Rating: 
Summary: Sony RZ14G and Poor Power
Review: Bummer-I love and use Sony products all day long (in TV Production- cameras, DVCAM decks, VAIO laptops, etc.) and was excited to get the new PCV RZ14G. I set it up as my primary desktop editing station. After 3 weeks, the power supply smoked. After talking to Sony (after a 1 hour hold) they said I could send it to them and get it back in 10 business days. Deciding I could not take a 2 week vacation from my computer, I took it back to Circuit City and they replaced it (very cool.) Three weeks later, a puff of smoke again and adios to number 2 box. I looked at the power supply in the computer and found it to be rated at just 295 Watts! Wow- a computer with a 2.5GHz P4, CD, DVD-RW, Hard drive, 6 USB Ports, Firewire, TV Encoder card, even a place to plug in the speakers on the back of the computer- etc. (they all take power, by the way) and Sony cheesed out with [an inexpensive]PS. Again- all of my work is on this box, so I replace the power supply myself (yes, I bought one.) Next day, I get an email from Sony that started like this:
"The issue involves the possible loss of power and the inability to restart your PC. We want to assure you that we have taken a number of steps to correct the problem. The satisfaction of our customers is our number one concern ...." Guess enough people had this problem so.... I call again, this time hold was 1.5 hours- and again, they want my computer. I ask them to just send me the power supply and I will be happy to replace it. No dice. No deal. I have to send it away. I asked for a replacement machine so I would not be down while my machine is in a box somewhere. Nope- can't do that either. Basically, they made a poor product and I have to shut down for a week while they fix it. So what's the moral of the story? Never buy a computer for mission critical work from a company that will not send parts or a replacement machine. An ...computer for playing MP3s or for the family room maybe, but if you will use it for work, think again. A company really shows their worth in support, and Sony has fallen short.
Rating:
Summary: Sony RZ14G and Poor Power
Review: Bummer- I love and use Sony products all day long (in TV Production- cameras, DVCAM decks, VAIO laptops, etc.) and was excited to get the new PCV RZ14G. I set it up as my primary desktop editing station. After 3 weeks, the power supply smoked. After talking to Sony (after a 1 hour hold) they said I could send it to them and get it back in 10 business days. Deciding I could not take a 2 week vacation from my computer, I took it back to Circuit City and they replaced it (very cool.) Three weeks later, a puff of smoke again and adios to number 2 box. I looked at the power supply in the computer and found it to be rated at just 295 Watts! Wow- a computer with a 2.5GHz P4, CD, DVD-RW, Hard drive, 6 USB Ports, Firewire, TV Encoder card, even a place to plug in the speakers on the back of the computer- etc. (they all take power, by the way) and Sony cheesed out with [an inexpensive]PS. Again- all of my work is on this box, so I replace the power supply myself (yes, I bought one.) Next day, I get an email from Sony that started like this:
"The issue involves the possible loss of power and the inability to restart your PC. We want to assure you that we have taken a number of steps to correct the problem. The satisfaction of our customers is our number one concern ...." Guess enough people had this problem so.... I call again, this time hold was 1.5 hours- and again, they want my computer. I ask them to just send me the power supply and I will be happy to replace it. No dice. No deal. I have to send it away. I asked for a replacement machine so I would not be down while my machine is in a box somewhere. Nope- can't do that either. Basically, they made a poor product and I have to shut down for a week while they fix it. So what's the moral of the story? Never buy a computer for mission critical work from a company that will not send parts or a replacement machine. An ...computer for playing MP3s or for the family room maybe, but if you will use it for work, think again. A company really shows their worth in support, and Sony has fallen short.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, I Fell in Love with Its Look but Great Customer Service
Review: I bought this computer on impulse-- stupid, huh? But I thought it looked really sharp on display so I got the last one on the shelf and toted it home. Two months later the power source died. I went to the Sony website in a far from concilatory mood. By the time I finished with the CS rep I was almost happy. Ok, I was a lot less unhappy. It was a known problem. They sent me a box to mail it back in (postage paid). I had my computer back in four days. They extended the warranty for two years and I got a free handheld in the mail about a week later. (Oh, yeah, and I could have got a refund of the total price.) Nice job, Sony.
Rating:
Summary: OK, I Fell in Love with Its Look but Great Customer Service
Review: I bought this computer on impulse-- stupid, huh? But I thought it looked really sharp on display so I got the last one on the shelf and toted it home. Two months later the power source died. I went to the Sony website in a far from concilatory mood. By the time I finished with the CS rep I was almost happy. Ok, I was a lot less unhappy. It was a known problem. They sent me a box to mail it back in (postage paid). I had my computer back in four days. They extended the warranty for two years and I got a free handheld in the mail about a week later. (Oh, yeah, and I could have got a refund of the total price.) Nice job, Sony.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm back
Review: I posted last week becasue I was having some issues iwth the computer but I've recently resolved those issues and I couldn't be happier with this computer. I would recommend it to everyone. I felt that I had to come back because it's only fair after saying some unflattering things about the PC.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Product!
Review: I purchased this PC to do the following: Transfer old analog video home movie tapes onto DVD. 2. Edit my home movies to get rid of boring stuff and to add music, transitions, etc. and 3. Record t.v. shows easily without programming anything and without using tapes. This PC does all of that WONDERFULLY!! Within hours of getting the PC I was able to transfer my daughter's first year home movies (4 analog video tapes) to DVD with menus, chapters, music, the works! I now also use this PC as my t.v. video recording hub. With a click of the mouse I can record anything I want and store it in the p.c. for as long as I want. I can store the shows in virtual "video cabinets" -- one for my shows and one for my wife. My experiences with PC's usually are frustrating and confusing as I find out all the things the machine "can't" do... with this PC I just think of what I want to do, look up the answer/process in the online help menus and voila! If you want to tranfer old VHS to DVD, edit great looking videos, and throw away your vcr then buy this PC. Great job SONY! If you get this PC remember to get CD-R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs.. the CD+R/RW and DVD+R/RW don't work on this machine (get "-" not "+"). To burn DVD's that I want to play on my other DVD players (a playstation 2 and a compaq laptop dvd) I use the DVD-R discs.. dvd-rw are not read by those machines. Have fun!
Rating:
Summary: terrible.
Review: man i thought this computer was good times when my father first bought one... for about 4 months. then i became technicaly competent and discovered that the power supply is a TURD, the graphics card was an easy replacement (on the grounds that it blows), and the dvd-rw is god awful. save a few hundred and buy sonys 21" crt and make a custom from tigerdirect... i wish i could rate 0.
Rating:
Summary: A complete video/graphic package!
Review: The RZ14G system is my latest computer system in my networked home. I've been home-brewing PCs for years and got tired of the headache side of the support equation. It was fun, but enough is enough. So I bought this one as my first OEM system in years. Fantastic! Why did I select this one? P4 2.53GHz. 120GB drive. 512MB fast RAM. Lots of software included for just what I will using it for, digital video editing (ballroom dance videos, family stories, etc.) A good, complete solution to my current home computer wants (and needs...sheesh!) After setting up the system and connecting my network, it worked right away. Fast and to the point, great! After downloading a few updates to current software, I ran some benchmarks (graphics, RAM speed, etc.) This machine is ranking very high on every scale. The GeForce4 MX card looks great with digital video, Tribes2 and Unreal Tournament, with nice FPS performance. The internal sound card is a Yamaha device, so it'll do for awhile until I upgrade to a Creative Audigy card. As for the PC's own speed when doing video capturing and graphics, this PC has all the gozintas and gozoutas I need! I shoot using miniDV, so the iLink ports are great and fast. I added another 80GB HDD to acccommodate my video capturing, saving the D: 95GB partition for production copies. As for the included software with this system, MS Office would've been nice, but the Wordperfect Suite is very complete and fully functional. Sony included Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 and Premiere 6.0 LE, a great compliment to what I bought this system for, to edit videos and make DVDs! I added Premiere 6.5 to the mix and it is now very fast and very functional. When I saw this system at a local store, I pondered buying another Sony. My other Sony, their older TRV9 miniDV camera, -never- gave me problems. Would their computer systems do the same? After going online for reviews, I found -very- few negatives. Great! If I had only one problem, it would be the lack of technical information on their Giga Pocket personal video recorder system. It covers a lot of ground and having the docs online only just makes it that much more difficult to "put it all together" and use all of it. But the docs online are good and the system DOES work! Am I happy with this system? Yes! Is there room to grow with it? Yes!
Rating:
Summary: Top of the Line
Review: The Sony Vaio PCV-RZ14G is a great pc for just about anything out there right now. Digital video editing is fast even when processing through hours of footage! And the 120Gb hard drive is plenty of space for this Video Studio machine. The format of the 120 gb is set up nicely so that if for some reason a virus takes over your system you can use the restore disk on the system partition and not loose possibly hours of footage stored on your whoppering 120gb hard drive. The NVidia GForce4 video card included is great and sure does bring games to live. Unfortunately the 64MB may fall behind with the new Video cards with 128MB. However not to worry the video card is not intergrated and you can upgrade it whenever you feel its outdated. The soundcard is integrated. Its a Yamaha Ac-XG WDM. I honestly dont know the capabilities of this card for surround sound however it sounds great with the two speakers the system comes with. The tv tuner included is just pretty nifty to have. This computer is ideal for a dorm room without a tv. Make this computer your super workstation. Games, TV, Homework, and Movies. Its pretty awesome.
Rating:
Summary: Torn by this one
Review: This computer is exactly what I wanted in a computer. It has the RCA plugs in the front of the computer so transfering video tapes to DVD is easy. The computer is fast and easy to use. The problem i have is that the first time I burned DVD's it took about 2 hours, after about a week, it now takes 5 hours. No one seems to be able to help me. I returned the first one because I thought it might have been the software that i loaded but i thought enough of the computer to buy another one and simply not add any software to it, use it as is. It happened again. This would be the most awsome computer if I could solve this one problem. It simply takes to long especially after knowing what it is capable of. Having said that, I will still keep the computer because there is no other solution for Analog video capture. I thought about ATI all-in-wonder but they have too many problems, I thougth about DVD creation station and not too many people have good things to say about that. Anyway, if anyone has the solution, please let me know adminromero@netzero.net Thanks
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