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Sony's RC-Series: The Ultimate Personal Digital Studio (27/2/2006)

The RC-Series is designed to set the standard for the home digital studio. It offers the last word in sound and video editing, with full support for both the DSD Audio and HD Video standards.

HDTV is poised to become the TV standard of choice, alongside HD-format movies and HD camcorders. Unlike conventional PCs, the RC-Series is already ahead of the curve. Just how far ahead becomes clear when you consider the VGC-RC202, which goes beyond editing to become a fully HD-compatible home server.

This model is supplied with the Sony Network Media Receiver 200 (VGP-MR200E), capable of streaming HD content to an HD-ready TV elsewhere in the home. Controlled from a TV interface via remote1, the Network Media Receiver also provides instant access to your PC-based photo library and music collection. Just as video and images are routed to the TV, music is sent directly to your sound system, so you get to enjoy it at its very best.

The Network Media Receiver is future-proofed by DLNA compliance. This open standard for interoperability and compatibility was created by the Digital Living Network Alliance of which Sony is a founder member.

Just as HD represents the future of the moving image, Super Audio CD is the next-generation music format. The RC-Series can record, edit and play music at SA-CD quality, and even upgrade older recordings to the new standard. The key to all this is the Sony Sound Reality(tm) audio processor which can up-convert conventional CD-quality music into uncompressed Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format. Using the pre-installed SonicStage Mastering Studio software, the DSD signal can be re-mastered into 5.1 Super Audio CD, revitalising the original.

Audio-visual IT at this level is beyond the capabilities of the ordinary PC. The extra power behind the RC-Series comes from the new dual-core Intel(r) Pentium(r) D processor. The VGC-RC202 uses the 2.8GHz Pentium D 920. Dual-core technology is effectively a two-in-one architecture that offers huge potential speed advantages over the old single-core approach, making it the ideal choice for machines like these.

When it comes to the visuals, 256MB NVIDIA(r) GeForce(tm) 6600 graphics on a high-speed PCI Express 16X bus provide the punch for everything from HD video editing to extreme 3D gaming. Behind the scenes, twin hard disks in a RAID0 array yield up to 600GB2 of storage and a level of disk performance that keeps the data moving smoothly whatever is going on.

"The RC-Series is the embodiment of VAIO," says Adam Coomber, Product Manager for VAIO Consumer Products at Sony UK. "It's at the forefront of AV-IT, combining the best audio and video features and now the logical evolution of Blu-ray as well. This is the future."

1 Remote control, wireless keyboard and wireless mouse included
2 400GB for VGC-RC202

vaio.sony-europe.com