*HP dv8 Owners Lounge*

NO I haven't noticed.... getting back on subject... I'm for any OS that will utilize the new powers and abilites of our processors.

I"ve been tired of having 64bit processors for some time "Pre win7 for me" now and not having software that can utilize it... its about time!

I expect Win 8 will be all hype to get more bucks out of everyones pocket.. but hopefully I"m wrong and it will make the DV8t even faster.

So how much ram is needed for Win8?

I currently have 8 gig and most of the time I"m only utilizing less than 2 gig "1.8 right now"... so its quite possible we won't need another computer to run it?

 

I follow such things more closely, perhaps, as the OS is at the heart of everything and I like to understand whatever is coming.

I ran my previous OS (64-bit XP) for many years but skipped Vista.

I'm sorry you're so cynical. I prefer to gain the understanding of it so I can judge that possibility based on the facts. It's been over 10 years since I felt the OS was "all hype to get more bucks out of everyones pocket"... sheesh! (It was called Windows Millenium Edition)

I don't recall if memory requirements have been announced yet but it will not be available in a 32-bit version FWIW so many older computers (before 2003) won't be able to run it. Probably the same memory required as Win7 64-bit.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Can the DV7-4035 take 2 HD´s?

 

Yes, it appears to be just like the DV8 in that respect. See Page 51 in the DV7t Maintenance and Service Manual:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02476540.pdf

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Does anyone know why HP discontinued the dv8?

 

HINT:
If you're looking to buy an HP laptop, your choices right now are going to be the dv7 or the envy17 or envy17(3D). There is a 'shift' in this market segment (>18") for HP with a focus on '3D' - if you're not into the '3D' scene you may not like the dv8t successor....

Edit: I suppose I should have included the G72t as a viable option as well...

 

Interesting, Woods. I guess that's the first indication of what was on HP's collective brain.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I had to 'give-in' a little...

I still haven't had time to mess with Minefield or Chrome yet, but do you have any opinions or anything significant to say about either? How is Chrome these days (other than speedy)? I'm also under the impression that Chrome will not work with Netflix (still not 100%) which is a bummer. Pros/Cons? Interested in your opinions...

 

Chrome is nice.... but I just had to use FF this morning.

I send myself scanned images from my phone and when I get home I log them into my computer by copying the image and pasting it into a word document.

Chrome wouldn't let me copy the image from my gmail so I went to FF and it worked perfect.

I"m still mixed.... Chrome if faster but other than initially opening, I find it hard to tell the difference....., the few ms difference is not noticeable.

Its hard to test because internet speeds are always in flux.. especially with wireless and when logging on a given site, it rarely is the same every time even with the same browser.

Jury is still out for me...

 

I guess there are a lot of compromises going on ... I'm just glad to hear something
- the "silence had been deafening" ... :wink:

I have written a few things here about my testing of Chrome and Minefield.

I haven't found anything that I didn't like in either one but I don't do the sorts of things you (and Alan) do. I haven't signed up for NetFlix. I find Chrome so fast in loading pages and starting up that it's quite seductive. i also like the Chrome interface a bit better than FF. I watch videos on YouTube and find both work quite well. I still use FF3.6 for secure sites.

How come you haven't just downloaded Chrome or Minefield and tried them with the things you are interested in.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I have never gone that way ... I guess I've copied images from Chrome and attached them to an email from Gmail. I'll go try it just to see if I can help you but I suspect it works fine since I know of nothing that would prevent it. (I may change my mind after trying it)

My internet is slow (but very consistent) so the Chrome speed benefits are quite noticeable in almost everything, but download speed, that I do with it.

Sorry your connection is so variable in speed as I would find that very irritating (even outside of evaluating Chrome).

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I just recently received my dv8t-1200, first thing I did was wipe the drives clean and installed win7 x64 ultimate.

I got everything (the touch keys) to work except for the eject button. I thought it was a software or hardware problem but now I feel more a bit at ease as this is a HP problem.

 

I think that those who follow this thread pretty strongly will see the influence they've had on the thought process going into this model...

Thanks for your thoughts. I went back and re-read everything relating to both. Pretty good info from all. But ultimately it just comes down to time constraint. I don't really have time to play with it all to my liking at this point in time so I just haven't bothered yet...

 

I recall others having issues relating to the quicklaunch buttons after doing a clean install, but I 'think' they resolved them. Perhaps they will chime in. In the meantime, you can visit the official driver thread here on this forum:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...v6-gen-2-dv7-gen-3-dv8-hdx16-hdx18-intel.html

Scroll down to 'HP Quick Launch Buttons' and see if you have the latest driver or maybe try an older version?

EDIT: I guess I was thinking of the volume sliders after searching this thread a bit. Perhaps it's still relevant. Check out this post (Credit to Windstrings and pae77):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ial-hp-dv8-owners-lounge-465.html#post6639520

 

Now my mouth is watering... I look forward to learning more.

We all function under varying demands ... Right now I have time to play ... a month ago, no free time at all. Enjoy Chrome and Minefield when you find the time.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Is there any way to get an optical audio signal out of the DV8?

Or SPDIF?

 

Extract it from HDMI, perhaps? I've never done it though I think it's present.

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Just to let u guys know... You CAN software RAID the 2 hard drives in a DV8 if you have a version of Windows 7 that supports RAID, ie: W7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise... Home Premium doesn't include RAID support out of the box, but u might be able to do the DLL hack as with previous MS O/Ses...

 

Theres a few converters u can get over here that take the digital audio from HDMI...

T.D.E. Solutions Limited - Kramer FC-47 HDMI to DVI and S/PDIF Converter


I deffo gonna go to heaven now...

 

I'm assuming your surround sound does not accept HDMI connections? HDMI is the only digital audio source. On some other HP laptops the headphone jack could be changed to a 'spdif' output in the settings, but the feature is not available on the dv8t. Adibee is correct, you would have to get a converter. You could also get a docking station as most (including HP's offerings) offer a digital out(s) of some sort. Just a thought....

 

Hi Woods

Dunno if u saw a few weeks back i left u a thank u for the help with the TV... Turns out u cant get the UK card anywhere, here or over there... and believe me I tried about 30 places... so the laptop is saved from me attacking it with a screwdriver...

Guess the thank you comes from the DV8 ..

:O)

 

I think that hardware RAID had been the issue back when we "discussed" RAID on DV8 .

After that the issue became one about the pros and cons of types of RAID. I don't believe anyone ever said that software RAID wasn't possible on a DV8 though I said I thought it (software RAID) had some performance and reliability shortcomings COMPARED to HARDWARE RAID.

It is unclear from your statement (perhaps intentionally) whether you have created and run software RAID on your DV8. Did you do so? If so, was it RAID-1?

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Sorry you couldn't obtain it over there (UK), Adi.:cry:

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Thanks for that info, Woods.

I told PAE77 that I thought digital audio was available from the HDMI (assuming some sort of adapter would be needed) and glad you have confirmed that.

Docking station seems like a great idea, particularly if no supplemental hardware processing of the audio is needed. Probably cheaper than a special adapter, too. Have you a Part number for the HP docking station for the DV8?

Regards,
- - Phil

 

Hi Phil me old Buddy... How u doin

As your quote above says, you converted your disks to dynamic but you still couldn't RAID them... Unless you guys have funky hardware RAID terminology that includes the word "Dynamic", I would say you were talking, amongst other things, Software RAID.

I just got an email back from HP tech saying that SW RAID will work with W7 Pro or Ultimate .... Which is understandable as Home Premium has no OOTB Raid support... I'm not going to upgrade the OS as the laptop is just mainly a backup for my main share dealing rig, so I wont be doing it myself.

It was just a post to advise others who may want to do it...

Maybe you might want to attempt to get it working again after failing last time :O)

 

Yep I was telling you that RAID (HW) couldn't work because of the lack of BIOS support.

While you forgot that reference to SOFTWARE RAID in your responses to that post at that time, you're correct that I couldn't get RAID-0 (SW) to work a year ago, either, but was not saying it wouldn't work today! I was saying that it is a waste of time IMO and I didn't pursue it further once I found SSD was available. I never tried RAID-1 because of reliability concerns. NONE of that has changed.

So your post meant that a tech told that you some form of software RAID will work under appropriate supporting versions of Win 7 and you've NOT done it yet? So, yours is second hand information (like none of us ever got wrong info from the HP techs?). What others would, perhaps, find useful is to hear from anyone who has actually succeeded in getting SW RAID (either -0 or -1) working on a DV8! (please indicate your BIOS version if you post here about it)

Did you ask the tech about SWRAID-0 AND SWRAID-1 or only SWRAID-1? Since you have indicated in the past that you were only interested in RAID-1, it may be that SWRAID-0 (all I ever tried) still doesn't work. Which did you ask about?

Your post might reawaken some hope in them :rolleyes2: ... but on a DV8, I still would recommend an SSD over SWRAID=0 and recommend against anyone using SWRAID-1.

For the reasons previously given, I certainly have NO INTEREST in SW RAID on my DV8, neither now nor in the future!

Regards,
- - Phil

 

I saw it. You're welcome. Sorry to hear it didn't work out on the TV Tuner....

 

Umm.. Sure Sounds to me like you did...

If you can do RAID 0 there is no reason why you cannot do RAID 1 and vise versa... Windows RAID supports both...

SSD's will not provide you with redundancy against a drive failure, RAID 1 will... I'll let you know if I can find anybody else to agree with your claim that RAID 1 is less reliable than a single drive...

It was an email from HP Tech Support. Granted they may not be guaranteed to know what they are talking about, but then again, I've met one or two self claimed "tech support" people in forums not unlike this one, and they have proved to be far less knowledgeable than they themselves think they are...A bit like those people on American Idol who think that they are great singers but sound awful... :O)

Again, If you can do RAID 0 there is no reason why you cannot do RAID 1 and vise versa... Windows RAID supports both... But my question to HP asked about both RAID 0 and RAID 1...

I'll pass your concerns about software RAID over to Microsoft, Solaris, Unix, Linux etc... I'm sure that your right and they are all just wasting valuable coding time in including this silly facility in their respective operating systems.

No, but you did have an interest in the past,although you failed to get it working despite trying. As the post was not intended specifically for you alone, there may well be others who would like to give it a go and will find the information useful...

 

Thanks to all who responded to my question about digital audio out from the DV8. It's for my Nuforce Icon HDP (headphone amp, external DAC, preamp) unit. It has USB in and the USB DAC gets 24/96 resolution (which sounds great btw), but it also can take SPDIF via COAX or Optical ins and through those inputs its DAC can get even higher 24/190 something resolution which should be even more awesome, assuming the SPDIF out from the DV8 doesn't cause some additional degradation of its own in the signal out. The dock sounds like it would be the best way to go if I wanted to try SPDIF out. The dock might also be useful for other things as well I suppose.

But tbh, I'm really quite satisfied with the sound of the HDP's USB input. Especially using Foobar2000 as my audio player with its "WASPI" plug in which I just learned about a couple of days ago. The WASPI plug in offers a very simple way to further isolate the DV8's audio signal out (which was already bypassing the built in sound card) so it doesn't even run through the W7 audio mixer (lower right system tray speaker icon). This simple trick (WASPI works on Vista and W7) made a huge difference in the quality of the audio I was getting via USB. Before I used WASPI to isolate the signal from the OS, it sounded good but I was getting some very annoying occasional glitches in the sound apparently caused by interference from other things going on in the OS. Fortunately, the additional WASPI isolation totally eliminated those annoying audio glitches and now I'm getting really great clean totally isolated and unblemished audio performance from the USB connection to the HDP. This upgrade (the Nuforce HDP), although a little expensive (costing about 1/3 of the cost of my DV8), has been totally worth it to me for the dramatically increased sound quality for music (essentially converting the DV8 to simply a "transport" source device). And the great thing is I'll also be able to use it with any new machines I may get in the future as long as they have either USB 2.0 or SPDIF out.

But I was just curious about whether it was possible and how hard (expensive) it would be to try another audio out besides using USB. It would be interesting to see if the higher resolution DAC available through SPDIF would further improve the sound quality, or whether the SPDIF signal path would not work as well as the USB/WASPI method for some other reason. Only way to find out would be to experiment with it. But as I said, I'm really quite satisfied with USB (using WASPI) now.

 

You were correct. I just realized I did not include your reply when I multi-quoted in my response. You deserve credit as well...

I guess I should retract my statement about HP Docking stations having digital audio support - at least for the current models listed. It appears the one I was thinking of (XB4000) is not offered through HP Direct anymore. I found it for sale from other retailers though for ~$80. The part # is 481018-001. Model XB4000. It definitely has SPDIF and uses Port Connector 3 on our DV8t's.

Link to XB4000 Manual:
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01621869.pdf

 

You posted right before I did, but look at my post right above this regarding the XB4000. If you choose to try out a docking station, I highly recommend this one in particular. Of course it is obviously IMHO...

 

That's great info and good to know. I've copied that info to the notes I keep on DV8 audio. I was wondering what dock would be best to get if I wanted to try SPDIF. So thank you for that additional info.

 

This thing just won the T3 gadget award...


DacMagic Digital to Analogue Converter