is a great general-purpose PC and marvelous multimedia hub for families or gadget buffs looking to enjoy and manage their digital camera, camcorder, and personal-video-recorder pastimes. It's almost enough to hypnotize us into going along with the commercials about how digital photography is best with an HP camera and HP computer and HP printer.

All the Extras

Strictly speaking, the M370N is priced at $1,350 and comes with a conventional keyboard and mouse; HP's wireless combo is a $75 option, just as the Photosmart 8886 camera dock to fill that niche on top of the case is $80. Our test unit also came with the Photosmart 935 5.3-megapixel camera with 3X optical zoom ($350) and HP's F1703 LCD monitor ($500 after a $50 mail-in rebate).

The wireless keyboard and optical mouse give the system a second USB-plugged receiver to accompany the infared one used for the Media Center remote, but they're smooth and comfortable controls. The keyboard offers not only the abovementioned eject buttons but record/stop/play-pause/previous/next media buttons, plus an audio volume dial, mute and system-standby keys, and quick-launch keys for browsing, e-mail, Web sites ranging from ESPN.com to TurboTax and HP's help center, and Windows' My Pictures, My Videos, and My Music folders. If you'd like to get the wireless duo as standard equipment, as well as stepping up to a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 chip, GeForce FX 5200 card, and 200-watt Klipsch 2.1 speaker system, the M380N Photosmart PC is $1,600.

The F1703 is a 17-inch flat panel -- analog VGA input only, making it a match for the DVI-less Radeon 9200 card -- offering 1,280 by 1,024 resolution with either the usual 60Hz or an extra-sharp 75Hz refresh rate and an 0.264mm pixel pitch. We liked the 12.1-pound, 40-watt monitor's sharpness and contrast, and especially liked its smooth, dual-hinged stand that offers flexible height adjustment while keeping the display less than 9 inches deep, but judged the screen a little dark for our tastes (it's rated at a mediocre 250 nits of brightness).

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