HP Enables Simple Digital Home Viewing Experience for Consumers

September 1, 2004 -- HP today announced a new line of digital entertainment products that remake the digital living room with radically simple solutions and seamlessly integrated digital video, television, music and photography.

HP’s new digital living room solutions leverage its expertise in simplifying consumer digital photography and the home office (printing and PCs) to make the consumer experience in the living room simple, personal and enjoyable. The new HP digital entertainment products offer consumers excellent image quality, ease-of-use and affordable viewing solutions. The new HP digital living room portfolio includes a range of sleek, innovative products designed to simplify, yet maximize, the consumer’s ability to enjoy watching videos or TV or listening to their music. The HP Digital Entertainment Center hub allows consumers to manage all their content from a single component; new plasma and LCD flat-panel TV’s and home theater projectors that seamlessly integrate into the living room and with PCs; and additional products that provide a number of options to enhance the viewing experience.

The Streamlined Digital Living Room
The HP Digital Entertainment Center brings high-powered PC capabilities to the entertainment rack, allowing consumers to easily capture, store and enjoy personal digital content -- music, videos or photographs -- in a living room setting. The Digital Entertainment Center combines a personal video recorder, digital video recorder, and a DVD all in one unit. Consumers can watch, record, and rewind live TV programs. The optional personal media drive allows consumers to save all of their digital content, and take it anywhere, by easily removing the drive.

The streamlined design of the entertainment hub, only four inches tall, allows it to fit into any entertainment center. This is the first device on the market with a 10-foot interface, allowing consumers to sit on a couch with a remote control and manage movies, music, and photos and the big screen.

Larger Than Life Pictures -- HP’s New Line of TVs
Leveraging its leadership in market research and innovation, HP has launched an entirely new line of stylish, affordable, and easy-to-set-up-and-integrate televisions, giving consumers spectacular viewing experiences right in the comfort of their living rooms.

Entry into the television consumer electronics space is a natural evolution for HP because of its innovation in color science and image quality. The new HP televisions provide consumers with a range of solutions that all provide spectacular picture quality and a sleek design that complements any décor, resulting in a premium viewing experience.

Leading the new television line-up is the HP 42-inch High-Definition Plasma television, with which consumers can experience the ultimate in flat-panel viewing. The crystal clear, brilliant picture images can come from virtually any video source. HP’s unique picture processing technologies combined with Direct Digital connection to HP Media Center PCs and the HP Digital Entertainment Centers provide an easy, eye-popping, big-screen home theatre experience. There is also the HP 42-inch Plasma Enhanced Definition television (EDTV), which features a bright and high-contrast plasma panel for an unforgettable viewing experience.

In addition to the Plasma televisions, HP debuts two LCD HD-Ready televisions in 26-inch and 30-inch screen size. All four new flat-panel televisions are housed in slim and stylish piano black cabinet for easy integration and installation into any décor.

Digital Viewing Made Easy -- Movie Theatre at Home
HP innovation allows consumers to turn any room into a movie theatre. In addition to producing a crystal clear picture, and stunning sound, consumers can enjoy a big-screen movie experience -- at an affordable price -- in any room in their house.

The HP ep9010 Instant Cinema Digital Projector allows consumers to convert any room in the home into a movie theatre, bypassing the hassle of the box office. This all-in-one home projector integrates a projector, DVD player and a 2.1 stereo/subwoofer sound system, which delivers the size, spine-tingling sound and visual impact of a big-screen movie in the comfort of your home.

The new compact, sleek and innovative HP Digital Projector ep7120 allows consumers to enjoy movies from the comfort of their living room. This versatile home projector can be used in combination with a DVD, VCR or game box, giving users a fully customizable home viewing experience with brilliant colors in either a standard or wide-screen format. To date, a home digital entertainment experience of this simplicity and quality has only been available in bulkier, more expensive products. The HP Digital Projector ep7120 delivers a stunning cinema experience in a sleek, easy to use digital projector at an affordable price

The HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook dv1000 includes HP’s proprietary new QuickPlay technology, which allows consumers to watch DVDs without booting up Microsoft Windows. The notebook offers consumers on-the-move access to music, video and photos. The optional HP All-In-One Media cable eliminates extra cables and easily connects your Entertainment Notebook to multiple entertainment components.

Backed by HP Total Care
To help ensure consumers have a good experience, HP offers comprehensive warranties and support programs for its digital entertainment products under the HP Total Care portfolio of services. With HP Total Care, digital entertainment consumers have a variety of ways to access help with toll-free 24/7 phone support, e-mail support with one-hour response times and a number of repair and extended service plan options available. HP has also added one-year of in-home service to its standard warranty for TVs and will provide phone support for digital projectors beyond the warranty period at no charge.

Availability and Pricing
HP’s new digital living room components will ship this fall. All products will be available at hpshopping.com and retail outlets in the U.S.. Additional information about all HP digital entertainment solutions is available at www.hp.com.

Estimated U.S. street prices are as follows (Actual price may vary):

HP HD-Ready Plasma TV $4,999
HP 42-inch Plasma TV (EDTV) $4,999
HP 30-inch HD-Ready LCD TV $3,499
HP 26-inch HD-Ready LCD TV $2,499
The HP Digital Projector ep7120 $3,000
HP ep9010 Instant Cinema Digital Projector $2,499
HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook dv1000 $1,149
HP xc2000 Notebook All-in-One Media Cable $TBD

SOURCE HP