Customer Reviews

HP m7060n Media Center Photosmart Desktop PC (Intel Pentium 4 Processor 630 (H-T), 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, LightScribe Dbl Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Just picked the HP m7060n up today from a local electronics store (sorry amazon) and wanted to check what others thought about it. I have to say that I'm impressed so far, computer comes loaded with tons of features, including a built in TV tuner, hook ups for your cable dvd you name it, built in memory card slots, 2 firewire ports (itunes preloaded) and 6 USB 2.0 two in the front and four in the back. It has a removeable harddrive spot that the sales guy reccomended getting and saving digital pictures to, in case your computer goes, like my laptop just did. Only thing I havent liked so far is having to burn, my own system recovery disks, which was easy on the built in DVD writer, but it took 2 hours!! All in all I think its great, if you can spend a grand and not feel guilty about it, and I don't, its a good purchase. Also the sales guy said not a great computer for gaming, but thats not my thing. take it easy

I wanted a machine that

1) I could use as a PVR (personal video recorder). A PVR is basically a computer that also does TIVO type stuff without any sort of monthly subscription fee

3) would let me edit TV shows I recorded and make DVDs out of them

4) worked as a personal computer

5) let me easily connect to any of my still or video cameras

6) worked!

What I got was all of the above except a bit of the last. First, this machine does a great job recording and playing back TV shows. When I first started it up, it asked me where I lived and what sort of cable package I had. It then downloaded an accurate channel guide and I was in business. It was that easy! I was really surprised that the drive was fast enough to let me watch a recorded show while it recorded another. The programming feature is very simple point and click. If you see a show you like on the guide, just click on it and select record. There's no more of this date/time/channel crap of the old VCR days.

The software that allows me to make DVDs also allows me to export my TV files into any one of many video formats. I find this feature especially useful because I like to edit video using Adobe Premier, and these two applications share the AVI format.

In addition to Adobe Premier, I also loaded Office 2003. I'm able to do office work, burn DVDs, *and* watch TV (live or recorded) all at the same time. I had a real WOW moment when I found that out!

Note: you will need an Internet connection in order to automatically download updated channel guides. My cable provider also provides my Internet connection, and the "cable guy" had no trouble connecting both the TV cable and the cable modem to my machine.

One other thing I wish this computer could do is let me watch a live program while it records another. It's probably a tuner "feature" that only allows it to see one live show at a time.

I noted above that I wasn't fully satisfied with the "worked!" feature. This machine runs on Microsoft's Media Center (a version of XP). I also have Office 2003 loaded. All my software has the latest service packs and updates. However, my programs lock up daily (especially Outlook), and my machine crashes from time to time. For those familiar with Microsoft-based products, this probably sounds all too familiar. So far, thought, that's been my only disappointment with this product. ~Robert

I could never get this HP pc to boot even with the "assistance" of HP support. This assistance required over four hours of my time on the telephone. After the first two hours of this assistance HP sent me a recovery cd packet which took three days to arrive in the mail. It did not solve the boot problem. This required another two hours of my telephone time. HP support finally gave up and said it might be a defective hard drive. I also gave up and returned the pc as per your return policy instructions. So much for my experience with HP computers!

This is an awsome computer..bought this from a Circuit City and the guy said it was possibly the best computer for gaming as well as school work and other things... and for gaming capability, the guy said that a good ATI Radeon graphics card(Don't know the model type) would be excelent for this computer for gaming.

except for no Floppy Drive...overall, its an AwSoMe HP PC.

and by the way, I'm a 15/16 year old..really don't want to hassle with password and logging in stuff...have enough to log in to anyways.

and, whats with the Personal Media Drive Bay? I've looked through the books and doesn't say anything about it..would anyone care to explain or answer what this thing does?

I had a similar problem of the system crashing. I ordered recovery disk from HP and it kept saying that the model is not compatible.