*HP Envy 15 Owners Lounge! PART 1*

I wish they would start offering the Blu-Ray again. I keep checking but no luck so far

 

boo... i wanted the slot loading.. oh well for as much as i will use it, it wont really matter.

 

Thanks for the clarification Pitabred!

 

For those of you planning to upgrade memory for the i7 models;

Recieved my ewiz.com order today for 2 x 4GB 1333 sticks ($162.99ea w/coupon).

I ordered p/n D3-13s4gs for 'Super Talent' brand using Samsung chips, what I recieved is actual Samsung made sticks P/N M471B5273BH1-CH9. These are the same parts that HP has been shipping on the Gen 1 Envy i7's (at least the one I returned). So if you'll be adding memory these should be an identical match to what comes installed from factory.

 

Does this apply to even 'screen dying when idle'?

 

Thanks for the tip. I plan on ordering memory shortly after receiving my Envy. A little aprehensive ordering before having the laptop in hand.

 

I've got a 50" plasma. And yes, it is awesome.

That seems like a great price for 8 gb worth of ram.

 

Yes I thought so, I had a $20 off coupon which helped. That one is expired but they have this advertised: " $10 off w/ code WINTER10, ends 1/25 " not sure if it's usable for memory but worth a try.

 

Np. Doesn't matter either way to me... I just bought a USB tray style Blu-Ray drive off eBay for $100. Cheaper, and it looks fairly nice as it is. Only problem is it doesn't have a USB hub in it, but considering I'm rarely gonna have it hooked up in the first place, it's not a huge deal to me.

 

I don't see the point in a Blu-Ray drive if you already have a desktop. Get a desktop drive for about $60 and then use it to rip BDs to a flash drive. All you need is a 32GB drive, but I think most movies will fit on a 16gig. Then maybe get a 64gig drive so you can fit a dual layer blu ray. It just makes no sense to carry around not only the BD drive but also the physical media, which get scratched or lost. A 16gig drive is enough for now(I got a free one with the ocupon) and when the prices drop, get a 32gig or 64gig.

 

Humm, I bookmarked the page for that memory. I ordered 6 gig's on my Envy, heck thats all I use on my desktop but another 4 gigs might possibly be nice as an addon at some point. Since the Envy doesnt run triple mode I guess just adding one 4 gig chip later if I decide I need it won't upset the applecart, so to speak.

 

Thats tru to a point, but most BD are much bigger. I keep only the main movie/hd audio track for my rips, and they average at least 20gb. Most big hollywood movies are over 30gb, and a few i have like braveheart/pinnochio/gone with the wind/inglourious s/GI Joe... even stripped they are over 40GB.

Id say a 64GB drive is a minimum to carry just a few files and a single BD safely.

At that point, u better have a USB3.0 stick because when it takes 20+ mins to copy that single 40GB movie thru USB2.0, well it sucks.

 

I never understood why people rip Blu-Ray. It's really not worth the time, especially if you plan on watching it on a 15.6" screen.

I just stick to 700MB xVid/DivX DVD rips and I have no problem with the quality.

 

My thinking is that it takes longer to rip a BD than it does to ocpy to USB, and ittakes longer to play than it does to read from USB, so the USB2 should not be a bottleneck. Besides, until I can actually afford a 64GB flash drive, I can use my 60GB external hard drive.

Also, it takes longer to create an xvid rip of a DVD than it does to do a straight copy of a BD. Also, one of hte reasons I bought this laptop is to sometimes use it as an HTPC, so I absolutely want 1080p(and bitstreaming over HDMI).

Im not saying a BD drive is useless, just not really worht the money or the hassle.

 

I've got a 61" 1080p TV at home, hooked up to a media center. I don't want to keep two copies of all the movies I have, one in HD and one in lower resolution. Besides... xvid/DivX sucks. You should at least use H.264 and get good quality rips from DVD. All my rips are pretty much indistinguishable from the original DVD and they're sitting around 1-2GB depending on the movie.

 

What dvd/blu ray ripping software do you guys recommend? Any decent freeware options?

 

Can't really talk about that stuff here. I'm not a mod on this forum specifically, but I know it's against policy Best not get it started.

 

I have 3TB of BD rips, they all playback at 1080p/23.976hz with HD audio Bitstreaming. Same as off a set top player with the original disk, but at my leisure of a double-click. That is the purpose of ripping BD.

As pitabred stated, I only like keeping/watching one copy as well. Esata has solved my slow copy problem for now, soon to be USB3.

Drizek, unless you copy the ENTIRE movie with menus and extras and all the waste it will not be a "rip from BD straight to usb2.0" affair. There is an intermediate stage, scratch disk as you say, so step2 is all in as fast as your storage medium. I like to have my ISO with just the untouched video/audio tracks... saves space and load/wait time when you want to play it.

For those who can be content with watching a low quality movie, I ENVY you.

-EDIT- per regulation, i legally own all the movies i have ripped... oh and they are home movies, oh and i had permission, ya... that covers it...

 

Head to the Home Theater Computers section of AVSforum.com and there are a few guide pinned right there for you! You can also speak your mind without getting warned.

 

the only drawback if you copy a BR dvd to a usb and then use the HDMI to connect to a TV that doesn't have 5.1 audio built in it will automatically down the audio to stereo, sadly the Envy doesnt have a 5.1 audio out on its own . I'm in the process of getting a gadget that you can hook up to 5 HDMI inputs to that actually breaks out the Audio to a ToS connection so I can route the audio directly to the Amp which does handle 5.1

 

those are cool devices, but ive never found a compact or inexpensive one. Which are you looking at? Ive seen this one before:

http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI%201x1%20Audio%20Converter.html

 

That ones simular but I found an open boxed one that does 5 instead of just 1 and they will sell it to me for $99

 

The Envy doesn't have 5.1 out? Via HDMI it darn well better. That's part of the spec You can't do 5.1 out separate from the HDMI, but that's a different ball of wax.

 

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my $50 coupon. I didn't get a slice battery when I ordered. It would have been $125 ordered. With the coupon its like $119. Are there still connection problems with it and do folks think it is worth it?

 

Over HDMI the envy has support for every imaginable audio format. He was referring to an optical out as backup for older systems, like how sony has both on many of their models.

 

This one is almost as expansive and big as a dedicated media tank device.

 

I bought the Super Talent labeled Samsung memory and they accepted the Winter10 coupon. I made the order this morning. They did give me trouble processing because my shipping address was not on file with the CC company.

 

Thats what I meant, It only has a stereo out or 5.1 via HDMI so if you have an older TV you end up with stereo on the HDMI cable unless you break the audio out before it gets to the TV

 

Starting from the HD4xxx series, video cards from ATI are supposed to support 7.1 uncompressed through the HDMI connector. The mobility 5830 definitely supports uncompressed "high bit rate" 7.1 over HDMI: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/ati-mobility-hd-5800/Pages/hd-5830-specs.aspx

However, TOSLINK S/PDIF CANNOT support 5.1 44kHz 16bit uncompressed, let alone 7.1 192 kHz 24bit uncompressed, so unless the "break out" box supports on-the-fly Dolby Digital or DTS compression, it's not going to be able to do 5.1 over TOSLINK at all because the S/PDIF standard doesn't support 5.1 uncompressed.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=819951
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSLINK

You'd be better off purchasing an inexpensive Home Theatre Receiver like the Onkyo TX-SR607 that decodes just about everything over HDMI for < $400US.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B001VEI2KO
If you need 7.2 pre-outs, then you'll have to fork over a bit more $$$ and get the TX-SR707. The good old TX-SR604 had 7.1 pre-outs.

 

Some old hp laptops support spdif from headphone jack.

 

Odd my DTV unit and my blu-ray play both seem to manage sending 5.1 (DTS) via ToS

 

Duh. DTS is compressed and so is DD, they are supported on S/PDIF. Read my original post again.
a) DTV does not support anything other than DD, so no problem.
b) Your bluray player is doing on the fly conversion of the native 7.1 or 5.1 audio to compressed DD or DTS over S/PDIF.

But if one has some special Bluray software on the laptop to support bitstreaming DTS (not DTS-HD, or the advanced DD plus formats native to Bluray) over the HDMI that could conceiveably be converted over to S/PDIF. But I really doubt such interoperability exists. I know that the major software bluray players for PC's will do on-the-fly DD encoding for S/PDIF outputs, but have not heard of it for HDMI audio.

It's rare to have DTS or DD bitstreamed through HDMI from bluray, I've never heard of it. It's usually only the native bluray formats, DTS-HD or DD plus that are bitstreamed though the HDMI connection. Other than that it's usually uncompressed 5.1 or 7.1 PCM (DRM'd of course)

Carefully read the specs on your HDMI to TOSLINK audio breakout box... does it claim 5.1 or 7.1 through the TOSLINK S/PDIF output? Unless it does on-the-fly DD or DTS compression, it can't.

 

Humm, well this unit:

http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI 1x1 Audio Converter.html

says:
"This unique HDMI distribution amplifier will directly pass HDMI and convert HDMI audio to Optical 5.1 Digital Audio Optical and L/R Stereo audio."
&
"Digital Toslink Audio output for surround sound integration
Audio interface supporting PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS digital audio at up to 192kHz frame rate"

so maybe its converting to compressed on its own

EDIT:
Ah Ha, found this on their FAQ page
"How do I get surround sound to my Audio Receiver from HDMI -
• If your Audio Receiver only has Optical Audio surround sound input- Octava HDMI distribution amplifiers provide HDMI to Optical audio ( 5.1)conversion. You can connect your HDMI sources to the Octava HDMI Distribution Amplfiers and audio will be converted to Optical format AND will be available on the HDMI ouput and the Optical output. This allows you to get audio directly to the HDTV AND/OR thru the Surround Sound Receiver."

 

Go ahead, buy it, if you're so certain you're correct.

You'll find out that providing 5.1 audio through two channel dolby pro logic is within their claims. There's nothing in there that states that it will output 5.1 / 7.1 uncompressed on the TOSLINK, nor DD or DTS from a 5.1 or 7.1 uncompressed LPCM HDMI audio stream . Send them email and get clarification if it'll output DD or DTS to the TOSLINK connector from a 5.1 LPCM over HDMI. I know it cannot do 5.1 uncompressed to TOSLINK because it just IS NOT SUPPORTED.

Also why do they sell a different model, the http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI switch 4x2_7_1audio.html
with 7.1 LPCM to analog conversion? If the optical out handled it all why would they have to such a unit? It's interesting how they do not claim 5.1 optical out on this more expensive unit.

The audio converter you specify states:

Read between the lines, TOSLINK supports PCM, DD and DTS, that's all the second line claims. They never claim that their convertor converts 5.1 or 7.1 LPCM to those formats, just the first sentence, where a 2 channel stereo connection over TOSLINK would fulfill the requirement. They may be able to convert a DD or DTS HDMI audio stream to TOSLINK S/PDIF, but it'll hard to find something that outputs those streams from a bluray on a PC on the HDMI audio outputs.

 

I think I asked the same question many messages back. What exact audio format does the IDT chipset support on the Envy? If we know the exact model chipset/codec than it can easily found on their site.

HD Audio comes in all types of formats and its up to the codec to support the various channel outputs.

 

Well, a simple solution, if anyone know for sure it should be them. I will email them and point blank ask. I'll then post back here my question and their response. That way anyone thinking getting one of their devices will have an answer straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.

 

The connection problems appear to have been fixed. Will you be using the laptop much on the road? If you will, its definetly a good idea. If the laptop will sit on your desk for the majority of time as a desktop replacement, then no, probably a little pointless.

 

So a couple people received these early last week (on the forums, at least) and we've heard not a thing more? Weird.

 

Here is a new notebookcheck comparison test of the i3 / i5 / i7 CPU's with benchmarks and power consumption data;

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Core-i3-i5-i7-Processors-Arrandale.25085.0.html

 

I have the UK edition of the Envy 15-1060-ea, i want to upgrade the ram from the standard 4gb how many slots are there? and exactly what ddr3 modules do I need. Thanks

 

4 connectors, each able to accept up to 4GB DDR3 SODIMM 204pin. Only two of these connectors are easy to access, although with some disassembly you can get at them all.

You could plug some 1066MHz RAM in there, or 1333MHz, but in all honesty you'd probably not notice the difference, so I'd stick with the cheaper option.

Just make sure it is DDR3 and has 204 pins (i.e. is a SODIMM / laptop RAM) and you should be fine. Try to shop around for one with lifetime warranty, but more importantly a seller that allows you to return if you find you did actually order the wrong modules.

 

If you have the i7-720 or 820 qm processor the you have 4 Dimm slots, 2 in battery compartment and 2 inside case--see user manual for exact locations

4GB modules should be these: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=D3-13S4GS

2GB modules should be these (or similar): http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name...SODIMM-2GB-128x8-Samsung-Chip-Notebook-Memory

There has been some reports of HP shipping 1066Mhz speed modules from the factory so you may want to confirm what your existing 4GB speed are before you order.

 

Thats great thanks ;-)

 

As we're from the UK we will no doubt get stuffed and probably only have the 1066MHz stuff. I mean not only do we not have the option of configuring our machines, we also do not even have a pre-built machine with an SSD, or the i5 version of the Envy - though they did recently update it so we had the 5830 option.

To illustrate how painful it is for us in the UK, the only model that has the 5830 costs £1,500 GBP. The same configuration on the US website costs $1,750, but with the exchange rate currently being 1 USD = 0.6165 GBP, that brings the price to an equivalent of £1080 or thereabouts, meaning we in the UK are paying pretty much 40% more than our US buddies.

Ah well, at least we have nice weather...... oh hold on a sec.....

[/END RANT]

 

Okay so since I ordered 6 gigs and the specs say its 3 sticks of memory I will only have on free mem slot correct?

 

@ Fragilexx & claireanna81 "As we're from the UK we will no doubt get stuffed and probably only have the 1066MHz stuff....

Ah well, at least we have nice weather...... oh hold on a sec....."



I think I would take your weather over mine anytime in the winter, lol.

I just realised that I will be upgrading my i5 model to 8GB (2 x 4GB) and wil have the 2 original 2GB (probably 1066Mhz) modules left over. I don't know the policy about selling items on the forum so I will put it this way; If it is difficult to procure memory at a reasonable price in the UK feel free to private message me.

 

Correct as long as you trust HP's specs. LOL

Sorry, yes that should be 3 x 2GB and in theory 1333 Mhz ( but didn't someone just get 1066 with an i7 model).

 

Mine shipped with the standard 4gb, would that be 2x2gb in the machine? and would these be the accessable or inaccesable ones?

 

It's not against the law if you're ripping DVDs/Blu-Rays that you own. Perfectly legal. You just can't make/sell copies to give to others/post online for others to download.

I'm fairly certain it's fine to talk about it on the forums as long as you don't talk about criminal activities, etc.

I use Pavtube. It works quite well. It does cost a little, but so far it has worked without a hitch. I've bought and used it to rip both my DVDs and Blu-Ray dvds (Blu-Ray version purchased seperately). You can test out the program for free by ripping complete DVDs, but they just have a Pavtube logo watermark on them. LINK

If for some wild reason this is not allowed on the forums, feel free to simply delete this post. Thanks...

And let's get back on topic... ENVY 15. lol

I ordered on Jan 15th. My is still set to ship on its original ship date which is the 28th.

Would it be possible to buy a i7 620UM and put it into the Envy 15? Would the CPU socket/chipset support that. Because that would be awesome... We're talking about adding several hours to the battery life. How much performance would you lose doing that?

 

Let us know if it ships on time. Mine is set to ship February 4th. My fingers are crossed it doesn't get delayed. If you look at HP's site, any ENVY 15 that you build as of now has an estimated build date of FEBRUARY 23RD! Hopefully they don't get delayed... or they'll probably get delayed a lot.

Quick question: after reading through a lot of the info in this forum I can't quite find the answer... Is the "horizontal line problem" limited to the 1080 brightview monitor? Or has it also been spotted on the anti-glare monitor as well?