HP HAS been trying to launch an "entertainment center" platform since 2000. Someone call Carly and tell her it's time to shoot the dog.
Its first attempt launched in 2001 was a Linux-based device dedicated to playing music, hooked into an HP-proprietary "walled garden" for content and listed out at $1000 for a Celeron-based boxed with a 40 GB drive. Compaq had a competing device around the same price, but nobody in their right minds was going to burn $1000 for a castrated PC stuffed into a stereo box.
Round two was launched in December 2004, with HP's Digital Entertainment Center. The new version is now built around Windows Media Center, rolls in a digital video recorder and up to two TV tuners, 802.11g, a wireless keyboard, lots of slots for flash media, a Pentium 4 processor, and a DVD-burner. List price on the entry-level box is $1500 and includes a 160GB drive.
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