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HP Compaq nc8000 - Complete Review And Impressions - Page 2

post #21 of 82
6/18/04 at 1:42pm
Full system on the second disk is what I would do, I honestly can't see Omega drivers fixing anything. They are based on the same root code with add-ons and tweaks, aren't they?
Andrew
Austin, TX


Quote:
Originally Posted by MagicRobin
...What I might do is try to install a full system on the second disk and see if the same problem occurs. Or perhaps get the Omega drivers, that might help...
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post #22 of 82
6/18/04 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 
Correct. But I still don't understand what this strange problem could be.
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post #23 of 82
6/18/04 at 1:53pm
I have no earthly idea.
Ideas:
1.) I think you should initiate a thread in the main forum about this, to try to seek input. There are more readers of it than the review section by far.
2.) Call HP support right now, and see what suggestions they have (I know that is not likely to yield a fix, but....)
Other than that, I just want to hear if you become comfortable with the resolution in general.
I will ask again, how is the quality of your vision in general (at computer distance)???

Andrew
Austin, TX
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post #24 of 82
6/18/04 at 2:45pm
Thread Starter 
I have played Warcraft III for over an hour (but only for testing purposes, really ) and I didn't notice any problem so far. The computer got barely hot, and performance is superb.

Quote:
Originally Posted by aamsel
I have no earthly idea.
Ideas:
1.) I think you should initiate a thread in the main forum about this, to try to seek input. There are more readers of it than the review section by far.
Good idea.

Quote:
2.) Call HP support right now, and see what suggestions they have (I know that is not likely to yield a fix, but....)
I seriously don't think they can help me on this issue. If their tech support service is as good as their commercial service, the guy will probably tell me that there's nothing wrong.

Quote:
Other than that, I just want to hear if you become comfortable with the resolution in general.
I'm getting more and more used to it. Running Warcraft III at SXGA+ is SUPERB, there's no other way to qualify it. And it's crazy smooth, though.

I still think text is a tad bit small, but it's not unpleasant because it's really very sharp.

Quote:
will ask again, how is the quality of your vision in general (at computer distance)???

Andrew
Austin, TX
Are you asking me if I have vision problems? No, I don't. But since the 8-9 years I own laptops, I never had any screen with a smaller pitch than my 15" XGA, so you get used to it. But frankly the native resolution looks really nice.
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post #25 of 82
6/18/04 at 3:00pm
1.) Since you design web pages, what resolution are web pages generally optimized for???

2.) What is the speed of the DVD+R burner. Is it 2X ??

Andrew
Austin, TX
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post #26 of 82
6/18/04 at 4:00pm
Thread Starter 
1. Generally, it's either 800x600 or 1024x768. Though I admit it would be a joy to design pages to fill 1400x1050, most people still have SVGA or XGA.

2. It's 2.4x for both DVD+R and DVD+RW, and 16x for CD. Fast enough for me.

Some more information about my problem: it seems (somehow) that it is a driver problem. For example, when I zoom 2x a video, it is "pixellized" (like a zoomed picture in a graphic editor). This generally indicates that the appropriate graphic codecs are not installed. I am not sure exactly what causes it, but I believe this isn't caused by a hardware problem. Hopefully
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post #27 of 82
6/18/04 at 4:03pm
So, if you want web pages to all appear "normal", and you don't want to have to "tweak" any settings, then aren't you always going to be better off with a computer/notebook set to XGA??
I ask only because, as I said, surfing is the vast majority of what I will be
doing.

Also, please let me know if you make any progress with the problem.

Andrew
Austin, TX



Quote:
Originally Posted by MagicRobin
Generally, it's either 800x600 or 1024x768. Though I admit it would be a joy to design pages to fill 1400x1050, most people still have SVGA or XGA.
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post #28 of 82
6/18/04 at 4:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aamsel
So, if you want web pages to all appear "normal", and you don't want to have to "tweak" any settings, then aren't you always going to be better off with a computer/notebook set to XGA??
Yes and no. True, it is more convenient as all you have to do is view fullscreen and see if it's XGA or not. But working on a SXGA+ screen, with a windowed XGA-sized window with palettes and all other sorts of tools is very pleasant.

For testing, I just downgrade the screen and that's it. It is of no importance that it doesn't look good because of interpolation, all I want to see is the layout.

Quote:
I ask only because, as I said, surfing is the vast majority of what I will be
doing.
Then evidently, if you all you will do is web surfing, a SXGA+ will be better than plain XGA. Even if some websites are "set", you gain in height. Not to mention the convenience of viewing high-res pictures without having to scroll

Quote:
Also, please let me know if you make any progress with the problem.

Andrew
Austin, TX
Will do
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post #29 of 82
6/18/04 at 4:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aamsel
1.) Since you design web pages, what resolution are web pages generally optimized for???

Andrew
Austin, TX
i always designed my sites for 800x600 minimum, that's a standard most professional web designers will go for (ex. cnet.com, dell.com, apple.com)

so on a 15'' / 14'' xga display, relating to the professional sites optimized for this, the content should appear comfortably on your screen with no horizontal scroll bars (you'll have 100 pixels to spare on each side).

on a sxga+ 15.1'' screen, you would have 300 pixels on each side at the same site. the actual site content would appear much smaller because now you're having to focus on around 60% of your screen horizontally as opposed to 80% on the xga screen.

if you're going to be surfing 90-95% of the time and looking mostly at professionally designed sites or sites that fall into this 800x600 criteria, i would definitely go for xga since your eyes aren't so good.

the quality of the xga screens you will find look much better than the sxga+s out there right now. go to compusa and check out the viewing angles. i had a toshiba xga a while back, it wasn't enough real estate for me but the colors were Beautiful and the viewing angles Awesome
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post #30 of 82
6/18/04 at 5:06pm
Thread Starter 
Perhaps you aren't informed, but you're giving him poor advice here. Apparently you haven't compared HP XGA and SXGA+ screens. How can you say that XGA is better?

- Lower constrast (250:1 for XGA, 300:1 for SXGA+)
- Far lower viewing angles (XGA is not wide-angle, SXGA+ is)
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post #31 of 82
6/18/04 at 5:10pm
yeah i wasn't talking about hp screens specifically, you have better info than me there.

i meant generally speaking the xgas are manufactured better than the sxga+, quoting the numerous gradient/leakage issues with sxga+ screens we've all seen and moaned about

that might not be the case for HP but you probably pay the premium for it on the nc6000 price

however he has the money to buy that system. i still think xga would be better for him because his vision isnt good, all he's going to do (mostly) is surf, and he doesn't want to increase font sizes in IE. is that poor advice
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post #32 of 82
6/18/04 at 5:22pm
Thread Starter 
On the nc6000, since it's a 14", XGA is highly recommended.

On the nc8000, it is highly debatable. Of course, XGA is a comfortable resolution and I hesitated. But the SXGA+ screen by itself has much better specs, so for the small $50 tag it is worth it.
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post #33 of 82
6/18/04 at 5:31pm
well i were buying it i would go with the sxga+ for $50, but i have good eyesight (at least with my contacts in)

i'm assuming you do also
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post #34 of 82
6/18/04 at 5:40pm
Thread Starter 
Yes. I would never buy a display that would require me to put glasses on to read.

But aamsel said that he worked on a SXGA+ and it was fine for him. So I think it's worth taking.

What can do the most can do the least. You can downgrade to XGA, albeit the quality won't be as good as native, but you can't upgrade to SXGA+ on the XGA. I admit 640x480 downgraded looks worse on my SXGA+ than it does on a XGA, but that's a small price to pay and have a high-constrast, wide-angle screen.

SXGA+ is a very nice resolution. Ideal resolution would be SXGA, but you take what is available. But what we all really hope is that they will release a new technology that will allow to downgrade without any quality loss. That would be extra cool.
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post #35 of 82
6/18/04 at 7:35pm
Well, I have been to the Dell kiosk in Austin this afternoon, Best Buy and CompUSA.
XGA (or WXGA, which I don't like) are all that can work for me for surfing.
I am truly sorry for all of mine and everyone's time that I have wasted, but it is just foolish for me to consider any high resolution displays. I can tweak settings until I am blue in the face, and it is just pointless.
So, Monday morning, I order something.
Andrew
Austin, TX
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post #36 of 82
6/19/04 at 7:26am
Thread Starter 
Then, perhaps you should get the XGA nc8000.
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post #37 of 82
6/19/04 at 1:11pm
Seems almost like a waste of money to get the nc8000 with just an XGA display, I don't know.
Anyhow, any progress with your DVD playback issues??
Andrew
Austin, TX



Quote:
Originally Posted by MagicRobin
Then, perhaps you should get the XGA nc8000.
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post #38 of 82
6/19/04 at 4:46pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I'm even thinking of swapping the SXGA+ screen. It's very good... but it's also so very small. It's also very bad at interpolation when you downgrade the res, which is a problem. But I don't know if this is caused by the screen, the screen's size or something else.

I have installed a blank new system on my second hard disk, and the problem remains. I'll try and fiddle with the drivers and codecs and see what happens.
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post #39 of 82
6/19/04 at 6:08pm
I certainly "hear you" on maybe needing less resolution, because I darned-well do also.
The interpolation should be handled 100% by the video card, I understand that nVidia's may be better at non-native interpolation than ATI's??? (you probably DON'T want to hear that, and I do NOT like nVidia at all, I don't buy their products.
I have been checking out the x1000 forums, and am "narrowing it down" to all HP products, the nc8000 with XGA, the nc6000, and the x1000 with its "variations" of different model numbers. If I were to get the x1000, however, I might be asking myself next week why I didn't get an ASUS.
I still am holding onto wanting the very best quality, which I thought was the nc/nw series, but I have read that they are warmer (hotter) than the x1000, and have some finicky issues.
Let me know what you do next with yours, PLEASE.

Andrew
Austin, TX

Quote:
Originally Posted by MagicRobin
...Well, I'm even thinking of swapping the SXGA+ screen. It's very good... but it's also so very small. It's also very bad at interpolation when you downgrade the res, which is a problem. But I don't know if this is caused by the screen, the screen's size or something else...
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post #40 of 82
6/19/04 at 6:55pm
Thread Starter 
I'm afraid my DVD playback problem is the tree hiding the forest. I don't mean I'll have more problems with the computer, but I believe it's indicating that something is not right at all with the grapihc card. Not sure if it's not serious and only needs BIOS or drivers updating, but there's something wrong. It might be possible that the poor interpolation problem is directly related to the poor DVD playback, in which case I'm afraid my graphic card has a hardware problem. But it's hard to say considering it isn't downright ugly or horrible, which makes an HP tech support guy easy to say that I'm too picky. Perhaps it's a known problem; I'll hover around HP boards and see if I can find an answer there.

Heat-related, my nc8000 runs very cool. It is even surprising how cool it stays even when running 3D games on max settings.
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