Dell Studio Hybrid Blu-ray

[flyfree432]

I've spent the last week looking for an all-in-one computer option with blu-ray for our hdtv, and finally came across this great little package that I finally settled on.



224-3354 1 Studio Hybrid 140g, Intel Core2 Duo T5800, 2.0GHz, 800Mhz 2M L2 Cache
311-8833 1 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz (2 Dimm x 1GB)
467-5515 1 Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with DVI and HDMI
341-6960 1 160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
467-5514 1 7-1 Media Card Reader Enhancement w/Icon Manager
420-8660 1 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1
467-5517 1 Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
313-6922 1 BD Combo Drive(CD/DVD+/-R Bluray Read)w/ Media Accelerator Card
420-9217 1 Media Direct 4.0 W/ Blu-ray plug in
420-8152 1 Roxio Creator 10.2 Dell Edition
467-5516 1 Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
313-2198 1 No Speaker Requested
420-8085 1 Microsoft Works 9.0, English
983-3680 1 Warranty Support,Initial Year
990-0830 1 Type 3- Third Party At Home Service, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year

Product Subtotal: $649.00
Shipping and Handling: $0.00
Tax: $38.94
Product Total: $687.94

[hoogoosedmoose41]

Ive seen those they look pretty cool with the different colors etc. I wonder about the 5,400 Rpm hard drive though. do they have an option for a faster drive? I also wonder how effective they are at cooling.
Please post a review once you used it for a few weeks.

[flyfree432]

dell gives you various upgrade options, the only two upgrades I did on the basic model was the $200 BD drive and the processor. It uses considerably less power, so I'm hoping overheating isn't an issue like it is in other slimline PCs. I'll let you know how it works out. I was pretty impressed by the price.

[hoogoosedmoose41]

that is a pretty decent price... i was thinking of getting one for my mom with a basic cd or dvd drive. she has an old gateway all in one with a 13 inch monitor... im trying to talk her into getting a bigger monitor but she says what she has is fine. personally I dont know how she puts up with a computer that takes 7 minutes to boot up and only has 256mb ram on windows xp pro. that and AOL 9.1 . I think at her age she is afraid of upgrading since it took so long for her to learn what she knows now.

[katharsis]

Definitely cannot beat that price!

I am a bit worried about the 5400rpm drive and the onboard graphics card.
What's the max. resolution on it?

Might want to upgrade the ram a bit though, Vista will eat away most of this already... then again it depends what you will be doing with it.

I have an older HP Media Center PC which is mainly for watching movies and tv shows that I imported / ripped ... once this one dies (been giving me trouble for a while now) I might look into getting one of those.

Let us know how it works out for you.

[katharsis]

Originally Posted by hoogoosedmoose41

Ive seen those they look pretty cool with the different colors etc. I wonder about the 5,400 Rpm hard drive though. do they have an option for a faster drive? I also wonder how effective they are at cooling.
Please post a review once you used it for a few weeks.

You can buy the colored sleeves for like $20 and change them out whenever you want to

[Blu_Ray_Fan]

Is HD audio output through HDMI?

[flyfree432]

Originally Posted by katharsis

Definitely cannot beat that price!

I am a bit worried about the 5400rpm drive and the onboard graphics card.
What's the max. resolution on it?

Might want to upgrade the ram a bit though, Vista will eat away most of this already... then again it depends what you will be doing with it.

I have an older HP Media Center PC which is mainly for watching movies and tv shows that I imported / ripped ... once this one dies (been giving me trouble for a while now) I might look into getting one of those.

Let us know how it works out for you.

Plan on doing some upgrading on my own when I get it - will upgrade to 4 GB ram, add wireless n, and possibly swap hard drives, we'll see how it preforms first. expected ship date is next Friday so I won't get it until the end of January with ground shipping.

[flyfree432]

Originally Posted by Blu_Ray_Fan

Is HD audio output through HDMI?

yes. though i'll likely connect it to my surround system through the optical out.

[Blu_Ray_Fan]

Originally Posted by flyfree432

yes. though i'll likely connect it to my surround system through the optical out.

Does it bit-stream DTS-MA and Dolby TRUE-HD through HDMI?

[hoogoosedmoose41]

heres a 3 part review on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuUUaFHqQbY

[hendra]

No, no, no, don't buy it!

Intel X3100 video card doesn't have enough juice to play Blu-ray. It may play some Blu-ray movies but not others. At a very minimum, one should get the one with Intel 4500HD video card or better yet, ATI 3000 or 4000 series with AVIVO HD or NVidia 9000 series with PureVideo HD Technology.

[hoogoosedmoose41]

if you look at part 3 on that you can see how bad it does media center... no sale for me . not that im looking to buy another pc anyhow. I think it would be ok for word processsing or Microsoft office tasks.
the reviewer ended up returning his.

[jianhuang]

Intel Integrated Graphics is onboard video too poor.

[flyfree432]

The reviewer on youtube seemed to say that it would play 1080p video just fine. I'll use it to watch blu-ray movies, do MS office work, and use the Internet. Why would it not play some blu-ray movies?

[hendra]

Originally Posted by flyfree432

The reviewer on youtube seemed to say that it would play 1080p video just fine. I'll use it to watch blu-ray movies, do MS office work, and use the Internet. Why would it not play some blu-ray movies?

He used Apple Quicktime which is not the same as Blu-ray movies. The reason that it wouldn't play some Blu-ray movies is that not all Blu-ray movies are created equal. They have different bit-rate, different codec, different compression etc. The one with higher bit-rate and the one with a codec that is more hardware demanding may not play with your computer. Some other regular poster may be able to give you a better explanation but basically your Intel Video Card does not meet the requirement to play Blu-ray.

Download and install Cyberlink BD Advisor if you don't believe me
http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do

[flyfree432]

*sigh*, okay okay. i called dell and scaled it back to a $399 basic system (all we are using it for is internet, office, and streaming netflix to the tv). I'll keep looking out for a sale on the Sony 550.

[katharsis]

Originally Posted by hendra

Download and install Cyberlink BD Advisor if you don't believe me
http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do

Don't use that program. It is not accurate at all.

I tried it a while ago just to see what kind of recommendations it would give on my XPS... It only showed 2GB of ram instead of 4, the wrong video card and instead of quad core only a dual core!!

[katharsis]

Originally Posted by flyfree432

*sigh*, okay okay. i called dell and scaled it back to a $399 basic system (all we are using it for is internet, office, and streaming netflix to the tv). I'll keep looking out for a sale on the Sony 550.

Did you talk to Dell about this before downgrading?
I am sure they would not just advertise something like this if the PC will be completely incapable of doing so... a minor graphics card upgrade might just be necessary as the other components (although not high end) will be capable of playing BDs.

Plus you know you always have the 30 day return policy.

[hendra]

Originally Posted by katharsis

Did you talk to Dell about this before downgrading?
I am sure they would not just advertise something like this if the PC will be completely incapable of doing so... a minor graphics card upgrade might just be necessary as the other components (although not high end) will be capable of playing BDs.

Plus you know you always have the 30 day return policy.

I am not saying that his PC is completely incapable of playing Blu-ray. I am saying that he is rolling the dice when buying such PC to play Blu-ray. Intel X3100 just doesn't meet the system requirement to play Blu-ray. He may be able to play some movies but not all, depending on the disc.

And upgrading the video card is not possible with that PC. If you watch the YouTube review, there is no slot to install anything extra. Everything is built-in.