Acer Aspire Timeline Owner's Lounge

I don't think epower is an issue.
From what I know Win7 is fundamentally similar to vista hence 90% of the software should install without issue.

 

My system came with the 1.03 fw and I didn't have the throttling issue but before I installed Win 7 I updated to 1.04 just in case and haven't had any problems. The epower management software doesn't have a GUI and if it does I can't find it. I think it just adds some tweaks to the power profiles that are already in windows mobility center.

An example was in vista with leafy battery turned on the system would come to a screeching hault when watching a 720p video and video chat in msn messenger. In 7 I can do the same thing with no problems.

 

I had xp for a day or two, and yes the su3500 feels like an over kill for XP.
I cant say that i have done extensive testing about battery life but i think with xp i got 15 ~ 20% less battery
as for the XP drivers you can download them from the 3810T site, and they work with the 4810 you can create a drivers disk from eRecovery and use the utility for switching off the odd i think it will install on xp, ePower management does not install on Xp however and acer doesn't provide for XP on the 3810 support page!!

 

the 3500 cpu an overkill for xp? Isn't that like saying my computer is too fast? Were there some issues to keep you from using xp for more than a day or two? Any tips for how you sequene this ie put all timeline drivers on flash drive before attempting xp run (I don't have a clue how you do this to avoid problems)

 

XP may run fine with SU3500, but whether flash/Youtube HD runs fine is a totally different matter.

 

XP is a fast efficent work horse compared to vista, back in 2002 the a system with an su3500 and a sata hdd and 3gb of ddr800 ram would certainly be an overkill for XP which was designed to run on a lot lesser machine than that

What i meant is that as far as how the machine handles the OS, the 3810t flies!
but other apps and software thats a different matter

I stopped using xp not because I had problems but because of:
1. the decreased battery life (with my wifes 4810tz SU2700 )
2. I wanted the chance to let 7 grow on me, after tying to install ePower managment for 3 tims it finally installed and that seems to bring battery life to vista levels

- My installtion order for XP was:
ICH (chipset INF)>VGA>Audio>Launch mngr>did not follow any particular order with the rest of drivers

 

Actually I think with the right software XP should have equal battery life as Vista. unfortunately I have no 3810T to try it.

dart22, did you use software to throttle the CPU down?

 

No
And just to but things in perspective, i replaced the hdd with an OCZ core ssd!

 

Oh well if you ever want to try XP again, I recommend RMClock for maximum batterylife by undervolting and throttling.

 

can SU9400 be undervolt using rmclock under vista?
edit: would a p8700 feels faster than su9400 on real life performance? except gaming, video editing of course.

 

What is RMClock ?

 

software to control voltage plus some info on processor
more info:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

 

I've bought the 3810t with core 2 solo processor last month. Been running XP on it along with a windows 7 in a partition. Have to say it runs really well on XP although it's a shame there's no support for the epower button for it. I think i've got around 7 hours battery life using the internet with low-medium brightness.

 

I'm using rm clock for monitoring only, I doubt it would do much good because MY Su3500 idles @ .900v with 6x multi and peaks @.925v with 7x multi especially with the SU3500 having a MAX TDP of 5.5 W compared to 35W for other CPU's

 

BTW I've noticed that the TG varient with ATI gfx is on preorder in the UK now:
http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_Timeline_3810TG-354G32n_Laptop_LX.PE70X.035/version.asp?PID=494
Sadly it's only with a Solo. You'd think people wanting the extra graphical power are likely to want a duo... maybe battery life is an issue?

 

but isn't it switchable graphic?

 

I've been happy so far with Intel gma 4500 mhd graphics. One thing that impressed me was the ease with which you can set up an hdmi connection to a big screen hdtv. This seemed to be a chore that had to be revisited every time a connection to the hdtv was made with some of the older pcs. With gma 4500 it remembers the settings you made before and sets these up when connected. It comes very close to running 1080p video, sometimes succeeding (if nothing else is going on)

Were you referring to ati superior performance on benchmark tests? I'd like to try a 4810t with duo 9400 cpus and perhaps ati graphics if that's the best to see how well it ran 1080p.

 

have you try to use MPC + CoreAVC?

 

Believe it or not near 1080 p performance was obtained with windows mp. I suspect I don't know how to properly optimize zoom player or mpc, because right out of the box wmp seems to play 1080p better.

 

Hey everyone. I was looking around on Amazon.com and I found the 3810t and it's in stock! Check it out. The link is below.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-3810T-6415-Technology-CineCrystal/dp/B002CKKK5G

It says that it ships from J&R so I guess you could by it from J&R if you wanted to also. I don't know if there's any difference if you order it from Amazon or from J&R but it's in stock.

 

I've just purchased the:

Acer LX.PE70X.082 - TIMELINE3810TG-944G50N 9400-1.4 500GB 4GB 13.3IN NOOPT VHP EN

That's the duel core ATI variant and it's out now in Europe, some general warehouse that supplies to several companies has 101 in stock.

Do a google search for LX.PE70X.082 and it'll pop up.

 

worth to try
http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/

would love to see some review

 

I'll be happy to provide one, it should arrive on Saturday, if there's any benchmarks you'd like me to try list them here and I'll give it a go.

 

benchmarks on Trackmania Nations would be sufficient

 

Just curious, have those of you hot to buy the 3810t considered the Lenovo s12. WHile it's true the s12 we all want won't be out until the fall, it's supposed to have killer nvidia 9400 graphics that can do 1080p with lots of cpu to spare. Supposedly the powerful nvidia gpa allows the pc to seem much faster. From what I remember it has a 1.6 ghz solo atom cpu, hdmi and vga, type n wifi, and maybe bt (not sure). Battery life is not as good, but it should go for around $550 to $600, and best of all imho may have xp. For some this might be a better deal than the 3810t.

 

S12 is Ion. Ion is Atom + 9400.

 

The 12 inch Lenovo s12 with nvidia 9400 is supposed to be $500 when out in the fall. Playing blueray and 1080p video soumds pretty good to me, but they'll probably put w7 on it and I wanted xp.

 

First Atom is crap compared to ULV Solo or DC it is the same.
Second 9400M G is integrated compared to ATi 4330HD it is cr*p again.
For the 4500MHD version of Timeline it is sufficient for Video watching.
Thirdly Win7 is out by the time it is released so why would you want xp?

 

it actually looks to be in stock at j&r as well. i ordered mine back on june 30th... hopefully that means i reserved a place in line. just checked the order page and it says backordered. also, for those that didn't know, bing (formerly live) cashback is 5% through j&r, effectively making it $855 and change.

hopefully mine will be in the mail come tomorrow. for those of you that do have theirs already though (specifically with the su9400), microsoft just released silverlight 3, which seems to have some improved hardware accelleration and new codec support.

if you go to this website, http://www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming, there's a video clip you can stream. how does the acer perform?

for comparison, i'm on my work pc right now and i can stream at 2.75mbps, and get 24fps. i'm guessing that's the max you'll get out of it since i've got dual quadro's and dual xeons in this box.

 

My Aspire 4530 Turion RM-72 gets the same 24fps.
Damn the show was quite good I ended up watching it.=P
On my SU2700 3810TZ 24 fps also achieved.

 

Hi guys, I had found in the generic user guide this bit about the powersmart button on the Timeline:

The Acer PowerSmart key uses the power-saving features of your computer’s
graphics sub-system to reduce overall power consumption. When you press the
Acer PowerSmart key, the Windows graphics scheme will be changed to
Windows Vista Basic, screen brightness reduced and the graphics chip will be
switched to a lower speed.
Press the Acer PowerSmart key again to return to your previous settings.

I notice the reduction in screen brightness, but I don't notice the change in the Windows graphics scheme. Do you guys note anything that happens when you activate the button?

I also found the program Acer Powersmart Manager in the control panel, but I can't find it in the start menu.

 

That does not have to mean that undervolting is not going to do any good.

Try this guide: http://www.danielandrade.net/2007/02/28/howto-play-high-definition-videos/

 

Agreed, the 9400M doesn't hold a candle to the 4330HD (which even has room for overclocking as it's an underclocked version of higher models).

The only advantage of ION is overall it may be a little more energy efficient but the difference will be minor.

I also agree with the XP comment, any Vista based laptop from Acer has a free upgrade to windows 7 out in September I think?

 

Nvidia 9400 does around 2300 in 3dmark06, Ati 4330 does 2650.

And any version of the 4500 is good enough for 1080p as long as the right codecs are installed (CoreAVC).

 

Don't try this guide. It uses CoreAVC which as I know doesn't support DXVA so no acceleration with ATI/Intel Timelines.
Use that one

 

New Bios for 3810T v1.08 now available on acer website !!

 

Nice. But I can't find a changelog anywhere. It would be nice to know what it fixes before flashing...

 

Hi guys,

I bought recently a 3810tz from amazon (su2700 + 4500mhd).

My experience in video playback so far has been the following:

1. 4gb ram - running preinstalled vista home premium 64 bits, mcaffe uninstalled, video driver updated.
2. Installed ffdshow.
3. Absolutely no success playing ".mts" files from my panasonic tz7 (avchd lite - 720p). Cpu goes to 100% and several frames lost.
4. Installed coreavc 1.9.5 and mpc.
5. Tried again the avchd files. It feels pretty close, but still getting frames lost and lack of sync between audio and video, cpu holds itselfs at 100% during video playback. Since lots of people reported smooth play of 720p videos, I thought it could be due to the fact that AVCHD lite has 60 fps.
6. Converted the file using xilisoft hd converter, reducing the frame rate to 30fps. Tried h.264 .mp4 files - 1280 x 720 30fps, higher quality. Video plays smooth. CPU varies around 80 - 90% in full screen.
7. Converted the original file again, this time reducing the frame rate to 30fps and upsampling the video to 1920 x 1080, 30fps. No go again - it seems preety close, but it is unwatchble.
8. Installed java, flash and etc, and tried to play youtube HD -> ok. SU2700 can handle it fine even in full screen, with CPU around 50%.

My conclusions: The su2700 can ideed play 720p, but not 1080p. It also seems that it cannot play some 720p videos, like avchd lite from panasonic digital cameras and some sony camcorders.

This AVCHD lite format is somewhat weird. According to what i've read, it seems to be in 60fps, but actually it is 30fps (every two frames are the same, or something like that). Anyway, having to convert every video file from my camera will be a pain. Will I have a better performance running windows 7? Any other suggestion?

I heard that using the correct software, it would be possible to "enable" the 4500mhd to deliver the video processing to the gpu, what would make possible to run 1080p movies with low cpu usage, is that a mith?

Lucas

 

I guinea pigged for you.
Responsiveness under Vista seems to improve (could be me though) no other observable changes.
Processor SU2700

 

try this http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/

 

I have a 4810t with su2700. I use as a test the microsoft video clips about the amazon at 1080p and coral reef at 720p. I also tried the video that tests streaming ability mentioned about a day ago (was able to stream at 24 fps).

Without knowingly adding any special codecs and just using the windows media player we all have I was almost playing 1080p. When I say almost, with the amazon clip there was some stutter when the jaguar climbs the tree, the woman moves through the jungle, and the manatee like fish moves in the water. All this occurs in the early part of this video, and the rest of the video looks perfect. I assume this means if I souped up my su2700 with special codecs (not sure which ones are best) I could play 1080p perfectly all the way through. As you indicated 720p plays perfectly.

 

MPC + CoreAVC

 

The problem with flash is it does not utilise 4500MHD for decoding instead all functions are pushed to the CPU hence SU2700 may not handle it properly while normal videos have codecs that fully utilise 4500MHD decoding functions so not much of an issue.

 

the feasible ways would be to download the video and watch in using mpc

 

As long as we speak about MPC-HC.

Also, I don't know why people can't just check a few replays back to get info about DXVA and how to and are again and again writing that HD is sloow on their machines.

 

haha, MPC-HC indeed

 

I just got the 3810TZ yesterday. I have a question. My wireless indicator light keep blinking even I connected to my wireless network. Is that normal?

 

Yes, the blinking is normal. Gonna be returning mine, 4500MHD is more underwhelming than I predicted it to be.

 

care to share the problem?

 

Just underwhelming performance. Read all about how the 4500 is more than adequate for older titles such as... WC3/Dota, but it's only giving me a miserly 15-25fps (native res, max settings, not interested in lowering) which is much less than adequate. Had to see for myself, now I know (can't leave it to other people after many said WC3 is playable on GMA950).