Sony VAIO AR Series, HD HDMI Question

Dear wise people ,

I want to buy the VAIO VGN-AR51SU laptop. But before I go out and spend the 3000 euros if have a question.

As the AR series contains a Bluray reader/writer I want to know if it is possible to attach the laptop using HDMI to a LCD tv and watch some movies using the Blu-ray reader. I seen some comment on it (from the past) stating it always went into computer mode, so depending on the max resolution of your tv for computer mode, it means most tv's won't display it in HD resolution.

Did sony already fix this problem ?

Furthermore any comment on the AR serie (review or some, very hard to find) will be more then welcome.

Sven

 

I have the older AR21S model, and I have been playing blu-ray movies back on my HD Sony Bravia TV using the HDMI connector at full 1080 resolution. If your HD TV supports 1080p resolution, and has a HDMI socket that is HDCP compliant, it should work perfectly...

 

Hum, I have a new Sony LCD, KDL-32D3000. But can't find anything mentioning HDCP. Just to be sure I mailed Sony for info.
Other questions, the 1080p you are viewing your movies on, is that also possible when viewing full hd's video from file, like wmv's.
Or only from bluray disks ?

Anyway thanks for the info, sounds hopefull

How is the AR21s turning out for you. Do you think the AR serie is worth the cash ? The AR51SU is kinda expensive, but it seems to be a great laptop. Have to find a good review tho, nothing found yet...

 

HDCP stands for High-Definition Content Protection (I think) and encrypts the video signal transmitted over a HDMI cable to stop it from being copied/recorded. According to this page, your LCD has HDCP support.

Regarding resolutions, when you plug-in your AR to a HDTV, you are required to enable HDMI output which disables your built-in TFT. When you do this, the TV acts as your new monitor. You can set the resolution in Display Properties and your desktop will resize to that resolution. Therefore anything you display will appear on the screen as part of your 1080p display. If you have a Hi-Def WMV movie and you maximised it to full-screen, it would play in hi-def...

The AR series without a doubt, is a high-end performance laptop. It's a fantastic desktop replacement and I can't put a fault with it for that purpose, however, as it has a 17" dispay and so much hardware packed into it, it's quite a large unit. I move my laptop around a lot, and so its size and weight is quite an important issue - if I was going to repurchase, I'd find a slightly smaller one, but that's just because I use it out-and-about a lot. Performance wise, I couldn't fault it and it is a perfect desktop replacement.

Hope this helps


Seb

 

Cool, no reaction from Sony yet, or maybe I mean Slowny
Strange thing HDCP is not mentioned on the sony site at all

That is cool, this is not the same for the VGA connection, it has a max resolution size. Another plus

Sounds great. I now own HP Pavilon ZD8045EA, which is huge also. Altho the Sony is like 10 cm longer. I use it on a Laptopdesk. ( site) The HP is a perfect fit, so I hope the Sony will fit too, being 10 cm longer.

I am ready to order the laptop. will be next week. Thanks for your responses really helped

 

Have you tried playing DVD-discs in it? How does it look? I tried this in the store, and the picture was really fuzzy compared to a HP laptop next to it which had only DVD drive.