Acer 3810TZG 1080P MKV and 10.1 Flash?

Hi all,

First post so be gentle, if this needs to be moved elsewhere sorry about that

I am thinking of pulling the trigger on this laptop with the following specs;

Screen size - 13.3 in - 1366 x 768 HD LED LCD Screen
Processor - Intel Pentium SU4100 - 1.3 GHz
RAM - 4 GB (2GB + 2GB)
Hard Drive - 320 GB 5400rpm
Operating System - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Optical Drive - None
Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB Dedicated
Webcam - Acer Crystal Eye HD Webcam
Battery Life - Up to 8 Hours
Card Reader - yes (SD™, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)


However I need 1080p MKV file playback as well as Mpeg2, I would also like 1080p flash video to work without dropping frames or stutter. Looking on Youtube there seems to be videos showing the 3810TZG playing 1080p.

Does 10.1 use make use of the ATI 4330 GPU for flash video?

Also I usually use Coreavc with my current netbook for 720p videos, 1080p is too much for my Samsung NC10 to handle. From what I can see Coreavc only supports Nvidia chipsets so that isnt ideal.

Will the 3810TZG be able to decode high bitrate 1080p files without stutter, can anyone who has one confirm if this is possible for me please. Would I have to use different software other than Coreavc to decode the files?

Any help is ideal

Thanks

Stu

 

Anyone who has one or similar comment?


Also as this has switchable drivers it would appear that you cant just use normal ATI drivers you have to use Acer specific ones. Are these well supported, I want to use a driver that offers 10.1 for flash GPU decoding.

Anyone ?

 

Hi Carnagerover, and welcome to the forums!
Both the integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD and dedicated ATI Radeon HD 4330 are capable of handling 1080p video in all three major codecs (MPEG2, H.264, and VC-1).

You also won't be needing CoreAVC. Windows 7 comes with its own H.264 decoder, which will offload video to whichever GPU you end up using.

Now, just a quick clarification. MKV is a container, not a video format itself. It can hold any combination of video codecs (like the ones mentioned), audio (Dolby, DTS, MP3), and subtitles.
It sounds like your MKVs use H.264 video (also known as AVC), which is easily handled by both the Intel and ATI GPUs. Just get an MKV splitter like Haali to let Windows Media Player handle it, or use Media Player Classic Homecinema or VLC to bypass it completely.

As for Flash acceleration, Flash 10.1 supports all three major kinds of GPUs in Intel, ATI, and Nvidia. You might need a driver update to make it work, and I'm not sure if you'd go to Acer or ATI for that.

 

Great, thanks for the welcome and the detailed reply ;-)

That sounds excellent, however now i'm a little concerned with the graphic driver support. I can see the version on Acer's website;

ATI VGA Driver 8.632.1

However I have no idea what version that is and if it supports flash 10.1 CPU decoding for example? I really need to be able to play 1080p youtube videos.

Looking on the ATI website for the latest catalyst drivers it says that you cannot download them if your notebook is using switchable drivers.

That would be a deal breaker, no youtube 1080p, however the windows H264 decoder sounds promising.

Can't seem to find this out on google

 

Some techie details on the Windows 7 decoder. It was one of the things announced early in the ramp up to Win7's release.
I honestly love it to bits - the only reason I keep MPC-HC around is to handle DTS tracks and boost the volume for surround sound audio on my 2-speaker system.

And according to my research, the latest Windows 7 ATI driver on Acer's page, 8.652.1, roughly correlates to Catalyst 9.10, which lacks support for Flash 10.1 acceleration.

There's always a way, though - you might be able to set the BIOS of the 3810TZG to discrete only, disabling the Intel GMA and running the Radeon HD 4330 exclusively. If that's possible, then you could upgrade to the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI.

And all of this doesn't factor in whether the Intel GMA 4500MHD can handle the 1080p YouTube videos.
EDIT: Looks like 1080p is totally possible, but I can't decipher if the Intel driver's capable of handling it.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to help again, great information there, kind of where I just got to.

I was originally looking at the ASUS 1201N when I came across the 3810gtz and the specs on the processor and size and graphics card made me want to go acer. However after looking into this more I realised that the Acer switched graphics cards on the fly to save power. Meaning I am relying on Acer to update there drivers which seem to be some way behind ATIs current version as I really need 1080p Youtube video to be smooth.

Without buying the Notebook its going to be impossible I think to be able to tell if I can turn off the Intel GMA and just use the ATI on its own, enabling me to just update that and use it on its own.

I would imagine the SU4100 1.3Ghz processor won't be able to decode 1080p youtube on its own therefore giving me a big headache as I know the Asus 1201N with the ION will do both 1080p h.264 and 1080p Youtube but I would have to sacrifice power and screen size which I don't want to do

Update

From reading your last post and some google time the Intel integrated card in this is the 4500HD, I had assumed it was a lower Intel graphics chip?

Is the ATI 4330 just to add a gaming option then?

Maybe I have this wrong?

 

Grab the latest ATI driver from ATI, and download the newest Flash Player. Might want to record CPU usage before and after to see the difference.

 

@Changturkey - The 3810TZG has a hybrid graphics system, which means that it can't use the latest drivers from ATI. Plus, Carnagerover hasn't bought it yet.

@Carnagerover - The Radeon HD 4330 is meant for a better overall multimedia experience, as well as some minor gaming power.
Since Intel's GPUs are integrated into the chipset, they tend to only release one for each CPU generation. The 945 chipsets got the GMA 950, the 965 chipsets got the GMA X3100, and the 4 series chipsets got the GMA 4500MHD.

Maybe you don't need the Radeon HD 4330 after all. Carnagerover, what exactly will you be using the notebook for? It might help us to figure out what you need.

 

I need 1080p H.264 and 1080p Youtube on something that is less than 15" like this machine. If I can find out somehow if this can do 1080p Youtube I would pull the trigger asap.

As I say I originally started looking at the ASUS 1201N with ION but then I spotted this and thought more bang for your buck as it were, or pounds in my case.

I had a Samsung N510 originally that went back due to a fault and that couldn't do smooth 1080p with ION, it dropped frames like mad.

The one thing putting me off THE 3810TZG is that if the HD4500 cannot do 1080p smoothly, and I cant turn it off in the bios to get the latest ATI drivers that support 10.1 flash, then I am not closer to 1080p youtube videos and the SU4100 isn't powerful enough to decode on its own.

I would also imagine that if you turn off the Intel graphics if it is possible and install the latest ATI drivers that then switching the Intel 4500HD back on would cause a problem.

 

You're right about that last point.

If you're just looking for 1080p H.264 & YouTube, why not go for a different machine?
The Aspire 3810TZG is meant for long battery life; that's why they've got switchable graphics in there.
If you don't need 5+ hours of battery life, something more mainstream with either an Intel Core i3/5/7 or a dedicated ATI or Nvidia GPU might be more your style.

 

Thanks for you reply, I know what your saying but more mainstream means bigger and really a 15" screen will be a little big for my usage style.

Also there is a good price of £399 after a £100 rebate on this machine so its good value for money over here.

The problem is that no physical shop over here has them on display so its going to be hard to find this stuff out.

One more problem to add to the list is I dont know when it auto switches to the ATI card. Even if I got the drivers for the intel that do 1080p it may switch to the ATI without and not work.

 

Not really - there are tons of 14" mainstream notebooks out there.

OK, alternative: why not the Aspire TimelineX 3820T? Same form factor, but you get a much faster Core i3, i5, or i7 instead. The Core i series also comes with a better on-board GPU, the GMA HD.

If you don't ever want to game on the notebook, you don't really need an ATI or Nvidia graphics card. Maybe there's a 3810T configuration without the ATI that could work.

 

I have this laptop. All the stats are the same as mentioned in the first post except i seem to have only 3GB RAM.
I'm happy with my laptop even tho something happened to my ATI card 3 months after i bought it.
I can turn the ATI GPU on only if i have a external monitor cuz the laptop screen turns black every time im running ATI.

Other than that. I would really recommend it. But at the same time I agree with TehSuigi. It would be much better for you to get one without the ATI card.

 

If you get that one you will have to update the driver for better flash performance.But its not easy and acer doesnt like you to use the drivers from ati web site but i found a file that works with my acer .1080p flash file was running 90 to 100 percent cpu with the acer driver now with this one in the link all the way down the page it running only in the 40s

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/502679-acer-aspire-1551-owners-lounge.html