Is Dell stupid to not include a HDMI and/or DVI port in the new Inspirons?

Now that it has been confirmed that there will not be those ports, I think Dell screwed up in this part. At this age, taking a step back by removing the DVI port is .....stupid

 

You should consider that the inspirons are aimed at your basic home user. Most people don't come to forums like this when they buy a laptop they just go to dell.com/co.uk etc.. pick a screen size and the warranty and they are happy.

They offer the xps range for enthusiasts like us which do offer such ports.

I firmly agree with you that they should offer a DVI port as that allows you to use hdmi via a converting cable but they probably have their reasons for doing it.

 

Completely stupid in my opinion. They make a step backwards instead of adding HDMI. Not even on the 1720 there is such a port...i'm very disappointed

 

displayport coming to inspiron, reason no dvi
?

 

I don't care, I want to order one of those inspirons ASAP

 

Why is it a step backwards? Did they ever offer DVI on the Inspirons?

 

Yes, DVI on Inspiron 17" for sure.

I agree, it's a big step backward. VGA and Svideo are ports from the last century... It would be almost ok if there were replacement laptops in the XPS series, but there is no 14 or 15'... So it's clearly extremely disappointing.

 

Did someone create an idea on Ideastorm.com? Maybe that would help, they followed some of the ideas already.

 

no need for DVI on inspiron u will not play games on big screens or watch movies using DVI, VGA is not bad it's enough. DVI and HDMI are available into XPS line.

 

I don't think so. The Inspirons are the most basic consumer models, so including DVI or HDMI seems kind of silly since most users won't even touch it.

 

Really doesn't matter to me either way. I have no use for DVI or HDMI.

 

Actually they should have at least put it in as an option.....

 

For me, this is a big factor.

I was planning on a Dell notebook. Now I will look around to see what else there is.

Speaking of which, do any of the Thinkpad have DVI or HDMI ports? Do any of the Dell Latitudes have it?

 

Some of you have no future look at all. Thousands of Digital TV's are flying out retailers like Best Buy, On Call, even Walmart, Target and Costco. 95% of the '07 models have HDMI inputs, and even mention hooking up your PC to them in the Manuals. With nVidia GPU's ability to quicky create a custom resolution to correct for the overscan issue in the majorty of tv's out there...it very easy to connect a DVI/HDMI laptop to new TV.

For Dell to come out with a new line in 2007 without either is very much like a lot of posters in here....not very future looking. Maybe your all kids and don't own a Digital TV. You will soon if you don't yet. These 1520's are plenty poweful enough to play a game, look at pictures, watch movies on your digital set. My 2yr old I9300 does it easy. If this 1520 was for me...I'd shop somewhere else. But it is for my 18yr kid....By the time he moves out and gets his own tv...he'll prob have a new laptop by then.

Funny thing is...Dell themselves sell thousands of Digital TV's every week....I guess the departments don't talk much to each other.....

 

If we lack a "future look" then you seem to lack an understanding of market segmentation.

The Inspirons, again, are the most basic line of laptops Dell offers. They're meant for use by the mainstream market, who will be doing office work, importing photos, and surfing the web. As a result, I don't expect more than 10% of them to ever hook their laptop up to an external monitor, let alone a TV. In the event that they do have to hook it up to a TV, which may happen once in the laptop's lifespan, they can use the VGA and most won't even know the difference.

The XPS laptops, tailored towards a more enthusiast crowd with a greater understanding of computers, includes DVI. This makes much more sense, because a gamer or performance enthusiast likely has an external monitor or TV, and will be FAR more likely to make use of a digital out port.

 

Seriously, what the hell? Why are people excusing dell over this? Unless you buy the cheapest monitor at bestbuy, it'll have DVI... This isnt even new tech, as someone before said it was on their last generation of 17" insprions. It was moronic of them. They should have put DVI on as standard, and included(free or for an extra $20, like apple) a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

Yeah, this is not their premium line of computers, but that does not excuse them from not adding 5 year old technology. Esp when nearly every new monitor uses this interface.

 

It only matters if you actually use it, and I bet the vast majority of people do NOT use it on a regular basis. Would be nice as an option, and would be essential IMO if you were getting a Blu-Ray drive, but outside of that it's a nice to have, but I doubt it's a deal breaker for most consumers.

 

I just think the fact that Dell calls them "HD Widescreen Laptops" with BluRay drives, yet does not include a digital output, is laughable.

 

I guess I missed it? Point me to those 15.4" XPS's wont you?

Lets see....Duo Core CPU's T7300+, 8600GT Card, Draft N, 2GB, Vista Premium, Blue Tooth, Glossy Wide Screen, Blueray DVD.......yeah...this is a mainstream PC. Just like Digital TV's are MAINSTREAM TV's these days too. Everyone has a DVD player, owns or soon will a Wide Screen TV, and your calling DVI/HDMI (5yr old tech) too extreme? LOL!


And maybe your 80yr old folks wont notice a difference...but the first time you try to watch a Blueray movie on my 61" 1080P LCoS connected by VGA....I'm pretty sure you'd notice some diffenrence.....A HUGE DIFFERENCE. Count pixels son......

 

I think its even more laughable, that people are defending that position. DVI is the standard now, and has been for the last 2 or 3 years. There is no *good* excuse for not adding that port onto their *new* line of laptops.

Dont get me wrong, i'm still planning on getting one... i'm just not delusional enough to thank them for refusing to adapt to 2004.

 

Yet they have VGA and 1394a ports, which I doubt a lot of people would be using either. Honestly, as somebody else already mentioned, it'd make a ton more sense to have just DVI and then throw in a DVI-VGA adapter (as DVI-I includes both the digital and analog signal).

 

I won't be able to play games with a T7300 and a 8600GT? Are you kidding me? And I won't be able to play DVDs on an LCD TV? Why not? My brother is a basic consumer, he owns an Inspiron 6400, and is using it to play movies on a TV from time to time. Is he an "advanced user"? I don't think so! You may also want to show your photos on a bigger screen. That's nothing complicated or unusual, come on... The Inspiron are NOT 500$ machines. At 1500 or more, you can expect to have decent ports.

 

Do something:

http://www.ideastorm.com/

Create an account, use the search engine with "DVI", and vote for all ideas proposing digital ports for lappies.

They listen to these claims, as the webcam/ubuntu/no crapware options show. So vote if you want to change something!

 

There is no real answer to the question. People can argue on both sides. If u dont used the DVI port, then who cares about it is included or not. There only time for me to use the output port is for projector, for which a VGA port is more than enough. From statistics, 90% of people dont used them at all. However,for those of u rich people who can affort fancy TV's, dont buy from dell if u think it is too inferior for u. It is that simple.

 

Don't care much myself.

 

you define rich people as those who have bought a LCD monitor? Most computers now a days(even the ones sold for under $300) use LCD's...

I think its pretty foolish to excuse a laptop maker, who is trying to sell a current generation graphics card(8400 or 8600) with a VGA port tacked on. I don't know what it would cost for them to switch to DVI(i would think it would be minimal, since the signal is already digital) but I'm not arrogant enough to pretend everyone who takes issue with the lack of one, to be some rich elitist jerk. That would be foolish and immature. Especially when we are talking about a laptop that can cost in excess $1500.

 

I prefer having 4 USB ports and no useless extra ports rather than having useless extra ports and 2 USB ports.

 

Isn't it more a matter of the what's included on the graphics card?

Anyway, my old 9200 has DVI. It does seem kind of dumb not to include it, especially when they sell monitors and such.

 

even if i have it,, i rarely use it.. people mostly use thier laptop to do presentation on Projector , which VGA is needed. Connecting through HDMI to HDTV is also a pain since the display wono't display perfectly ( i mean fit pixel to pixel.

 

I have never used video out on my laptop so it doesn't affect me but with laptop costing that much with all of the other components being high end, they definitely should have added DVI or HDMI.

Also, they only have 5400 RPM drives and 5 USB ports. The 1705 has 6 ports and I have a 7200 RPM drive.

 

Well said! Here's one posted for the 1520 specifically: http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/70247/HDMI_DisplayPort_or_DVI_for_Inspiron_1520_series

-Tom

 

Lol, no DVI, that's a deal breaker. Better hold on to your old inspirons.

 

The price is still very interesting, at least here in France... For 100€ less than an Asus G1s, no more HDMI and eSata, not more gaming look but boring look instead (which one to choose, that's up to every user), but two years warranty on site instead of shipping back... Drop the two years warranty, you at 1400€, nice configuration, very close to the Asus F3SV-B1, except that you cannot buy a B1 in France

So I'm hesitating a lot, whywhywhywhy no DVI on this computer? I would have ordered it already I guess...

 

Yeah... BluRay and No DVI/HDMI is... just plain contradictory.

It was obviously a stupid oversight on their part.

 

Dell is offering a $600 upgrade option to put a blu-ray drive in the your new inspiron laptop, but is not offering any digital outputs. The bottom line is they should be offering digital outputs if you upgrade to a blu-ray drive. Probably would have to be HDMI, so it would be HDCP compliant.

 

They may change it when the inspirons can have 8 Gbs of memory and a dual hard drive

 

Just go here and shut up already!

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/VGA-DVI.html

'Is Dell stupid?' - this language is not acceptable. You might 'prefer' another vendor, but Dell is exceptionally successful and MANY people strongly favor and support their products and services.

Dell's success is a result of what they sow, and so far hey have sown pretty successfully.

Now compare yourself to Dell.

Now who is stupid?

 

Calm down. The choice was a mistake in many people's opinions. You telling people to shut up doesn't prove anything. Many people far prefer a native output instead of running connectors that could compromise video quality.

 

Very stupid indeed, they lost me as a potential customer (of course, after seeing the dutch site doesn't allow you to get a 1520 with a 8600GT card it wouldn't have mattered, I wouldn't get it now even if it had HDMI...)

 

That's NOT comparable to a DVI or HDMI port...
First because with your solution, the data goes from digital to analogic to digital again. Each conversion can decrease quality.

Then if you purchase the blueray drive, and want to watch your brand new blueray movie by connecting the computer to your brand new full HD LCD TV, what will happen? VGA is not HDCP compatible to my knowledge. It means that the full HD image will be resized to a DVD quality image and sent through the VGA port. So you paid for a blue ray drive (500$), a full HD LCD TV (1500$), and you end up with a DVD image quality? Can you explain me that there is no problem here? It's clearly a mistake from Dell. Or it could just be like Zepto with their Santa Rosa lappies: you have an Svideo for the moment, because their HDMI port was not ready yet. They plan to include it in the coming months. I do hope Dell will do the same, otherwise it's clearly a mistake. The XPS 1330 has an HDMI port, they can put it on a 13', so can they on a 15' or a 17'. Of course plenty of people will still buy those laptops, but that's just frustrating for some other and a stopper.

 

Mistake on their side? It's possible in France. Should be everywhere. Just wait until they fix the initial mistakes (like bluetooth option at 115 000€ here

 

I think a lot of people don't care one way or another, but I think it would have been nice to offer it as an option. HP is offering it for any of their models with discrete graphics, you lose one USB port. I bought a Compal which also doesnt have it, I did want it but I will live I guess.

The whole HD issue has got consumers caught in a real mess. I have been receiving HD for free via antenna on all major networks for nearly 3 years, yet my dish company wanted me to pay 20 dollars a month to see all of 20 channels they offer in HD, of which I watch 3 or 4. The Blu-Ray/HD-DVD is totally whacked out, and then to expect people to pay $600 for a player and 10-15 more per movie (same movie, just looks better) is just as bad.

 

i am missing the option: i do not care about dvi or hdmi

 

What I find amusing is that when hollywood expects people to pay again for HD movies- a lot of these movies are old movies, filmed using traditional video cameras ( you need HD cameras to record HD footage as far as Im aware) - so all theyre doing is interpolating the moving image and asking the consumer to pay for THAT again....
Even until just now, say, the Dell M1210 laptop not only includes VGA but a 56k modem - what is it with companies to include old ports on enthusiast line laptops? As DVI and HDMI have been around for a while- surely the price differential between the new and old ports is not that large ( a few dollars maybe) - this kind of cost cutting is not benefitting the consumer.

 

I wouldn't really care either way, but based on the reactions from most here, it does sound like a mistake.

 

It is an absolute mistake, I more then most have 5 digital displays in my house, but forget that I own a small HT business.

And a huge selling point to all my customers is that via HDMI you can easily hookup your PC to play home videos, show pictures, play MP3s and all you need is one simple cable. I have been forcing them all to buy the 17inch HP since it has the HDMI port.

Im am a much bigger Dell fan and they shouldnt need to buy a 2000 XPS to get HDMI, they are just average users and dont need anymore processing power then the inspirons...

Very dissapointed that the inspirons dont have HDMI/DVI

 

I too, will agree that this is a HUGE mistake by dell. I don't think Dell realizes that some basic users prefer HDMI so much that it is a dealbreaker for them (it is for me). And adding a blu-ray drive but forcing you to use the VGA port to output it, resulting in a movie that is 540p(dvd res) instead of 720p or 1080p? That just seems like a waste to me. But I have a feeling it is maybe intentional, since this is a completely new line up featuring a redesign of all their notebooks. They might be using this HDMI/No HDMI as one of the main ways to differentiate the XPS line, which is suited for "hardcore gamers/media enthusiasts", from the regular inspiron line, which is suited for the more basic user. I mean, it's not really hard to get it in there, like risbac mentioned, if they can put it in a 13", why not a 17"? Dell is absolutely capable of putting this in, I think they just chose not too. I think maybe, just maybe, the inspiron line before was taking sales away from their XPS line, and they are now doing this as a way to promote their XPS line by showing the "superiority" in the specifications. Just my two cents.

 

..........

 

You are wrong. A 35mm Image (original film stock going back to the 30's) has more then enough pixels to create an HD image from, even enough for 1080P like my 61" set. So you can watch classic in HD like Clockwork Orange, The Andromeda Syndrom, etc in fantastic HD. Some HD channels like HD Net and Mojo show those re-done classics all the time...good stuff.

I've been getting HD from my cable co since 2001. With a 2 HD Tuner DVR, its the only way to go....

 

Ok, let me be the first to tell you that that adapter youre linking to is STUPID!
That adapter just allows connectivity and thats all it does. It doesnt improve picture quality of a VGA port which is what this debate is all about.

VGA output is only capable of 640 by 480 (with 16bit colors) with a total color palette of 262,144.
That adapter youre showing doesnt change the low res and color of the vga output.

While on the flipside, DVI has a max res of 1854 x 1483 or 2212 x 1243widescreen. That sure beats 640x480
And DVI is capable of producing 24bit/165mill colors
Lastly, with the newer HDMI 1.3 the speed of data transfer and color palette doubles of what DVI is capable of.


With todays laptops any manufacturer who gives consumers an option to add a HD drive or is labeling their laptop a multmedia laptop should have DVI or HDMI out.



edit ADDED:::
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?Ref=168978&Row=430848&Site=US

^^ look at the wholesale cost of the DVI/HDMI interface at DigiKey parts store
$11.88 lol


or the add on DVI interface board. Even thou this is for desktop, a notebook version would be smaller and simular in cost
http://www.cdw.ca/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=780785