Dell Latitude E4200 Info

[tifosiv122]

I am in exactly the same situation. Waiting for the backlit keybaord.

My Dell rep asked some questions, and told me that you cannot upgrade to a backlit keyboard - it will not fit.... this is the reason apparently it is taking so long, cos it's another "custom revision".

However, he has guaranteed me that the availablity date (for Asia/Pacific) is 17th Nov.


The waiting... the bad reviews... the felling of "meh" I got after spending a few hours with both a E6500 and an E4200.

....this is not looking good :-(

That's the same date I was told, ships on the 18th. Odd that it wouldn't fit.

I have the same feelings about the system..."meh". I was soooo excited when it was announced.

Erik

[ekosser]

I have a strange problem on my brand new e4200. I am hoping someone can help or point me in the right direction.

The two TV Shows that I have purchased on iTunes (Entourage Season 1 & 2 and The Wire Season 5) the video is running slow and is out of sync with the audio when played on the Dell e4200 When played on my 7 yr. old desktop it plays fine. I have downloaded movies and played them on the laptop (not iTunes) without a problem. I am being told it is not a hardware issue. Here is what I have done so far:

1. Deinstalled iTunes and Quick Time and reinstalled it.
2. Tried playing the same shows on my desktop. No problems
3. Played the TV Shows that are on the desktp on the laptop (through sharing). No problem the shows play fine.
4. I downloaded a video rental from CinemaNow and played it on my laptop. No problem it works fine.
5. Played the iTunes TV shows directly in Quick Time. Same problem video slow choppy and out of sync with audio

Here are the specification on the systems I am using:

Laptop
Dell Latitude e4200
Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400. 1.40 GHz 800 MHz 3M L2 Cache
3GB DDR3 SDRAM
128GB Dell Mobility SSD
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Windows XP Pro SP3

Desktop
Dell Dimension 8400
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.40GHz
1GB RAM
Windows XP Media Center Edition Version 2002 SP2
Radeon X300 Series
Maxstor MaXkine Plus II 250GB Serial ATA HD 7,200 rpm

Do you think this is a hardware issue? Software? Could this be due to the SSD? If so why does the CinemaNow movie play fine?

Thanks!!!!

[balto]

Well guys I must say that the only issue that I have with my new laptop is the keyboard. I am coming from a sony TZ90, SSD+2.5" Drive Config. This baby is faster and more soild than my sony. It boots up XP faster than the sony did and the docking solution is much better.

Getting to the one little issue. The keyboard, the sony keyboard was unreal, very nice and mostly quite. This keyboard is very loud although it does give great feedback.

OH no fan noise at all, and this unit runs a heck of a lot cooler than the tz.

[ColinD]

Video play back of purchased content initially looked Looked fine. But I have spotted some lip synch as well. It gets worse over time.

Ill see if I can get to the bottom of it.

Update: it appears to be Hardware Acceleration related.

The following seemed to work.

Go into the Quicktime Preferences go to Edit>Preferences>Quicktime Preferences

Goto the Advanced tab.

Under Video uncheck the box that says Enable Direct3D Video Acceleration

This feels more like a work around than a solution.

Colin

[litkaj]

My replacement E4200 arrived this morning. I haven't had much time to play with it, but thus far, it seems OK (meaning that everything that was wrong with my first one is fine here).

[ekosser]

Colin,

Thanks! It also worked for me. It does feel like a work around the audio is synced up now but the video seems a little off (choppy maybe). Trying to understand why this would happen on this system and not the old desktop. Thanks again.

[ColinD]

I agree lip sync is back but the video isn't as fluid as it ought to be when played inside iTunes.

However if you play the same video file in quicktime (outside of iTunes) its appears to run better.

Colin

[monakh]

You may also want to try QT Alternative since QuickTime is teh evil:

http://codecguide.com/download_qt.htm

Make sure you download the iTunes compatibility add-on if you use iTunes 8.

[litkaj]

If the video you've got is H.264 then consider CoreAVC (not free but cheap) then you can give it a try. I've used it on my E4200 to play 720p without issue.

[Artie Lange]

or just google "dell latitude e4200 owners review" as it appears to be indexed already.

Colin

Whoa! I just realized in your photo - http://www.colindiponio.com/wp-conte...08/11/size.jpg - thats an xps m1530, not m1330.

That means I *do* want a netbook with a 10" screen, because it would be same size difference with the m1330 as your photo depicts with the 4200 and m1530.