Introduction 

Believe it or not, it wasn't too long ago that computers could only emit a few pathetic beeps and buzzes. Remember when the term "Multimedia" meant that the PC could play music?  That was a big deal in 1990.  These days, it takes a lot more than a quality sound card to satisfy the needs of most users.  The Home Theater PC (HTPC) concept has been gaining popularity in the last year or so, and there seems to be a never-ending stream of new products that attempt to bring the PC into the living room,  or bring the living room into the computer room, depending on how you look at it. The kind folks at www.maxdy.com provided me with a new contender in this crowded market, the VPC-1000 Multimedia Hub.  At first glance, the eye-candy attracted me.  I am building a showcase box for my own website, and The Wolfman rightly noticed that this would be a great addition, if even just for looks. About the best way to describe the VPC-1000 is that it is a full featured car stereo that fits into a drive bay.  Oh, and it's also a DVD/CD/MP3/FM-Receiver. And did I mention that it has a remote control? And, by the way, it works when the PC is turned off. Huh?  Hey, this thing is racking up cool points all over the place.  Let's take a closer look.

Overview

The VPC-1000 is manufactured by a company called Asour, and it is distributed by Maxdy. In its essence, the VPC-1000 is a DVD/CD-ROM drive that fits into a standard 5.25" bay.  What makes the unit unique is that the drive door has an integrated head unit that incorporates a full featured FM receiver, complete with most of the features you would see on a midrange car stereo. I realize that all these features already exist on the majority of machines these days, so what exactly is the advantage of having this unit?  Well, the kicker is that the unit works independently of the computer when the power is off, and it has a remote control.  I can envision this unit in an HTPC environment, feeding inputs to a dedicated amplifier and through the speakers.  Essentially, you can replace or augment a separate FM tuner or CD Player. One less box to clutter up the entertainment center. We're not talking high-end stereo equipment, but for a dorm room or den this unit can replace a boom box.  Note that this unit does not take the place of your sound card.  It takes inputs from your audio-out jacks (analog only) and acts as a pass-through for sounds generated by your PC.

Like other multifunction audio decks, the VPC-1000 switches between inputs via the remote control: CD Audio/FM Stereo/PC Sound/MP3. As an MP3 Player, it supplements your sound card and media player, it does not replace them.  In other words, with the PC on, you can use MP3 tracks off your hard drive through WinAmp or your favorite media player, but to use the player on the head unit, you have to have the songs on a CD in the drive.  I don't see an easy way to retrieve them if the power is off, obviously, but it seems like you should be able to browse the songs on your drive with the remote control when the PC is on. Unfortunately, this is not the case, so put your favorites on a CD if you want to browse them from across the room with the remote. Another limitation is that the unit does not function like a mixer- for example, you cannot hear the PC sounds while the radio is playing, and vice-versa. You might be able to get around this limitation by creative use of cabling, but it is not officially supported.

Specifications

The VPC-1000 comes with a 20 page information pamphlet.  Unfortunately, as with so many other products from overseas, the translation into English is very poor.  Most of the information is understandable, but the grammar is so poor that sometimes the meaning is not clear.  This is a pet peeve of mine, but to be fair, I can't speak or write Chinese at all!  Here is a listing of the pertinent specifications (with some cleaning up of the grammar). 

• 16X DVD-ROM, 48X CD-ROM
• FM radio receiver and SRS WOW audio processor
• Five mode equalizer (flat, rock, pops, classic, jazz)
• Clock and sleep timer
• Four-color vacuum-fluorescent display
• PC power auto-sensing (changes mode depending on power status of PC)
• Plays CD-DA/MP3/FM radio while PC power is off
• Four-channel input selector (CD-DA, MP3, FM, PC-sound/Aux-in)
• 32-Step volume control
• SRS WOW processor

The documentation is complete with reference to the audio signal specifications.  Here are some of the more common specifications.

• Frequency range: 20Hz-20KHz
• Signal to noise ratio: >=75dB
• Channel Separation: >=50dB
• Total Harmonic Distortion (THD): < 0.1%

The MP3 specifications:

• MPEG Layer 1,2,3
• 32Kbit-128Kbit, 44.1KHz, Stereo
• Frequency range: 20Hz-16KHz (bit-rate dependent)

The CD/DVD-ROM drive has these specifications:

• Access time: 120msec (DVD), 100msec (CD)
• Seek time: 110msec (DVD), 100msec (CD)
• PIO-mode 1-4, DMA mode 0-2, MW DMA 0-2
• 512KB buffer

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