HD on a Laptop

doyler442

Hi

Ive been looking at laptops lately and I have kind of settled on this

http://h41306.www4.hp.com/itemDetails?SID=0e3dfe4d4b49b12c9ce36336fba0de9cb38:1223&sku=GJ032EA


It says it has a HD ready screen but it does not say it has a hd drive in it to be able to play hd dvds - does this mean that i would have to purchase a seperate drive to be able to play them or can this actually do it?

Thanks

Creamy Goodness

Optical drive type Lightscribe Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support

it's not HD DVD

excuse my ignorance but surely all laptops have been HD ready for ages as their resolutions exceed 1080 lines.

am i right thinking it's a marketing ploy?

mathias

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_ready

From the link above a HD ready screen is any screen that has a minimum vertical resolution of 720 lines , so yes , all computers have had HD screens for a long long time.

Where is borders on false advertising though , is that the screen must accept a HD input source through a component or HDMI/DVI connection to be called HD ready. It has a HDMI port , but unless its an input then it shouldnt be called HD ready.

WellyJ

mathias wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_ready

From the link above a HD ready screen is any screen that has a minimum vertical resolution of 720 lines , so yes , all computers have had HD screens for a long long time.

Where is borders on false advertising though , is that the screen must accept a HD input source through a component or HDMI/DVI connection to be called HD ready. It has a HDMI port , but unless its an input then it shouldnt be called HD ready.

Why shouldn't it?

It will play any HD video you download off the internet.

Who would actually use their laptop to display video from another source??

dulpit

Does that mean that if you download a video marked as HD, it'll actually play in HD on the computer? I'm referring to tv shows and stuff, you know?

Tom Dunne

dulpit wrote:

Does that mean that if you download a video marked as HD, it'll actually play in HD on the computer? I'm referring to tv shows and stuff, you know?

I believe you need a fairly beefy machine to decode HD content, so wouldn't assume it would play.

WellyJ

Well the most common you will find are the WMV HD videos,

Here are the minimum specs for it.

With current hardware these specs are pretty manageable

Minimum Configuration

To play 720/24p video with stereo sound:

* Windows XP
* Windows Media Player 9 Series
* 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor or equivalent
* 384 MB of RAM
* 64 MB video card
* 1024 x 768 screen resolution (4:3 screen) or 1280 x 720 (16:9 screen)
* 16-bit sound card

[edit] Recommended Configuration

To play 1080/24p video with 5.1 surround sound

* Windows XP
* Windows Media Player 9
* DirectX 9.0
* 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor or equivalent
* 512 MB of RAM
* 128 MB video card
* 1440 x 1080 screen resolution (4:3 screen) or 1920 x 1080 (16:9 screen)
* 24-bit 96 kHz multichannel sound card
* 5.1 surround sound speaker systems

mathias

Why shouldn't it?

It will play any HD video you download off the internet.

It may well play HD stuff off the net , and yes any HD stuff downloaded off the net will display in HD on the screen , PC's have been able to do that for years ,

But the rules of the HD ready logo were meant for TV's or home cinema displays , which here at least , are only generally affordable in the last two years or so, and the rules are simple , amongst other things , it must have a physical input that takes a HD feed , downloads dont count !!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_ready

Its all in the link.

The reason this is worth pointing out , is that a lot of people may think that they can use the machine to watch Sky HD , or hook up a PS3 or Xbox etc. ( lots of people use pc's as the only entertainment source , say in a flat or whatever ) It has to have a HD input to do that , I see there is a HDMI port on it .....if it takes an input then its genuinely HD ready , if its output only , its not.

Who would actually use their laptop to display video from another source??

Well , thats the OP's question ... and as it doesnt have a HD-DVD or blu ray ,the only way to play these discs is with an external drive and then its important that the HDMI will take an input , if not , its not HD ready as per rules of the logo and is mis-advertising.

does this mean that i would have to purchase a seperate drive to be able to play them or can this actually do it?

WellyJ

mathias wrote:

Well , thats the OP's question ... and as it doesnt have a HD-DVD or blu ray ,the only way to play these discs is with an external drive and then its important that the HDMI will take an input , if not , its not HD ready as per rules of the logo and is mis-advertising.

But he will be able to get a USB2 HD-DVD drive to use with it.

Even the xbox360 one works fine on PC now with drivers,

So he will be fine

mathias

But he will be able to get a USB2 HD-DVD drive to use with it.

Even the xbox360 one works fine on PC now with drivers,

Not necessarily , USB is fine with the xbox , however on a PC/Laptop the USB bandwidth is shared with other resources and the HD feed may choke as a result. Its worse on a laptop as you have no option to add a dedicated USB2 controller card.

Besides, USB is no competition for the uncompressed feed from a proper HDMI interface. USB means the player needs software on the PC end , HDMI ( if the laptop is really HD ready ) should display the feed directly on screen due to the dedicated hardware.
http://technabob.com/blog/2006/11/05/xbox-360-hd-dvd-playback-over-47-million-lines-of-code/

Also USB is not catered for in the HD ready logo rules , so that part still stands , only component and HDMI/DVI are catered for in the logo.