Verdict: A 32in hdtv with a built-in media pc - if only it was as good as it sounds
There are more than a few contenders for 'most significant computing invention of the last few years' (despite the fact that I just made up the title). Dual-core CPUs, hugely powerful graphics cards, broadband and wireless networking are the obvious suggestions, but I would also add widescreen monitors. Traditional 4:3 screens come from a time when we sat at a computer and performed just one task using one application. Widescreen monitors reflect fragmented computing: they're perfect for arranging multiple applications, from columns of IM contacts to streaming video and web browsers.
While widescreens are indicative of the changing nature of computing, they're also symptomatic of the changing nature of the computer itself. A widescreen display implies a role as an entertainment machine that will displace the TV as the dominant technology through which we view the world.
TVs with built-in PCs are one result of this trend. So far, Sony has led the way. The company's VGC-V2S and VGC-VA1 both integrated a PC into the housing of a wide-aspect monitor, but both used PC-sized screens. Packard Bell's Smart TV32 takes a living room-owning 32in LCD TV and partners it with a built-in media PC.
The Smart TV32 isn't as sleekly integrated as Sony's efforts. Turn the TV over, and you can see that the PC is effectively a separate unit. You can see the motherboard's back panel, and there's even a visible wire connecting the TV to a D-SUB port, along with another wire linking the speakers to the PC's on-board audio analogue outputs.
It's disappointing that both are analogue connections, and it caused the display problems in Windows. The system didn't correctly pick up the screen's native resolution. According to the Packard Bell website, it's a 1,366 x 768 panel - making it perfect for 720p HD video - but the resolution of our review sample wouldn't go any higher than 1,280 x 768, or 1,360 x 768 if we forced it using an option in the ATi driver.
While this resolution problem meant that the screen never looked quite right in Windows, it wasn't a problem when watching TV, video and DVDs in Windows Media Center. What was a problem was the screen itself. When it comes to fast motion - sports, action scenes in movies - it's very slow. People are shadowed by their ghosts and fast pans leave dripping pixel trails in their wake. Colour reproduction wasn't good either; the screen didn't know what to do with the mines of Moria in 'The Fellowship of the Ring' DVD, adding weird greens and browns when attempting to render the different shades of darkness and gloom. Viewing angles aren't terrible, and at least the panel is bright, so it's fine for watching standard TV fare such as the news.
The speakers connected to the PC's audio output are two 10W units, built in on either side of the panel. They're great for documentaries or news programmes, and passable for movies, but they sound tinny when confronted with music. Still, while they're hooked up to an analogue connection, the Smart TV32's PC is Viiv-compatible, so it has on-board HD audio. It also has a coaxial S/PDIF output, so you can connect an external Dolby Digital decoder and surround-sound speakers - if you're paying £2,000 for a TV, decent speakers won't be out of the question.
While the screen and speakers use old analogue connections, the Smart TV32 is bang up to date as far as ports go. There's a HDMI port, useful if you have a new upscaling DVD player, along with component video input, which is ideal for a progressive scan DVD player, two SCART ports and all the usual PC-style connections, such as six USB ports (four at the back and two under flip-down panels at the front) and FireWire. There's even a parallel port, should you want to undergo the surreal experience of connecting a dot-matrix printer to your TV.
The presence of these connections goes to show that this is no custom-engineered piece of kit - it's more like a well-finished case mod. The PC is well concealed: it hugs the back of the panel and, aside from the weight factor, you'd be hard-pushed to notice it. We didn't find the system noisy during testing.
While there might be a standard PC lurking somewhere inside the Smart TV32, you won't be able to access it easily. There's no provision for upgrading, so tinkering will involve warranty-busting exploits and the removal of the entire back of the unit. The components inside will be good enough for a while though.
As it's a Viiv unit, there's a dual-core CPU, a 2.8GHz Pentium D 820 on an Intel 945PM-based motherboard and 1GB of 533MHz DDR2. Some of this memory is used to serve the graphics card, a Radeon X1300 with HyperMemory. There's a 400GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 hard disk, although this is put to shame by the recently released 750GB Barracuda 7200.10, which is used in this issue's Alienware PC. There are two Hybrid TV tuners, which receive both analogue and digital (DVB-T) transmissions, and have FM radio receivers, while a dual-layer DVD writer is hidden away at the front.
Packard Bell supplies a wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as its own custom remote. It has all the usual Media Center buttons on it, but it also contains Nintendo Wii-esque motion-sensing abilities. Hold down a button and you can wave it like a wand to move the cursor. This will come in very handy when you don't want to reach for the mouse, or just want to click to close a notification window. The receiver for these wireless peripherals is supplied as a USB dongle that plugs in at the back. There's another USB dongle, too, to provide 802.11b/g WiFi. However, it would have been better for this to be built onto the board, as USB dongles tend to be slower than integrated receivers.
PERFORMANCE
The Pentium D might be old news when it comes to performance records, but the Smart TV32 performed fairly well, considering it's a TV. We had to hook it up to an external screen to run our Media Benchmarks at the standard resolution of 1,280 x 1,024, but the Smart TV32 performed exactly as it should, scoring 0.95 overall, just a little slower than our reference PC, which uses a 3GHz Pentium D 830. It's quicker than the Mesh ViVa D805, which scored 0.84 overall. The Radeon X1300 was poor when it came to gaming, and was unable to give the Need For Speed any velocity at all.
CONCLUSION
The Smart TV32 has a few things going for it, such as dual tuners and a good spread of connections, but overall, it feels disingenuous. A TV with a built-in PC is a great idea, but the design of the Smart TV32 means that this integration offers more drawbacks than benefits. The screen can be dreadful, and although there's a standard PC on the back of it, there's no concession to user upgradability. The price is also outrageous - there's no way the Smart TV32 should cost £2,000. A quality 32in LCD TV can be bought for less than £1,000 - and the PC inside the Packard Bell isn't worth the additional £1,000.
