Silicon Mountain brings out Allio hybrid PC/ TVs

Built-in HD tuner and HDMI input and full desktop-class PC inside

13 November 2008 15:32 GMT / By Katie Scott

Imagine a TV combined with a PC.

Well that's what Silicon Mountain has achieved with the new Allio range.

These machines have all of the regular features of TVs, such as a built-in HD tuner and HDMI input, but also include a full desktop-class PCs inside.

This means you can have a Blu-ray or DVD player inside the TV, but also means you can get access to web-only video services like Hulu on the television set without needing any other machine.

All systems also come with 802.11g Wi-Fi and a wireless keyboard and mouse combo.

The 32-inch model is $1599 and the 42 inch machine is $1999 - and both boast a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo chip, a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of memory and a DVD burner.

You can, however, fork out a bit more and get a 2.53GHz model with Blu-ray and PVR recording for $2199 and $2399 (32- and 42-inch respectively).

The top of the range is the model with 4GB of RAM and 1TB of disk space, which costs either $2399 or $2799.

These systems come preloaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, but the manufacturer is promising lower-cost models using Ubuntu Linux in the future.