Sony updates "digital living system"

Sony this week said it is now shipping its Vaio XL2 Digital Living System, hardware designed to replace a digital video recorder and piles of CDs and DVDs. The XL2 is a central place to store and manage digital content, Sony says, and includes a high-end multimedia PC and a 200-disc media changer/recorder. The system costs $2,699 for the complete system, although Sony says the disc changer system will sell separately for $799 for people who want to connect the device to a Windows Media Center PC.

The XL2 is an update of the company's XL1 Digital Living System (which now costs $1,999), Sony says. New features on the XL2 include 360GB of hard drive space (almost double the space of the XL1), an ATSC HDTV TV tuner, the Intel VIIV processor and a DVD+/-RW drive in the PC component for quick burning of videos, pictures and music (the disc changer also has a DVD+/-RW drive, Sony says).

The system is designed to fit into a home entertainment rack, and the PC component connects to a TV via an HDMI cable in order to output high-definition video and multi-channel digital audio within a single connection. Discs inserted into the changer are automatically detected by the PC, which downloads via a wired or wireless network any available metadata on the disc, including jewel case covers and artist information, Sony says. Information can be sorted and accessed using the system's wireless keyboard or a remote control.

• Sony