Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

For those of you who ordered this system with the 128/256gig SSD, what is the make & model of the ssd? I'm wondering if it supports TRIM.

 

What software did you use for playback? Maybe there are some settings that you can tweak.

 

That is entirely an issue with the playback software, has it been set up properly? The hardware is capable of playing BluRay properly many times over.

FIRST, set up desktop display properties properly, as described elsewhere in this thread.

THEN set up playback properties, either in the player software or in the Nvidia control panel. The "softness" you describe sounds like suboptimal settings for deinterlacing.

 

I have a couple questions.

1. What ADH Service Plan should I get - Sony from sony style or Sony from Provantage? Provantage told me that with their plans service is done by the same Sony techs as the sony style plans. Provantage offers many more plans and the ones that are comparable to sony style are $100 cheaper, on average.

2. Does sony style charge a recycling fee? If they charged me 9.25% sales tax, or whatever they charge for CA, that means I was charged an additional $18 for tax for some reason. I paid a recycling fee when I got a plasma tv, but it was only $10.

 

The recycling fee is $2.19, or some such, added to the invoice.

If Provantage is cheaper, then buy that.

 

No, mine is the same. The fan works really hard under load so it's louder than other machines I've used; however, it runs cooler too.

I'd rather have a louder machine with better cooling than the reverse.

I have also noticed the fan 'whistle' (no, not the mic problem). It seems to happen at lower levels...not constant either.

 

Mine doesn't whistle but I got the audio feedback. Sadly, I move overseas soon and won't have time to get it fixed.

Space key squeaks a bit too...I'm hoping that works itself out.

 

I found the same playing a Blu-ray using windvd. I have found windvd to be a bit of a resource hog in the past so I suspect it may be that?

In other news:
Re. the morse code whining, since applying the Realtek audio driver update from sony's UK site (uploaded 2/2) I haven't heard it... They describe the update as fixing a high frequency noise.

Also, interesting that the machine struggles a bit using some elements of Photoshop CS4: clearly some of it is only designed for sing core, and my machine wouldn't boost itself above 2.5GHz and applying things like a brush to a photo was very jerky.

Anyone with a EU (matte) premium display calibrated it with a Spyder willing to share their settings? I tried the settings earlier on in the thread but it looked awful on this screen which i suspect may be because it was on a different screen

 

That's actually quite worrying. Doesn't matter how much of a resource hog WinDVD is, it should work fine with the powerful specs of this machine. WinDVD certainly ran fine on my old Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz with 2 gigs ram and Win7

Vaio F certainly seems to be playing fine in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGM366GcjgA
Seemingly using VLC.

How does the lag during your photo editing compare to your previous system?



Are you unsatisfied with the colours as they are without calibration or was it more of an experiment? I have a trip scheduled to the states end of march / beginning of April and might pick up a Spyder there

 

Well either it's only using one core and struggling or it's just a crap programme... I'm suspecting the latter as I've had no problems with any other video watching so far (eg. bbc iplayer HD, windows media player etc)

Compared to my 1.8GHz A417 it's pretty similar. I have yet to try a different programme for photoshopping though. Things like applying filters seemed to be pretty speedy though.

I've played with the nvidia settings an am pretty happy but then I don't have the first clue about good monitor settings. I have been to the calibration sites mentioned though and it looks pretty good there.

Update: I lied in my last post about the morse code noise. I've reapplied the fix and it's gone again. The sony driver update doesn't fix it.

 

Based on a post a while back, it is a Toshiba 43nm model. The 43nm models started shipping in August 2009 when there was no TRIM, which obviously came via Windows 7. So it is possible that the firmware has been upgraded on the 43nm model that is shipping with the F-series, to support TRIM. But we just can't confirm that, unless Sony clarifies it (or Toshiba clarifies it).

 

Hi, I'm thinking of getting one but not sure what model.

What's the difference between the Pro Grade and Premium screen? Does it matter if I don't do photo editing, i'll just do web, games, movies, etc.

And does anyone know when we'll get the backlit keyboard in the UK? It's not a deal breaker but would be nice to have!

TIA Jon

 

In the UK the premium screen = matte full RGB, other = HD glossy
In the US the premium screen = HD glossy

Backlight and transferjet will probably make their way to the UK f series in a refresh (anwhere between 3 and 18 months)

 

You got it, Dr. Watson!

If photography & true colors are important to you: Monitor Calibration and Profiling: "If you can not trust the colors displayed on your monitor, all other color management is a waste of time. Calibrating and profiling your monitor should, therefore, be your first priority..."

An other good read: Monitor Calibration: Who needs it?

What is the cost of a colorimeter compared to the cost of your machine + the hours spent on tweaking images? How fun is it to see a pink T-shirt on the screen that comes out lavender once printed?

 

Have you tried these 2 easy workarounds for the whining?:

post#2462

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5748529#post5748529

 

It is not as simple as that either. You might have a perfectly calibrated monitor but if you need to take it to an external entity to get it printed, their printers could very well not be calibrated accordingly.

So you may be seeing the perfectly pink T-shirt, as pink on your calibrated screen, but will still get the beautiful lavender shade, when printed out on Costco's printer.

 

I would like to second my thanks to you for pointing this out to the forum. Now I don't have to worry about feedback noise if an application enables the internal mic.

 

Yes, that's obvious. I did not want to re-write the entire article: "Luckily, it is the easiest part of the image capture, editing, and printing system to profile".

But even with a "Costco printer", it's possible to have a print similar to what you see on your screen if you understand the process. It's a chain & if the monitor is skewed, then all bets are off and it does not make sense to waste your time tweaking the color balance with Photoshop, for example.

 

Any feedback on this post? Also, I'm concerned about the mention in one recent post of playback problems with DVDs. Have others seen pixelation of moving images on DVDs or Blu-rays? It seems strange that even the slowest F11 should have any such problem.

 

I had an AW 390 Premium with the works. The best of the best at the time. It had occasional problems with playback. I suspect it was WinDVD. It was very quirky in my experience. But having said that, I don't have the posters machine in front of me and really can't say. I had an F11 and I played Blu-Ray on it while on battery and didn't see any problems.

 

Here we go again... it was only 1 post, his post #1 BTW, looks like trolling to me.

All owners reported excellent Blue Ray & DVD reproduction so far. OTOH it's always possible to mess-up settings or use clunky software, but that's not hardware related. Is it the plane or the pilot in the cockpit?

 

Can you post the link to the updated driver you downloaded? Also, what is the version? The latest driver I downloaded from the US site did not fix my noise issue.

 

No, he made a mistake: "Update: I lied in my last post about the morse code noise. I've reapplied the fix and it's gone again. The sony driver update doesn't fix it." from this post.

Enter your model # on this page to see the latest downloads available.

Just relax & enjoy your machine w/ the workaround, when a patch comes out, you can be sure that it will be posted here many times over!

 

Issue post #2699 on page 270:
DVD Playback on F11 makes moving images/objects pixelised. Unwatchable! Still objects in the movie look fanastic, though.

The drive is Blu-ray but I should say that I was trying 'normal' DVDs not Blu-ray ones.

Testing this machine in the store, the exact poor quality playback was produced using both WinDVD BD and Windows Media Player (or center) as bundled with F11.

Should we be able to play normal DVDs 'satisfactorily' on this Blu-ray drive?

Is it expected to see playback quality degradation in this situation?
(The salesperson, after watching the playback, disapproved of old [DVD] technology ...)

How much quality improvement in video playback can we expect from tweaking the options in the Nvidia control panel?

 

So this one store machine with customers messing-up with it all day is a more valid example than owners testimonials in this thread?

If the store was BB, there is an update for that model: Corel® WinDVD BD® Software Update: "Resolves an issue where the WinDVD BD application may freeze (stop responding) when inserting a DVD disc after playing Blu-ray Disc™ media". Note: This utility is only for use with the products identified and sold in United States, Latin America, or Canada. Not all models are sold in all countries.

 

Consider this...some Blu-ray players scale to hd screens beter than others. DVD's look terrible on my Panasonic Blu-Ray player but look fantastic on my Oppo. Same thing here?

 

For those of you who ordered this system with the 128/256gig SSD, what is the make & model of the ssd? I'm wondering if it supports TRIM.

 

Ah, I thought Pro Grade was different to Premium. The question should have been: do I need the Premium screen over the normal 1900 x 1080 screen for internet, movies & games if I don't edit photos?

 

I edited my post to make clear that the complaint appeared in only one post. The last thing I want to do is feed a rumor mill about the F11. I do want to check out the complaint before I buy, but it's interesting that (as he later explained) the poster saw the playback problem on a store model. Unless others who actually have this model voice a similar complaint, I'll rest easy.

 

I just purchased a european F11S1E.

The premium screen is very nice.

the whinning noise can be heared and removed as described in this forum, and the fan is not so much noisy on normal use (I mean idle lol).

One issue is that I can't create the recovery dvd DL. It burns the first and then crashes saying that it can't be burnt and stops the porcess.
But that dvd can be read on the pc and I don't know if it is ok or not.

Am I alone in this case?

 

Did you follow ALL the steps described here including:

- Close all open programs.

- NOTE: It is recommended to verify the recovery discs were created properly by checking the box next to Verify my disc was created correctly . Although. this process takes longer.

What kind of blank media are you using?

It's a good idea to also create a system repair disc.

 

I've just seen your other message @10:38 concerning the same issue.

Asking how to improve the playback quality was not a testimonial. This is a potential customer testing a machine that is being displayed for sale. This is not a competitor trying to denigrate Sony or F11.

You seem quite knowledgeable about the product.
It is great you to be helpful to those trying to sort out issues before commiting to buy or who just bought the product and facing a new learning curve.

There are now about 273 pages on this thread. I've read about a quarter of them and still going .. Please don't expect that everyone would know everything that's already been said.


Thanks in advance.

 

Yes, I followed all those steps (net the first time, I was discovering the laptop in parallel, but the second time yes and same result : so I burned/crashed two dvds)

The DVDs are DVD-R DL from Memorex, usually good ones, certified 8.5 GB and 8x max speed.

 

Hello,

If I missed a post that already speaks to my question then I apologize in advance.
I am trying to download the latest drivers from Nvidia for the 330M, but the 300 series is not listed as a possible download on Nvidia's site and when I did a search for the 300 series it came back with a statement about using the drivers from the notebook manufacturer instead. Does anybopdy know of a way around this? I understand why they are enforcing this policy, but I still want the latest drivers form nvidia and the ability to continue doing so going forward.

 

Did you go to Sony Support & using your model #, check if there is any updates?

Did you disabled your anti-virus?

Did you select "check for errors"?

Did you try testing the write speed for your burner and/or selecting a slower burn speed?

Did you check what was the error using the Windows 7 Event Viewer?

 

You can link to an exact post by right-clicking the post # (top right) & copying the URL to make it easier for us.

"There are now about 273 pages" - there is a nifty little feature on this forum: "Search this thread", on the line above the first post on this page, right side.

BTW people, if you write pertinent keywords in the subject of your post, it makes the search much more efficient instead of always using "Re: Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge". You need to "Go Advanced" to be able to do so instead of "Post Quick Reply".

 

In Europe, premium = pro grade; I can't say what the normal HD is like, but I use the EU premium and it's very nice. In the states, premium is not the same as the premium/pro grade as over here, hence the confusion.

I can't say you'll need it, but I suspect it'll be a nicer screen...

 

Did you not ask this exact same question via Post# 2701 ? And did you even check the responses that followed ? Especially in post# 2711 ?

 

In this presscentre.sony.eu page they write: "Movies, games and your personal media collection are brought to life by the professional-grade 41.6cm (16.4” Full HD VAIO Display Premium. The anti-glare screen offers full 100% Adobe RGB coverage for the truest, most vivid reproduction of colour tones you’ve seen from a notebook computer. Other VAIO F Series models feature a high-quality VAIO Display with Full HD 1920x1080 resolution."

In the North-American market, only the "high-quality VAIO Display with Full HD 1920x1080" is offered so far, described as semi-glossy or glossy compared to other high-gloss screens.

I'm sure that their North-American market studies revealed that the majority of North-American consumers prefer shiny stuff. I'm in the minority.

 

To be quite honest, many of these store display models are horribly configured and don't show the product in the best light. One can get a very lop-sided view of a product, unless one is knowledgeable and is willing to tinker with it to reveal what it is truly capable of.

As we know, most of what we see, is user configurable in such products and if not configured well, will appear quite poor. I would think a responsible store manager will take the time and make sure that someone is paid to ensure that the display models are configured well. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different, with poorly configured display models skewing the image of the product, negatively.

 

Agreed. If the European "premium" (Matte screen with 100% Adobe RGB coverage) was even an option here in the US, I would have chosen it, without even blinking an eye.

As it stands, it is not an available option here, currently.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Are the only differences between the Premium and normal HD screen the colour reproduction and matte/gloss? Do they both have good horizontal viewing angles?

The reason is I tried a Dell Studio 17 and returned it because of the poor horizontal viewing angle. So I'm not keen on buying another laptop without seeing it in front of me, the local Sony shop don't have any!

 

You might be right, but surely Sony realizes that there are lots of photographers (pro and amateur) and graphics professionals in the US. If not--as hard as it is to believe--I'm concerned whether we'll ever see this presumably great display on our side of the Atlantic. I don't mean to speculate about what Sony will or won't do, but rather to register my support for bringing this option to a huge swath of Sony's market.

 

Another theory offered was that they were "using up" the stock of the old FW screens in the US, which means that the Matte screens will certainly appear but it could take a while.

After all, when given an option, one can always go back and pick the 'shiny stuff' if one is so inclined. Of course if one does not even have such an option, (like here in the US), the "shiny stuff" is all one can pick.

 

That's why there was an uproar when Apple offered the Macbook Pro only with a glossy display.

It's your fellow US consumers that are driving the 16:9 & glossy displays.

That's great for movies & games but for everyday work, matte or semi-matte & 16:10 or 4:3 is much more appropriate IMHO.

 

You mean, like the Americans like chrome on their cars?!!!

matt

 

Hi Lawhoo. I was going through pages of posts and saw this one. Earlier in the week we watched 2 DVDs on our Vaio. The kids thought it was neat to be able to do that, so whatever. One was "Up" and the other was "Bedtime Stories"...so one animated and one live action. One was a DL-DVD and the other was a single layer DVD. Both played just fine, no issues at all. We also all agreed that the picture looked better than it does on our LCD TV.

 

I hate chrome on my cars, but I'm also too lazy to take care of it.

 

Yeah, but some of the chrome - like on those bling-bling 22" wheels for instance - are deliberately added onto a car that never came with it in the first place.

 

Note the plural "my cars", ah those silly Americans.