Sony VAIO VGX-XL2 Digital Living System (Intel Pentium D Processor 920, 1 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, Optical Drive)

Average customer rating: 2.5

Well... I Got What I Expected
Nothing like it. Would buy again.
Does NOT work on computer monitor
Infuriating
The good, the bad, and the ugly

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Sony VAIO VGX-XL2 Digital Living System (Intel Pentium D Processor 920, 1 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, Optical Drive)

Manufacturer: Sony IT
Product Group: Personal Computer
Binding: Personal Computers
ASIN: B000EMUI4M

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Amazon.com Product Description

Bring together your computing and entertainment worlds in one package and control it all with one remote with the Sony VAIO VGX-XL2 Digital Living System, which combines a high-end multimedia desktop PC and a 200-disc DVD/CD changer/recorder. Both are designed to fit into a home entertainment rack and the elegant silver and black casings will nicely complement the rest of your home entertainment system. With the VGX-XL2, you can manage all your downloaded digital content--such as music online stores, home movies from your camcorder, and photos from your digital camera--but it offers the added ability to easily organize, sort, and access packaged content from the CDs and DVDs that are sitting on your bookshelves.

The desktop PC portion of the VGX-XL2 is powered by Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Update Rollup 2), which provides support for Media Center Extender technology built into XBox 360 game consoles, and a robust 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium D 920 dual-core processor for powering through multiple applications simultaneously and without stress. Other PC features include 1 GB of installed DDR-2 RAM (2 GB maximum), 320 GB hard drive (with room for up to three SATA hard drives (RAID 0 ready), an NVidia GeForce 6600 video processor with 128 MB of dedicated video RAM, multi-format/dual layer DVD burner, 54g Wi-Fi LAN, built-in TV tuner, multi-format memory card reader compatible with the most popular digital camera formats, and a wide assortment of pre-loaded Sony multimedia software titles. The 200-disc changer/recorder features multiformat DVD and CD burning capability with dual-layer DVD+R support.

Multimedia Features
With the XL1 Digital Living system, you can consolidate your music library by backing up your music CDs to your hard drive to be stored along with all of your downloaded music. With the touch of a few buttons, you can automatically and sequentially record up to 200 audio CDs from the media changer to the hard drive along with available album covers and track information. You can also record a series of television show episodes to the hard drive and easily transfer them to blank DVDs stored in the changer. The system alerts you to how many discs are needed and you can burn a whole season of your favorite TV program to DVDs to take on your next road trip.

Discs inserted into the 200-disc changer/recorder are automatically detected by the PC which downloads (over a wired or wireless network) available metadata on each one, including jewel case covers and artist information. For movies, an in-depth synopsis is also downloaded in addition to the star, director, producer details and more. All of this information is easily sorted and accessed using the included wireless keyboard or remote control.

Sony's SonicStage Mastering Studio software allows you to record music off of vinyl or tapes by utilizing the Studio's 24bit/96kHz processing technology, producing crisp digital quality sound. Also included are four different effects that allow you to enhance the sounds in the original recordings or to add new effects for remixing. Sony's DVgate Plus software allows you to import video footage from several sources and edit it, giving you the freedom to create your own video masterpiece.

Desktop Basics
<ul>

Hard Drive:: This entertainment-centric desktop is loaded with a gigantic 320 GB (7200 RPM) hard drive--which is about as large as you'll find in any multimedia desktop PC.

Processor:: The 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium D 920 dual-core processor is near the top of the speed spectrum for this processor class (as of March 2006). An Intel dual-core processor delivers additional computing resources and help expand the PC's capabilities by providing higher throughput and simultaneous computing. You'll be able to perform multiple tasks such as digital rendering and gaming all while running virus scan or other background tasks seamlessly. Each core has 2 MB of L2 cache onboard (for a whopping 4 MB total), and the two cores share an 800MHz front-side bus.

A hyperthreading processor helps a PC run several demanding applications at the same time. This technology enables the processor to execute two threads (parts of a program) in parallel, boosting performance during key high-drain procedures. This results in more efficient software performance, such as faster reaction times in gaming applications, and enhanced multitasking.

Memory:: The VGX-XL2 comes with 1 GB of installed PC-4200 DDR RAM, with a very fast 533 MHz speed. This is a good start, but seems small in comparison to the capabilities of this machine. You'll want to max out the 2 GB capacity (which is a bit small for such a multimedia powerhouse) for your 3D gaming and video-editing needs.

CD/DVD Drive:: Offering the latest in DVD writing technology, the VGX-XL2's changer/recorder has a multi-format DVD/CD drive that's compatible with both DVD+ and DVD- disc formats as well as dual-layer DVD+R discs, which can store up to 8.5 GB of data. For DVD-RW discs, it has a 16x write/6x rewrite speed, while for DVD+RW discs it has a 16x write/8x rewrite speed. For dual-layer DVD+R, it has a 4x write speed. For CDs, it has a 40x write/24x rewrite speed.

The PC portion of the VGX-XL2 also includes a multi-format, dual layer DVD burner. For DVD-RW discs, it has an 8x write/6x rewrite speed, while for DVD+RW discs it has an 8x write/rewrite speed. For dual-layer DVD+R, it has a 4x write speed. For CDs, it has a 24x write/24x rewrite speed.

Keyboard, Mouse, and Accessories:: It comes with a wireless Vaio keyboard and remote control (but no mouse). It also comes with an IR blaster for controlling a cable or satellite TV box and a wireless antenna. </ul>

Video and Audio
This desktop comes installed with NVidia GeForce 6600 video/graphics card, which offers 128 MB of dedicated video RAM, which is a bit small for such a video and multimedia PC. The GeForce 6600 features Nvidia's TurboCache technology, which is designed to increase notebook performance without increasing the size or draining the battery. NVIDIA PureVideo technology delivers smooth HD video in all formats for superb picture clarity.

The integrated TV tuner features Sony's Giga Pocket MPEG2 Realtime Encoder Board with composite video/audio, S-Video, and RF coaxial (VHF/UHF) inputs. It offers a very good range of video connections, including HDMI, DVI-D (via HDMI to DVI-D adapter), and component video outputs and gold-plated composite and S-Video inputs on the front (for connecting to a digital video camcorder).

Connectivity and Expansion Slots
For expansion, the VGX-XL2 has three half-height 3.5-inch bays (two occupied), two PCI slots (one occupied), and one x16 PCI Express slot (occupied by graphics card). It also has an integrated 54g wireless LAN that's compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g networks (requires 802.11b or 802.11g compatible access point). It comes with the following external connectors: <ul>

4 USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 2 back) for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players

3 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) ports for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals (2 6-pin in rear, 1 4-pin in front)

1 microphone, 1 headphone

2 infrared transmitter out

Multi-format memory card reader on the front, compatible with Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro/Duo, CompactFlash (Type I and II), MicroDrive, SmartMedia, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital, and XD Picture Card </ul> It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port for a 10/100 Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems. The changer/recorder offers two FireWire (i.Link) ports.

Preloaded System and Software
The pre-installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Update Rollup 2) is essentially Windows XP Professional Edition with a variety of tools to help you to create, organize, and enjoy digital media ranging from music to home movies to photo slide shows. The Update Rollup 2 upgrade offers support for the Windows Media Center Extender technology built into XBox 360 game consoles, which lets you access entertainment from your Media Center PC--whether it's live and recorded TV and movies, music, photos or Online Spotlight--on any TV in the house

It also comes loaded with a bevy of Sony multimedia software: Click to DVD (DVD creation), SonicStage (digital music), Vaio Media (network file sharing), DVgate Plus (digital video), and Image Converter (for PSP transfer). Other pre-loaded software includes Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition, Quicken 2005 New User Edition, Microsoft Works 8.0 (with word processing, spreadsheet, and calendar), Norton Internet Security (with 90-day subscription), Intervideo WinDVD, Roxio DigitalMedia SE, and SpySubtract.

Dimensions and Weight
Combined, the desktop PC and 200-disc changer/recorder measure 17 x 13.8 x 19.5 inches (WxHxD) and weigh approximately 86 pounds.

What's in the Box
This VGX-XL2 package contains the desktop PC and 200-disc changer recorder components, IR remote control (with batteries), IR blaster, wireless keyboard, HDMI cable, FireWire cable, S/PDIF optical cable, HDMI/DVD-D adapter, Mini-DVD disc adapter, wireless antenna, power cords, and printed operating instructions. It is backed by a 1-year limited hardware warranty.

Product Description

Includes: remote control, wireless keyboard, HDMI cable, Firewire cable, S/PDIF optical cable, HDMI-DVI adapter, Mini DVD adapter, wireless antenna, 6 AA batteries, 2 power cords, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2, Photoshop Elements, Premiere Standard, Works 8.0, & more. Sony VAIO(R) Digital Living System - The Sony VAIO(R) Digital Living System consists enables you to easily control nearly every aspect of your home entertainment from the comfort of your sofa. It features a powerful desktop computer, with an Intel Pentium D Processor 920 (2.8 GHz), and a 200 disc CD/DVD changers. You get the ability to manage and enjoy your digital photos, audio CDs & digital music, standard & high definition TV content, movies from the Internet, DVDs, camcorder footage and much more! Double Layer DVD Writer - (write speeds) up to 4x DL DVD+R, 8x DVD-R, 8x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 24x CD-R, & 24x CD-RW NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT x16 PCI Express graphics card with 128MB of DDR SDRAM Sound Reality technology with DSD (Direct Stream Digital) support Integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi Adapter Video Outputs - HDMI, DVI-D (through HDMI to DVI-D adapter), & Component (YPbPr) Video Inputs - Gold plated Composite & 3 S-Video (1 front / 2 back) Audio Outputs - 2 S/PDIF Optical & Coaxial & Gold Plated Line Out (Left/Right) Audio Inputs - S/PDIF Optical & Gold Plated Line In (Left/Right/Front/Back) TV Tuner - Giga Pocket MPEG2 Realtime Encoder Board with 1 ATSC over-the-air High Definition tuner, Composite A/V, S-Video, Coaxial (VHF/UHF) inputs Multimedia Card Reader - Memory Stick, Memory Stick(R) PRO/Duo, Compact Flash Type I/II, SD/MMC, SmartMedia, & xD Picture Card Ports - 10/100/1000 Gigabit, 4 USB 2.0 (2 front), 3 Firewire (2 6-pin back / 1 4-pin front), Mic In, Headphone Out, 2 Infrared Transmitter Out Slots - 1 x16 PCI Express (occupied), 2 PCI (occupied) Bays - 3 3.5 half-height (1 av

Customer Reviews:

Well... I Got What I Expected.......2007-03-21

... and I am extremely satisfied with this purchase. Despite the fact that I have researched this item for almost a year, I must admit that I slowly became a bit skeptical of committing to the purchase. But after understanding that the people submitting such low ratings were victims of oversight, lack of CIS courses, and/or faulty equipment, I became more apt to make the purchase [...].

Like many of the customers, the first thing we noticed was the immensity of the size. We were afraid that it would not fit the shelves of our media stand. But in a way it did (we placed the changer on a shelf and the CPU on the top).

Hooking up the system was a breeze. Confusion reared its ugly head only when we could not understand why there was no visual through the AV receiver (which supports HDMI). After a few hours of tweaking and programming, we found that the AV receiver only needed the programming and more time to affiliate with the visual signal.

I have only 2 complaints about this system. The first one has to do with actually getting 5.1 surround sound pushed through the AV receiver (we are only getting 2.1). This complaint leads up to the second one, a manual that is more in-depth.

Overall, I am greatly satisfied with this purchase. Once again, Sony has not disappointed me.

And DVD copying on this system is possible.

Nothing like it. Would buy again........2007-03-09

Read all the reviews on this product. Did'nt want to fork out the money in case it was'nt what it was cracked up to be. It was. Controls media at 100%. Can do, what I want to do with other components pieced together, but to get a clean simple (1) component to do it all, was worth the price.
Reviews I'd read are correct, wireless keyboard is low point to XL2. You can work with it, but Sony should really upgrade it. So far, Very Pleased.

Does NOT work on computer monitor.......2007-02-21

I bought this new off Ebay to use as a computer with my 24" Sony monitor only to find it only works off a TV. I'm sadly disappointed to find out I can not use it this way. Now I have to resell it on Ebay and take the loss.

I thought this should be noted for those who want to use it for anything other than a entertainment device for their TV.

Infuriating.......2007-02-06

This system transformed my media consumption into a nightmare. Turning on TV takes about 10 minutes every time because the PC will simply not start from hibernation, even after multiple patches, workarounds and customer support intervention. Once it is on, it works fine but the ordeal is expensive and infuriating. I deeply regret the acquisition.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.......2007-01-14

I had been looking at the XL1 for a while, then heard about the XL2, so waited and bought the XL2 almost as soon as it came out, so probably overpaid for it, but it has earned its keep by taming our collection of DVDs and CDs. We have 2 small children, and no one seems to want to put the DVDs back in their cases, so they would sit in piles around the DVD player, getting scratched and knocked in the floor. I also wanted to get our CDs out of the house and reclaim the space they were taking up for other purposes, plus get them all ripped so that I could put them on my iPod and also play them anywhere in the house. Finally, we had bought a 50" plasma, and I really wanted to have a living room computer to connect to it to view family photos, listen to music, watch videos of the kids, and browse the web.

Overall, I love the unit, as it did all the things that I bought it for, but it has not been without its share of problems. My CDs are all ripped and out of the house, our DVDs are under control, and we have a screen-saver that kicks in and displays family photos at random, which is very nice. I am typing this right now via the unit using the plasma as a monitor.

I'll try to touch on some of the features and issues we've had here.

CPU
You would think that dual Pentium D 920 2.8GHz processors would make this unit pretty fast, but there are many times when I find it to be pretty sluggish. Web-response is pretty zippy, but it's really slow just after booting, which I believe is due to a myriad of background programs that run at boot time. I haven't had time to dig into what might be causing this, though I do know there is a Media Center Connect program which takes up a lot of CPU time at boot time. The other thing that bothers me is that I bought a Sanyo VPC-HD1A camera which generates MP4 hi-def videos. QuickTime, which is the only player of which I'm aware that can play this format, cannot seem to decode these videos on the XL2. In fact, the only PC in my house that is able to decode these smoothly is an HP Pavilion Media Center Edition desktop PC I have which contains a dual core AMD Athlon X2 4200+. I'm very disappointed that the XL2 can't play the HD MP4s, as I'd really like to watch them on the plasma.

DVD changer:
It's a little loud and clunky, but we put it inside the entertainment cabinet, and we don't mind it. The basic usage model for the unit is that you rip all your CDs to the hard drive just after you buy it, and then you can fill it up with your DVDs and leave them there. I'll address ripping CDs and playing DVDs separately. One other problem I've had with the DVD Changer is that sometimes the XL2 PC unit does not detect it, particularly after the main unit has crashed. To recover, I've had to power down the CPU, and then turn off the changer, wait about 15 seconds, then turn on the changer, wait until it stops whirring, then power on the CPU again. The changer seems to just go "out to lunch" if the main unit crashes. Given that it runs Windows, you can expect it to crash now and then. To be fair, this is a pretty complex device, with lots of drivers from lots of different vendors, and any one of them could be the culprit. Still, since my old CD changers and DVD players have never crashed, it shows that PC-based AV equipment has a ways to go to match the historic reliability of non-PC-based equipment. (Interestingly, my DVR/cable box is Linux based, and even it crashes and/or reboots now and then.)

Ripping CDs:
Ripping CDs is a little tedious, as it requires several steps, but overall it still beats the heck out of ripping them 1 by 1. First you have to load the CDs. Luckily, the changer does have a "speed load" feature, which can be enabled by double clicking (not too fast; hit the button for about half second, wait a second, then hit for another half second) the LOAD button. It will then take a CD, and spin to the next empty slot to accept the next CD. It will repeat this process until you wait about 10 seconds without inserting a CD, and then it will timeout. It's still tedious, but sure better than doing them 1 by 1. After the CDs are put in, the software has to first load each one, identify it, and download artwork, album name, and song titles from the internet. This takes about 20 seconds per CD. So, for example, if you put in 100 CDs, you have to wait 30 minutes before starting the ripping. Once that is complete, then you can begin ripping the CDs. Finally, once that's done, you have to eject the copied CDs. There is an "Eject Copied CDs" feature in the software, which makes this fairly easy, assuming you remember to do it right after ripping. I have forgotten to do it right away once or twice, and then I have to go back and manually eject, which is a pain. If you want to eject ALL disks, there is a "speed eject" feature similar to the "speed load". It's also good to note that Media Center will generally rip the CDs into the format that is chosen under the Media Player. So, you have to exit the Media Center, and start Media Player to choose these options before ripping, and then re-start Media Center. I personally ripped all my CDs (about 400) into "WMA lossless" format, which took up 150GB of space. That's probably overkill for most people, but I wanted to be able to import my files into iTunes to play on my iPod, and wanted to get the best possible quality. By using "lossless" format, I can be fairly sure that iTunes is making the same quality of files that it would make if it ripped the CDs itself. (I read about this trick on a forum somewhere.)

Playing DVDs:
DVDs can be loaded in the same way that CDs are loaded, so the "speed load" and "speed eject" features are just as useful. The same "20 second per disk" applies for DVDs as well. One really annoying thing about the XL2 is that it will not play a copyrighted DVD to the component outputs unless the screen resolution is set to a fairly low level (800x600, I think). This forces you to leave the XL2 in a lower resolution mode, which then affects the appearance of the Windows desktop. This is supposedly to thwart hi-quality DVD copies from being made. This can be remedied by using HDMI to connect the XL2 to the TV. If you must use the component outputs, then you can get software such as "DVD Region+CSS Free" which can allow DVD playback at the higher resolutions even on the component outputs. However, I had problems with this interfering with the automatic recognition of CDs and DVDs in the changer. I eventually found that I had to disable RegionFree before inserting the disks, and then re-enable it after the automatic detection and catlogging completed, which was a bit of a pain. RegionFree does have other nice features like skipping the FBI warnings and previews, and disabling any navigation limitations that the DVD may have. Since I switched to HDMI, I disabled RegionFree for the time being until I have more time to figure out why it messes up the recognition functions. I might also try a different brand of software to see if it improves things, since I'd still like to be able to skip the warnings and trailers.

Recording to DVD:
Ironically, though we thought this was a pretty cool feature when we were contemplating the purchase of the unit, we've never used it. You cannot copy DVD with this feature, but you can put in blank DVDs and back-up recorded TV to the DVDs if you want. Again, we've never actually used this feature, as we just don't record enough TV on the unit, and the TV that is recorded seems a bit noisy ("staticky"). For the few series that we would like to actually watch over and over, we would rather just buy them at retail, as many shows come in widescreen format and with extras, and in much higher quality.

Video outputs:
I also noticed that the XL2 seemed to have some noise on the component video outputs. With my cable box, and using the same cables, I noticed no difference in quality between component and HDMI, so I have the cable box connected via component to make room for the XL2 on the HDMI port of the TV. Still, it's disconcerting that the component ports on the XL2 are so noisy. It looks clearly like some digital noise, as I see diagonal lines across the screen, especially when using Media Center where the background is mostly blue. I should also note that, when I first hooked up HDMI to the TV, the XL2 was already powered up, and nothing came out on the TV screen. I had to power down and restart (not just reboot) the machine before the XL2 seemed to recognize that there was an HDMI cable connected. It may be best to connect the HDMI cable while the XL2 is powered down, then boot it up (that's probably what the instructions say, but who reads those? :-). Also, I would NOT recommend trying to change the video drivers to newer ones from Nvidia. I tried it, but had lots of problems, and then restored the original drivers. I think the HDMI port is an XL2-specific feature that is not present on most of other GeForce 6600 graphics cards, so it may not even be supported properly by the generic drivers that Nvidia provides.

Using the XL2 for computing on the TV:
I currently use a 1240x692 mode with my 1080i plasma (1366x768 native resolution, I believe). With the icons set to large, it's fairly readable at about 10 to 12 feet. Sony provides a tool called Liquid Surf which allows web-pages to be magnified. Optionally, you can uninstall Liquid Surf, and upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, which has a similar feature. I find I can read most things at 100%, but some sites use small print that requires 125% or 150% to read easily.

Keyboard:
I hate the keyboard. It's usable, but it barely has enough range to make it 10 to 12 feet across my living room. It also has things like Home, End, PageUp, PageDown doubled up with other keys so that you have to use the Fn key to get to them, and I find that REALLY annoying. Furthermore, it has NO media control keys!!! I guess they figured that users would just use the remote for that, but I hate having to reach for the remote if I'm already typing on the keyboard. It has a touchpad, which is nice, and works reasonably well. I'm probably biased, since I design Bluetooth keyboards, mice, remote controls, game controllers, etc., as part of my job, but I really have to wonder why they didn't go with Bluetooth for this unit. I will soon be replacing this keyboard with a Bluetooth keyboard that has an integrated pointing device.

Remote Control:
The remote works Ok, and is like most of the remotes that come with Media Center PCs. It uses infrared to communicate to the console, which is a problem for me as my XL2 sits behind my TV. Luckily, I was able to steal the USB-attached infrared receiver unit from another HP Media Center PC I have, and it works perfectly with the XL2. The USB cable was long enough to put the receiver unit below the TV where it can "see" the remote signals. Here again, Bluetooth would have been much smarter. Infrared is cheap, but given that the XL2 is positioned as a high-end product, I expect a lot more from it. The remote is not a universal remote, so it can only control the XL2, and nothing else. Hence, I use a Logitech Harmony 880 as my primary remote, as it can control my TV, my audio amp/receiver, and the XL2. I could have used Harmony 890 which has RF capability, but it was rather pricey, and I had the extra USB-attached receiver laying around unused already.

Recording TV:
Ironically, I did not buy the XL2 to record TV, even though it has the ability to watch both standard and HD TV. We do use it to record shows for our kids so that babysitters and grandparents only have to be "trained" on how to use one piece of equipment, i.e. the XL2. We put most of our other shows on a separate DVR from the cable company. The video quality of TV on the XL2 seems a little low, as they seem "noisy". DVDs look great, though, so I'm pretty sure the noise is due to a low-quality TV tuner. We have an extremely strong cable signal at our house (they even had to attenuate it a little when we got a cable modem, as it was too strong), and TV looks fine on every other device we have, so I know it's not the cable company. I imagine video would look a lot better if I used the cable company's tuner and fed composite or component video into the XL2 rather than using the XL2s tuner. I have not actually tried the XL2's ATSC (HD) tuner, since I don't have an antenna, and it has a seperate input connector which I've been too lazy too hook up. We already get HD on cable via the cable box, so I don't really need the ATSC receiver in the XL2.

Away Mode:
The XL2 is supposed to support a new mode in Media Center called "Away Mode". Per the documentation, the XL2 can only automatically wake up and record TV shows if it is in Away mode. As far as I can tell, Away mode's main benefit is that it allows the machine to wake up more quickly. It seems to be just like the "fully awake" mode, except the audio and video are disabled, so it doesn't save nearly as much power as Standby mode. Per the documentation, the XL2 supposedly can't automatically wake up from the Standby state to record TV, which I think is really odd, since I've seen HP Media Center machines which explicitly claim to be able to wake up from Standby as well as Away mode to perform scheduled recording. Away mode is entered by pressing the power button on the XL2 main unit, or by pressing the power button on the remote. At first, I could enter Away mode for a few minutes, and then could exit. However, if I left it in Away Mode for about 10 minutes or more, it would never respond thereafter until I powered it down and re-booted. There would be an orange light on the face of the main unit, indicating a suspended state, but it would not wake up unless I hit the button. Eventually, I tried looking in the BIOS, and found a setting to allow PCI devices to wake the machine. This setting was disabled. After enabling this, Away mode seemed to start working even after being in the mode for >10 minutes. Then I started having another problem. After about 20 minutes, I could wake the machine, but the video would be mostly black, with flashes of color now and then. I finally figured out that the screen-saver was kicking in while in Away mode, and somehow screwing up the graphics card. I disabled the screen-saver, and now Away Mode works as expected. I just need to find another screen saver that displays random photos that is compatible with Away mode, or else nag the maker of the screensaver I was using to fix their product to be aware of Away mode.

Power consumption:
The unit pulls about 200W when it's fully awake, and about 100W in Away mode, so Away mode is not much of a power saver. I'd prefer to leave it in Standby if it could wake up and record, but the documentation indicates it won't work. I may try it anyway to see what happens. Our power bill shot up recently, and we realized that it was probably because we now have a 500W plasma on a lot of the time, and a 200W cable company DVR, and a now a 200W Media Center PC. I had planned to use the XL2 as a server for my music and other media to other PCs in the home, but now I think I will probably by an HP MediaVault server that pulls only about 30W to do this job, and keep the XL2 powered off or in Standby. Being a designer of consumer electronics, I think it is rather irresponsible of the designers of these products not to do a better job of saving power, both for environmental reasons, and because it costs their customers a lot of money to pay for the electricity their products waste.

I've tried to capture our experiences with the major features of the XL2 here. I hope these are helpful to others considering purchasing this unit, or who have already purchased the unit but have not fine-tuned it yet. Overall, I do really like the unit, but since I'm a designer of consumer electronics products myself, there are a lot of things that I believe could have been done much better. There is an XL3 rumored to be on the way to support the Blu Ray disc format. Personally, I am a little leary of buying a hi-def DVD player until the format "war" settles down a bit, and there are more hi-def DVDs in the stores. So, for the moment I'm content with the XL2 and just standard DVDs, since they still look very good on an HDTV or EDTV.htp

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