Dvi Vs Hdmi

Hi, am looking at buying a notebook, either a Acer 5720g which has a DVI-D port with HDCP support or a Acer 5920g that has HDMI output.

The 5920 is nearly 50% more than the 5720 and to be honest the 5720 would do me fine IF it is cabable of a) playing hi def content off the hard drive and b) outputting it to a HDMI lcd tv (with suitable cable)

So in otherwords .. will there be much difference in quality?

The 5920 is a T7300 chip with 2 gig of ram and a 8600m GT gfx chip and the 5720 id a T7100 with 1 gig of ram and a X2500 (X1700) gfx chip.

Thanks.

 

I'd go with the 5920 because of the fact it has a 8600GT GPU. A Dx10 GPU will last longer. If your not going to play games, and your on a tight budget, the 5720 will be more than enough for your needs, assuming your TV has a DVI port.

 

I havent played a game on my home pc in years so I suppose I am hardly likely to start now to be honest.
I am moving country in the next few weeks so will be looking at buying a new Tv then which will prob have a HDMI input rather than a DVI but I believe you can buy leads to do that.

Would the 5720 be capable of outputting 1080P?

 

Yes, your graphics card is more than powerful enough to output resolutions of 1920×1200. (1080p)

http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityradeonx1700/specs.html

 

Depends on the graphics card; look up on the card manufacturer's web site.

 

Another improvement over the x2500 is that it's better at offloading the CPU when playing (compatible) high-def files.

HDMI is backwards compatible with DVI, so you can use a simple adaptor and connect the DVI port through HDMI. You will not, however, be able to transfer sound though the dvi-port (and some HDMI ports as well).

All present graphic cards can outpt 1080p resolutions (except for maybe some older IGP's)

 

Sorry, altered first post to say the 5720 (cheaper option) would do me fine if it can do what I am asking.
As long as the X2500 can output 1080P to the television without any stuttering then I would be happy with that.
At present I have a Dell inspiron 6000 that has a 1.73m chip and a X300 gfx card and it struggles with anything over dvd quality.

 

...It shouldn't stutter. What kind of 1080p material are you planning to watch?

 

Probably the worst kind for this type of thing .. feature/action films etc etc.
I am hoping that in future when prices come down I will be able to put a blue ray drive into the laptop.

 

I ment formats/codecs, stuff like that. Like are you going to watch 1080p x264 .mkv files or WMV-HD/VC1 files. The first is not hardware accelerated (right now anyways) and it won't matter which GPU you get, since it's all processor dependant. The other one is hardware accelerated (have experienced it myself) and getting a geforce 8-series will help alot.

H.264 files (x264 is h.264) acceleration is likely hit and miss. It depends on what encoder was used, in which container it's stored (.mkv, .avi, .mp4, .ogm), which profile it's using and how closely it follows the standard. I believe Nero's AVC files can be accelerated if played in a player that supports acceleration of that particular file. Don't qoute me on this though.

What Purevideo HD can accelerate is this:
realtime (live) H264 high-profile L4.1, VC-1, or MPEG-2 MP@HL (1080p30) decoding @ 40Mbps (Bluray discs only)

ATI's version, UVD, can do the same thing, but they claim they can offload everything to the GPU. The G86 (8400M G, GS, GT and 8600M GS) lacks a few post processing features, but they're just as good at offloading.

Do note that H.264 and VC-1 Decode Acceleration is not currently supported un Windows XP for the 8600 and 8500 series GPUs. This support will be added in upcoming ForceWare drivers release.

 

If you need to, you can always buy a cheap USB decoder, like Elgato ones for Macs.

 

Ah right .. mainly looking at 1080p x264 .mkv files as they seem to be the most readily available.
If you are saying then that these are more processor hungry then there is a Acer 5720 that would give me a T7300 rather than a T7100, a extra stick of DDR2-667 memory plus the X1700 would be 512mb rather than 256mb with 1GB HyperMemory rather than 512mb for an extra £100 ($200?)

Worth the extra?

Dont get me wrong I am able to go for the 5920 if needed but if i can do the same job for £150 less then I would rather do that.

Also the sound card is far superior on the 5920 but the 5720 has High Definition Audio which I would presume is fine?

Thanks for your help so far

 

What's the soundcard on the 5920?

For what you're doing the x1700 is fine. But if you are planning play Blu Ray/HD DVD in the future, the geforce is better. The graphics memory wont't matter. The difference between the two processors aren't that great, although there is one. How large is your budget?

 

After reading the specs again of the 5920 I think it probably has the same soundcard but has Quote : Dolby Home Theatre. Audio hardware is provided by Realtek, but includes Dolby Home Theatre certification which includes Dolby's Digital, Digital Live, Pro Logic II, Headphone and Virtual Speaker technologies.

My budget is approx £800 so the 5920 just about squeezes in

 

hmmm. That might support analog 5.1 (instead of S/pdif passthrough like intel high definition audio). Got a link for it?

 

Not as such .. just what it says on the trusted review web site.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2007/05/31/Acer-Aspire-5920/p2

 

The sound is superior on the 5920, but since both support S/PDIF, you can just reroute the sound through optical cables (mini-toslink) and attach it to your speaker system (if it has optical in)

 

Thanks very much .. you have helped a lot.
Rep given.

Just found this posting so off to have a read now .. I will get there eventually

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143237

 

You're welcome. And thanks for the rep. Hope you get the notebook you want.

 

Went for the 5920 in the end .. as they come with an optional high def player (not in the uk) I thought it would be easier to add at a later date .. plus you never know if the DX10 compatability will come in useful one day.

 

Congratulations.