Ricavision impresses with a media-box beauty

AT EACH CES a new market segment emerges to dominate the show floor, and this year it was the year of the Set Top Computer.

With the marketing efforts of Intel behind 'VIIV', many vendors were moving to capitalize on the wave of publicity and it seemed everyone was introducing a Media Computer of some sort.

In a corner of the Intel booth we stumbled upon a little gem in the Ricavision 'Plix Extria'. The Extria boasts some impressive features and ranges from $3000 - $5000 depending on how it is configured. Currently Ricavision is offering a free upgrade swapping the ATSC card for a OCUR card when it becomes available allowing HD over cable input.

The specifications are impressive, and this box is designed to record. It is capable of up to 2.5TB of storage for heavy duty HD recording and with the muscle of both the processor and the video card this unit, while expensive, should stay abreast of most new developments. One surprise was that the unit was only a little warm to the touch and there were no hotspots around the machine which is a concern if you start stacking components.

In an increasingly crowded space Ricavision seems to have a winning combination. The only concern I have is with the cost of the machine. An enterprising individual could probably shave a chunk of money off the top end price without much effort, but it wouldn't come with that shiny VIIV sticker, or with some of the Ricavision partner services. I expect that this system will have a broader appeal in a situation where someone has the cash lying around to pick up a computer strictly for their living room.

The machine on the show floor was configured as follows:

Processor: Intel Dual Core Pentium D 3.2 Extreme Edition (840)
Chipset: Intel Viiv 975 ATX
Operating system: Microsoft(R) Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Hard Drive: 1.2TB SATA HDD (4 x 300GB SATA HDDs)
Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT/256 w/ 2 DVI + components
Audio: Intel 7.1 HD onboard audio with Coax/Optical/Line-In/Line-Out
Remote Receiver: Built-In MCE receiver
Memory: 2GB DDR-II (1GBx2), max. to 4GB
TV Tuner(s): NVIDIA dual NTSC TV Tuner, 2 x S-Video In. Digital ATSC TV Tuner
Optical Drive: Dual Mode DVD+/-RW w/double layer write capability
FPD: MCE VFD Front Panel display
Media Reader: Multi Media card reader
Rear Connectors: 4 x USB2.0, 1 x 1394.
Front Connectors: 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x 1394, headset and Microphone
DVD Decoder: NVIDIA
IR Blaster: 2X