Product Description

HP Pavilion Media Center TV M7690N PC Take your digital entertainment to a new level. Enjoy live and recorded TV, DVDs, music and photos on your home theater system. Access the Online Spotlight portal for video and music on demand services, news, entertainment and much more. And control it all from across the room with the wireless HP Media Center remote. This desktop is ready for the Vista Premium operating system, the next generation of Microsoft Windows. The Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 processor, 2048MB of advanced DDR2 memory, dual 250GB SATA hard drives and a fast 1066MHz front side bus team up to deliver ultra high speed computing. The Core 2 Duo features two execution cores in one physical processor, allowing the platform to do more in less time while enjoying smooth interaction with your PC. Both you and this processor will be able to multi task effortlessly. The HD/DVD player gives you movie playback with up to six times better resolution and better audio capability than standard DVD. The nVIDIA PureVideo HD graphics card with DVI delivers the ultimate high definition movie experience on your PC. Sonic DigitalMedia Plus makes it easy and intuitive to back up your pictures, videos, and music onto discs for safekeeping. You can also use this SuperMulti drive to burn DVD RAM discs specially formatted DVDs that let you drag and drop, write and rewrite your files up to 100,000 times. Unlock an amazing new world of digital entertainment in the home. Viiv merges PC and consumer electronics, providing endless entertainment options accessible through the Internet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5246 in Personal Computers
• Brand: Hewlett-Packard
• Model: M7690N
• Dimensions: 15.16" h x 16.54" w x 7.60" l,
• Hard Disk: 500GB

Features

• Media Center TV/PC
• Intel Viiv Technology w/Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400
• Watch, Record and Pause Live TV
• Wireless Keyboard and Mouse/Bluetooth USB Dongle
• 42 Lbs. /WxLxH/ 16.54 in x 7.6 in x 15.16 in

Customer Reviews

Terrible Customer Service
"I want to know who to talk to about replacing a part."

"I'm in customer service, so I can't help you."


You'd think HP had enough federal legal problems without alienating its customers, but the exchange above actually occurred with an HP representative. PLEASE NOTE: This review is only about HP "Customer Service," but you may find it instructive as you consider buying any HP computer system. Of course, not everyone will have the terrible experience we have, but there's a systemic problem here in that the elements of HP customer supporter have inadequate training, limited authority, or some combination of both.

I'll try to make very long story short. We purchased the M7960y (similar to this model) with the HP "IDOS Subwoofer," that comes as an extra feature. Rather than deep tones, it produced a loud buzz. We tried the diagnostics on the HP computer, as well as from WIndows, and there was no clear fix.

Enter the first of four or more calls (taking approximately 10-12 hours) to Tech. Support. When it finally became clear that they could not resolve the problem, we asked about getting a replacement subwoofer. We were told that they did not have the authority to do this, but instead to call "HP Shopping." Surprise! The HP Shopping Rep. said that he was unable to get the needed records to ship a replacement, and that we therefore needed to call Tech. Support. So, we're caught in the following loop (programmers may appreciate this):

Tech. Support says call HP Shopping.
HP Shopping says call Tech. Support.

This happened several times over. When I reached customer service, the bizarre exchange recorded above occurred. Finally, I reached a supervisor at Customer Service, who was appropriately apologetic. We had the following choice: We could either have a "Case Monitor" assigned to resolve the problem, or we could receive a $40 refund for the entire speaker system (and, to their credit, we could just keep the speakers, including the non-functioning subwoofer) We could NOT exchange the subwoofer for another subwoofer, without exchanging the entire computer for a new computer. We could not apply the $40 for the same subwoofer, since that was not available to consumers. There is an HP 3-speaker system that sells for $60.

Bottom line: Ask the HP salesperson (if you order through one) EXACTLY how one gets a replacement part if one should need one during the warranty period, and get names and telephone numbers, and try it out. You might even try calling tech. support and, if possible (they will probably ask you to verify your purchase) compare the wait time, number of transfers, etc. with those of another computer brand. You're spending a lot of money for your computer, and before you buy, and--even more relevant for this review--before you purchase an extended service plan, try to determine if customer support is as good as the computer you;re buying.

Great computer
I am an engineer and this is one of the best computer I have owned. Mind you that this was replcing an old Pentium 4 so I am used to a slow computer. The new PC is very fast. I do play the ocasional game on the PC and the combination of the Core 2 Duo and Nvidia Geforce 7600 make for a darn nice gaming playform. Playing Doom 3 at 1600x1200 with 4xAA worked great.
The best part is that I am runing Windows Vista whit Windows Center. After I hooked the PC up to my TV cable I can watch and record movies just like TiVo. I can wirelessly stream movies from the PC (both standard and high def) to my XBOX 360 and watch them on my livingroom TV. All in all I really like. I would also say this PC is overkill for somebody just looking to surf the web and do some word processing.

good
overall its good. one thing is, this pc is suppose to play HD movies and when i received the package from amazon its came with a HD dvd movie and the software in the pc cannot play this movie and if i want to see it, i have to pay for the software upgrade.