Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

All arth1 is saying, in his very long post, is that the colours of the Z's screen aren't correct (i.e. will look different when printing) out of the factory, and the results of printing will be different from the colours displayed on the screen.

Note that this is irrelevant to people who use monitors who don't colour correct - and to a certain extent, those who are editting photos only for web viewing.

Arth1: Please correct me if instead you're trying to say that the Z's screen cannot be color corrected.

 

Anyone try installing the Windows 7 beta on a Z yet?

I've been considering trying it on my SZ430 before trying it on my Z590.

 

No, that's not all I'm saying. I'm saying quite a few other things, but if you have the attention span of a gnat, just do us both a favour and skip my posts.

Wrong. It is very relevant to those of us who print photos. Unless both the printer and display have profiles, the output will rarely match what you see on-screen.
I print photos on a very high quality printer for sale, and need a display that's more accurate and less vibrant.

It's difficult to colour correct the Z's display properly when you can't change the white point, and the display is inherently highly saturated. Forget Adobe Gamma -- that won't do it. You need hardware. I'm going to give it a try with an Eye-One (now "i1"), but I have little hope of the end result being good enough for production work. The TruBrite DuraView coating of the display is made for vibrance and high contrast, not colour correctness.

 

I ripped this from a guy who posted it in the Sony forum. Is this the new 6 series Z? If so, how long b4 we can expect CTO on SonyStyle?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9171521&type=product&id=1218043604946

 

Nope no programs running.
Gonna check the defrag settings and see what happens.

Thanks Arth for the detailed response.
Gonna leave it on tonight and see what happens.

Keep you posted.

 

That's strange: back in the day behardware.com calibrated perfectly a VAIO SZ LED screen (with a Blue Eye Pro I think), which also hasn't any screen temperature controls.

 

Dunno, but I wish they'd hurry the hell up (and give back the few options that were formerly on the z590 CTO).

 

Being color correct is irrelevant for people who print photos *without* colour correcting.

It's always appropriate to use hardware (frequently) to colour correct. Indeed, you even have to do it for specific lighting situations.

 

Thank you very much. So it response fast in develop module?
Have you tried to calibrate the display with calibration sensor (eye One)?

Looking forward to your answer

 

Lightroom2 is quite responsive in the Develop tab on a fast VGN-Z with enough RAM, as long as you give it time to fully render the preview before you start using any of the controls.

 

That doesn't follow. Not having a profile for your monitor doesn't mean that you'll be happy when what shows up as bright azure on the screen comes out as shades of steel blue on the printer. Or when parts of what you see as black on-screen prints out as black, and part of it as a dark tinted colour.

 

Aftera clean Vista Installation on my Vaio Z11WN/B my Wlan doesnt work! Can you help me? In the device manager is no driver for the network controller and the hsdpa globetrotter modem and the notebook cant find any driver on the internet!

 

goto vail recovery center and choose re-install programs and drivers. There are 2 tabs, programs, drivers. Its all there, no need to go to internet.

 

You should be able download those drivers from the Vaio support page, they are under "Drivers and utilities" and then originally installed....

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/index/index.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons

 

Hey All,

Does anyone know what the best deal is on a extended battery for the Z? Also, is it safe to buy non-sony extended batteries?

Thanks,
Eric

 

Well I just checked out the first 10 mins. or so of a movie (Polar Express) on a Z at my local computer store and I'm happy to say I did not notice any diagonal lines. For those of you who experiencing this problem, which resolution display do you have? The one in the store was the 1366X768. The one I want to get is the 1600X900. Thanks.

 

If you don't colour correct and the color of the printout is important, you won't be happy except by luck.

We can probably agree that a non color-corrected high gamut screens make it somewhat more likely you won't be happy as compared to a non color-corrected normal gamut screen (although this really depends also on how much the color spaces intersect), but it's not a fundemental change.

And having a high gamut screen is likely to make people happy generally - apart from the "color-correct-print" point.

 

Hi all

Im about to purchase a Z 26 from SonyStyle NZ this week :
http://www.sony.co.nz/products/product/computer/vaio-notebook/vgnz26gnb.jsp

I would like to know if there are any reccomended accesories i should consider purchasing as well?

In particualr im looking at a docking station, can someone advise if the power supply plugs into this or does it still plug into the laptop?

Also, it will spend most its time at home, plugged via power supply. Is there any need to purchase another battery in that case? does the supplied battery lose ability to hold charge eventually this way?

And what about the cases, i have standard laptop cases which the z will easily fit into, are the vaio z cases reccomended being more damage resistant? seem quite pricey to me for not much value.....

Thanks!

 

I am confused by a Sony support FAQ (Asian website here)

It states; "The computer is equipped with two different performance modes. Stamina mode uses the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator to conserve battery power. Speed Mode uses the NVIDIA video controller for improved performance. The performance selector switch is used to change the performance mode of the computer. The computer must be restarted once the performance mode is changed before the new setting will take effect."

I thought that when i switched from Speed to Stamina, or vica versa, it changed on the spot (there are plenty of warnings, etc to confirm) but this suggests it doesn't do anything until I restart?

It certainly changes my power profile (from 'High Performance' to 'Maximum Battery').

Any clues?

Also - have a look at the graphics upgrade instructions. kind of makes sense, but where are the new drivers?

 

nah, i'm pretty sure it changes on the spot, i watched a video of someone changing it on youtube and that's what happened

 

the power supply plugs directly into the docking station. Note that the docking station does not come with it's own power supply...

probably not. And probably yes, but Sony does have a "Battery care" option which limits how charged the battery will become. This may help.

I think the zeroshock is recommended. I have a sony leather sleeve myself, but only because it was a gift. I tend not to use it because I also dock it frequently.

 

On mine it definitely changes (do a benchmark, or even just look under display settings or device manager) - the FAQ is probably just old/wrong.

 

Yes, the Switch occurs instantly without a reboot and that was one of its key selling points when it came out

 

"Instantly" here meaning a couple of seconds of screen flashes, followed by a warning that you have running programs that may crash, which you have to accept, followed by another few seconds of the screen blinking to black and disk activity.

I also wish it had been possible to flip the switch but keep the brightness at whatever setting it was on. If I have the brightness at 30% late at night, and switch from stamina to speed, I don't want to be blasted with the 80% light that might be my preferred setting for daytime.

 

hahahaha that's a problem that i encounter a lot, for example, when i have the brightness at 10, and then if i plug it in.. it goes to 100 (i know i can switch settings, but it's still more convenient this way during the day)

 

One question guys:

With which button I acess to Vaio Recovery Center when I boot? So I can put my recovery dvd's?

 

You can run vaio recovery center from your start menu, no need to reboot, if you just want to restore programs and drivers. To run the recovery disc, put disc1 in and restart, or hit F8 after you restart, in which case you do not need the discs at all. I prefer to put the disc in when I do the complete recovery.

 

It is a recent addition/update to the Sony asia support site and caught my eye, because as a new Vaio Z27 owner I was trolling for updates.

I know the nVidia update has been a sore point from other posts and I unsuccessfully tried to do an nVidia driver update myself (using a modified .inf file from laptvideotogo). As I understand it, the nVidia driver for the Vaio has some Sony tweaks, which means you can't use the latest nVidia GE Force 9300 driver, even if you try to force the update.

Very happy with my Vaio (first Sony after a long line of Toshibas) I am running Vista Ultimate and after a few issues getting VMC/Blu Ray to work, am now very happy.

 

The drivers do not include Sony specific tweaks but they do seem to need to be "Hybrid Graphics" drivers. So yes standard Nvidia drivers (even modified) do not seem to work, yet. You can see my post here for some of what I have discovered about the Vaio Z drivers for Vista 32-Bit. If my findings are correct we can expect an "upcoming release" from Nvidia to work with our Vaio Zs.

 

Here's a review on the new Sony VGN-610Y/B.

 

Above reviewer - does not even mention the MAIN attraction - SIZE and WEIGHT and Screen quality....

 

the above reviewer is completely wrong on the usefulness of the stamina switch, i have used 2 laptops, completely the same, except one was integrated graphics and the other had nvidia

needless to say, there was a HUGE difference in battery life (not to mention fan noise and heat)

 

Hi

I hope this is the right place to post this... it seems like it is as it's full of Z series owners

I've just got a VAIO Z (a Z11WN to be exact, one of the UK models), and one of the first things I noticed is that there seems to be a sort of grid of dots visible on the screen when certain colours are displayed. I haven't noticed this with any other LCD screen, including those on the SZ and TZ, and after a lot of googling I haven't found anyone else mentioning anything similar with the VAIO Z series, so I would really like to find out if this is actually a problem with just my laptop.

I think the graphics mode switch setting might also make a difference, I just tried it in both modes and it seems to be a lot more noticable in Speed mode on mine.

I've attached a sample image of the colour that I noticed it on, so if anyone has a VAIO Z with the 1600x900 screen, I'd be very grateful if you could try loading the image on it (in Speed mode or both modes) and let me know if you see a grid of dots in the background (the image itself is just a solid colour).

Thanks

 

Looks like a plain black square to me

 

Yes, that is a black square on my desktop monitor which has been calibrated.

 

dam it, looks like a gray square to me.. my screen sure sucks

 

Yep, looks like a grey square to me too (as it's supposed to), on everything apart from my VAIO Z on speed mode :-\

I might try to get a photo of how it looks later, but I think it's gonna be difficult.

 

Gray, not black on my screen.

 

Sorry, ignore my previous reply, it's irrelevant given that I was looking at it on a desktop monitor. I misread your original post, so given that I don't own a Z yet I'll keep quiet! Sorry!

 

I think this has already been pointed out but it's kinda nice to see a side by side comparison on the new 6 series vs. the 5 series.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ductString=1218012132742*1218013136012&catId=

A superior product at a cheaper price. You can't ask for more than that. (well, I'm still gonna ask that they come down on the blu-ray option )

 

Calibrate it again. It's the colour #3E3E3E, and if it looks black, your screen is seriously miscalibrated.

 

Is there a way to Calibrate the screen on the Z?

 

I have a question. Is it worth it to get the Fresh Start option if buying from Sony?

 

looks grey with a grid of dots on both, speed and stamina.
on speed much clearer visible

what does it mean?

 

Use an Eyeone (now "i1"), Spyder 2 or Spyder 3.

"Adobe Gamma" is not real calibration, and worse than nothing on this particular machine.

 

I don't speak from experience but I've read that they don't remove all of the bloatware but most of it I think. I believe that you also have to get the 32 bit Vista buisiness OS though right? Is that what you want?

 

Ahh, thank you

Well, for one thing it means there isn't anything wrong with my new VAIO... but other than that, I don't know.

 

i want them to announce it on SonyStyle!!

 

Announce what?

I notice that tommorow this thread will be exactly 6 mos. old. Does Sony usually release things on the 15th? If so, I wonder if we will see the 6 series released tommorow here in the states.

 

Ok, seeing this "grid", I decided to investigate a bit.

From what I can tell, it happens whenever any of the following is true:
The red value is 0x3e (62 decimal) or 0x3f (63 decimal)
The green value is between 0x39 (57 decimal) and 0x3f (63 decimal)
The blue value is 0x3e (62 decimal) or 0x3f (63 decimal)

It looks like it's a dithering pattern, like if the display is unable to display this many colours, and dithers to compensate.