Sony is upgrading its lineup of VAIO-branded home theater PCs. The cylindrical VGX series now sports a 500GB hard drive, a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and 802.11b/g wireless.

The VGX comes in two varieties, both with high definition features including HDMI ports and a Blu-Ray drive. What sets the $3000 VGX-TP20E apart from the $1600 VGX-TP20E is an external dual CableCARD tuner.

If you're looking for a little more power, an integrated 22 inch monitor, you might want to check out the new VAIO LT29U Premium, which sports a 2.5 GHz Penryn processor and 1TB of storage for $3300. The LT29U also packs 4GB of RAM, a Blu-Ray drive, and an external CableCard tuner.

It's been a while since ATI first announced the ATI TV Wonder USB CableCard tuner for Windows Vista. But for the most part if you want a CableCard tuner in your PC, you've had to buy a preconfigured machine from someone like Niveus or Okoro.

Now Sony is selling the ATI TV Wonder as a standalone box for $299. That doesn't mean you can just plug this puppy into any old machine and get your high definition cable. You'll need a certified Windows Vista PC. But this does open up the possibility of adding CableCard support to your low-end Windows Home Premium/Ultimate machine instead of buying a $3000 media center.

[via Engadget]

The Vaio LT HD is hardly the first all-in-one PC we've seen from Sony. But it does pack a few things we haven't seen before from one of these PC-in-a-monitor style computers:

• A Blu-ray burner
  
• ATI Digital Cable Tuner (for CableCard)

The Vaio LT also includes an impressive set of specs, inclduign a 22-inch 1680x1050 pixel wediscreen display, a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, 802.11n, and an ATSC/NTSC TV tuner.

There's also a standard definition version that loses the Blu-Ray and CableCard features. Both models should be available in October, with the HD version weighing in at about $2900 and the SD model running about $1900.

[via CNet]

Sony's Vaio TP1 is sort of the opposite of pretty much every other fancy media center PC on the market right now. It doesn't include CableCard or high definition optical discs.

The Vaio TP1 also doesn't look like anything else that sits by your television set. But that's okay, it doesn't really look like a computer either.

This little box was first unveiled by Sony at CES in January. Recently CNet noticed that it was shipping, even though there hadn't been any major announcement from the company.

Under the tiny hood lies a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 300GB hard drive. There's also a DVD burner, an ATSC/NTSC tuner, and HDMI/DVI/VGA outputs. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium and runs about $1600.