*HP EliteBook 8740w Owners Lounge - PART 2*

[NikonMan]

Have you tested Blu-ray playback through a DisplayPort->HDMI cable connected to your HDTV (if you have one)? When you did the test with PowerDVD 10, was AnyDVD running on the background? AnyDVD removes HDCP on the fly. I'm curious about if the 8740w does support or not HDCP content.

Also RampageII pointed that it's likely this statement is an error in the HP propaganda.

And even another review!. Wow, I confess I'm a bit obsessed with reviews for this machine, but hey, I have invested a huge quantity of money to get PERFECTION Note that this review claims commercial Blu-ray disc playback is not supported by the 8740w!. Have they tested this? I don't think so.

I haven't tested extermal connectivity as yet (need to get a DP to HDMI cable). Yeah its strange that the "8740 cannot play blu-rays" line keeps floating around everywhere.

With a complete build of Win7 Ultimate x64 from scratch, and all the default driver/software installs from HP.com, PowerDVD 10 played the entire Avatar BR without issues and without AnyDVD HD.

I then tweaked the HP stock ATI driver (enabled 10-bit, changed 3D settings, etc.) and all of a sudden PowerDVD throws an error that the 'display is incompatible' and refused to play the same BR.

I then installed AnyDVD HD, re-booted etc., and the SAME ERROR!! Very odd and makes no sense, becasue as you indicated AnyDVD HD should remove the HDCP nonsense.

I have since rebuilt it again, leaving the ATI driver totally stock, and no issues so far.

BTW my laptop has the DreamColor display, the ATI FirePro card and the stock HP branded Sony Optiarch BluRay drive.

Weird huh? Maybe others can chime on here with their experiences ...

[RampageII]

Update on Intel G3 SSDs.
Looks like it'll be up to par with the current OCZ and Crucial 300 SSDs.
Twice the capacity for the same price.
Available sometime next year.

[ohmahgoodness]

hey all
upgraded to 8740w from a nx6110. my productivity level has gone up!
I am using a 2800m card so KDE should comply with it. Ill post later how linux runs on this.

[fakeplasticblah]

Also the Quadro FX5000M is already compatible with the DreamColor screen, BUT still CTO models NOT

Pricey at $4900 USD but it does has the fastest mobile workstation card, 8 gb of ram an the legendary DC display. Maybe Hp should throw an SSD there for their top of the line config.

[sgogeta4]

Update on Intel G3 SSDs.
Looks like it'll be up to par with the current OCZ and Crucial 300 SSDs.
Twice the capacity for the same price.
Available sometime next year.

Some how, I highly doubt it will be half the price... plus much higher power consumption. The G2 X25-E are even more disappointing with their eMLC instead of SLC too.

[RampageII]

Some how, I highly doubt it will be half the price... plus much higher power consumption. The G2 X25-E are even more disappointing with their eMLC instead of SLC too.

Yeah, I doubt it also.
Those are just some of the key points from the article.

I was expecting them to one-up the competition in performance, but looks like they won't even match them.

Hopefully they'll make further improvements before releasing the final product.

[Aikimox]

Still, G3 looks very impressive.
The lower price might come as a result of the cheaper manufacturing process (25nm).
I wouldn't be totally shocked to see the G3 600GB @~500$ in 6 months from now.

[Koshinn]

So i just got a netbook that looks like the little brother of my 8740w. Ill post picturrs when i get home, but its pretty cool!

[Nashbirne]

Oh, and I forgot to confirm what Thinkpadded had said. Yes, Aero is now working when CCC has 10-bit mode checked if you upgrade it! ...

I updated my AMD FirePro drivers to the latest version (8.76.2 Beta) today and can confirm that Aero still works when 10 bit mode is checked. However, I had no luck getting smooth gradients unless I disabled Aero manually. With Aero enabled the screen output got obviously downsampled to 8 bit.
It seems as though AMD no longer forces Aero to be disabled, yet it won't display 10 bit while Aero is running. Sadly, Aero is not automatically deactivated when an application requests a 10 bit OpenGL pixel format.

[m8o]

I updated my AMD FirePro drivers to the latest version (8.76.2 Beta) today and can confirm that Aero still works when 10 bit mode is checked. However, I had no luck getting smooth gradients unless I disabled Aero manually. With Aero enabled the screen output got obviously downsampled to 8 bit.
It seems as though AMD no longer forces Aero to be disabled, yet it won't display 10 bit while Aero is running. Sadly, Aero is not automatically deactivated when an application requests a 10 bit OpenGL pixel format.

Oh, that is interesting. I gave up trying! That's the best excuse I can think of to turn the 8740w on tonight. ...so just to make sure, you were using PS CS5 and the color depth was still 16-bit?