"Danny Deger" wrote in message
...
I am seriously thinking about buying a Sony desktop from Tiger Direct for
$899. It is marketed as an entry video machine.


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ls.asp?sku=S16
7-3152%20P

I couldn't come close to buying the components and putting a machine
together for this price. But, I am concern about its video "card" which
is:
"64MB Intel 845G Integrated Graphics [shared]" and its DVD-RW burner.

First, it doesn't have a DVI output. I have a DVI monitor and a DVI cable
that I plan to use. If I go to analog VGA, will I loose much?

Second, is the built in "shared" video OK in the long run. I have been
told
to watch for built in video, it typically doesn't have anywhere close to
the
power of a dedicated card.

Third, the machine doesn't have an AGP slot for a video card is I don't
like
the lack of DVI and current video performance. It only has PCI slots. I
current have a Radeon 7000 PCI on an older machine, that works OK. But I
don't do video processing and games? Will PCI only video card be a
problem
for video and games? I don't plan on doing sophisticated video
processing.
Taking my digital camcorder video to a DVD is about all I need to do. I
don't need superb video performance, but don't want to be stuck with a dog
if PCI is a dog.

Fourth, I have an Emerson DVD player. Is there anyway to check
compatibility of the DVD writer to my player (the computer comes with a
DVD-RW, which isn't as good as DVD+RW for compatibility). Compatibility
with DVD players is important to me, but how can I spec a computer to burn
compatible DVDs? Should I insist on DVD+RW?

Danny Deger
I use a Sony VAIO digital studio PCV 672 UC. 2.66 mghz, 1 gig of ram, 2 hard
drives for 220 gigs. It is about one year old. I bought it at Sams for
about $2500. It has worked perfectly. You can swap out the second hard
drive in about 3 minutes. It is almost like having a removable hard drive.
I see the new Sony VAIO at Sam's comes with a 260 gig hard drive and 1 gig
of ram. I use Premiere 6.0 and it works fine on the firewire to my Sony XL
1000 Camcorder. The Sony Driver only works with the Sony XL 2000 but
Microsoft put a driver in win XP for the XL 1000. I can control the cameral
frame by frame using the mouse.
I went through that make DVD mode for a couple of years until I realized
CD's and DVD's are almost history. As the Internet speed gets faster and
faster, CD's and DVD's are going to be obsolete in a year or so. Why waste
the time on them when hard drive space is so cheap and the Internet is so
fast. They just slow things down.....