Line in jack is MONO?

I was almost ready to order a ze2000t from hpshopping. I eyeballed the display at my local CompUSA, and was very impressed! Of course that model is a standard XGA (1024x768), but compared to my old N3290/XE2 (circa 1999), the ze2000t's display was noticeably larger and brighter. I checked out all the specs; I was able to configure what I wanted (at hpshopping) and come in at about $1000.

Then, just by chance, I was looking through the ze2000 series' Service and Maintenance manual (available online from HP). I couldn't believe my eyes: the mic input jack is SINGLE-CHANNEL (monaural)! I routinely plug my turntable (and tape deck) into my N3290's line-in/mic jack to record directly to MP3 (via MusicMatch usually). With a single channel line-in jack, I could no longer digitize my LPs/tapes to this machine! What a lousy cost-cutting(?) decision!

But...looking elsewhere in that manual, I noticed the Connector Pin Assignments. I found the "Audio In" jack, and saw this:

Audio-In (Microphone):
Pin Signal
1 Audio signal in
2 Audio signal in
3 Ground

The Audio Out jack has basically the same listing, but it adds "Left channel" and "Right channel" to Pins 1 and 2 above. So it's obviously stereo (better be, to support headphones!).

Are there any engineers out there who can tell by this pin assignment table if the Audio-In jack on the ze2000 is "wired" to accept a stereo input? Or are the two pins, 1 and 2, going to the same (mono) channel? I really liked this model, but mono input would be a dealbreaker for me. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.


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Maybe everyone else already realized this, but from my unscientific perusal of other brands' notebooks, a MONO audio-in jack is quite common! In fact, only the DV4000 (from HP's line) has what's described as a stereo mic-in jack. The ze2000, zv6000 and even the zd8000 all have MONO audio-in jacks.

All the Toshiba notebooks I checked tonight have mono audio-ins. All the Dell notebooks I checked did too. Ditto for Sony. Now I didn't check every model of every make, but suffice to say, I was quite surprised. Sounds like anyone who wants to digitize analog audio will have to pony up for an external USB (or PCMCIA) audio interface. Truth be told, that will produce better results anyway.

Am I crazy or is this a new thing?


f

 

No its pretty much always been the case. Unless you get a laptop with a great sound card( can you say never) You have always been limited to mono.

 

Hmm. Like I said, according to HP's service manual, the DV4000's audio-in does indeed support a stereo mic (not to mention my old N3290 P3--even its audio-in is stereo). Could someone here on notebookreview who owns a DV4000 verify this? I don't think they'd like it if I tried to test this spec at CompUSA.


f

 

I dont know about the DV4000 I was speaking more generally. Why dont you call HP Im sure they will know if its stereo or mono.

 

Unless I'm asking in the wrong place (at HP), they don't know as much about their products as "real users" like we have here. I'll post the transcript of my live chat session with an "HP Tech":

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Sofia: Hi frapa.
frapa: Hi.
frapa: Are you still there?
Sofia: Welcome to HP Total Care for Pavilion Notebooks. My name is Sofia. How may I help you today?
Sofia: I am sorry for the delay.
frapa: I have a question about the dv4000 notebook. Can I use a stereo audio signal to connect to its audio input jack? I mean, is the audio input stereo or mono?
Sofia: Yes.
Sofia: You can connect the output of the sound to the stereo.
frapa: No, I'm not asking about the output jack. I'm asking about the input jack.
Sofia: Please let me know the model of the notebook?
frapa: dv4000
Sofia: Could I have a few moments of your time while I search the information for you?
frapa: Sure.
Sofia: Thank you
Sofia: Sorry to have keep you waiting all this while.
Sofia: Frank I am sorry there is no Line-In in the notebooks.
Sofia: You cannot connect the output of the stereo to the notebook.
frapa: So I can plug a stereo microphone in, but not a stereo (audio) signal? I mean the icon for the jack is a little microphone.
Sofia: I am sorry you cannot connect the stereo microphone in the MIC.
frapa: OK, thank you.

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See what I mean? So, anyone here know if you can _really_ plug a stereo audio signal into the dv4000's audio-in jack? Again, the Service Manual indicates it'll accept a "stereo mic" signal...I assume that means you could plug in a CD player's stereo output to it.


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