cheapest laptop that has hdmi (or dvi) and hd dvd drive?

[b5s4]

I've been reading this site for days now and would appreciate the expert's input. I'm looking for a laptop that has a hd dvd drive and hdmi out so I can connect it to my sony 1080p tv. I have an acer 3618 but it only has a vga out and the sony will not display it at full screen. technically I could get away with dvi out and buy an adapter. for playback of hd dvd's do I need a really good graphics card like the nvidia 8600? I'd appreciate any input on this. thanks.

[Gautam]

I know that Asus has notebook...the 5690?? that runs about $1099 (and is dead ugly) but has a HD-DVD drive. Dunno if it has HDMI though.

You can still get 1080i with DVI

[matt_h1]

Its Acer, Not Asus, Asus wouldnt be caught dead making machine that poorly designed. The V1s from Asus is supposed to be available with a HD-DVD drive and it has HDMI, I havent seen the HD-DVD version yet. The Acer is called Aspire 5920, It is very poorly built and designed, but if you want cheap its as cheap as they come, Heres a quote from cnet "The Aspire 5920 is a candidate for the ugliest laptop of the year. " You can buy it here for just under 2K http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...=0&dcaid=15889
Personally I think you would be better off buying another laptop and upgrading to a HD DVD drive, Most DVD/CD drives are modular. Also any 8 series GPU from Nvidia can handle HD/Blu ray because it offloads the decoding onto the GPU rather than forcing the CPU to do it.

[matt_h1]

Other options:
17" DV9580US $2049
17" TOSHIBA Satellite P205-S6347 $1449

External HD-DVD drives
TOSHIBA Black USB 2.0 External 1X HD DVD ROM with 3X DVD-RAM write Model PA3530U-1HD1 $369
Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player Add-On with 5 Free HD DVD Movies mail in offer $175

The XBOX 360 drive (Will work with any PC) is probally your cheapest bet considering it comes with 5 free movies, Either that or go with the Toshiba.

Out of curiosity why are you going with HD-DVD over Blu-Ray, Most stuff ive read points to Blu-Ray being more successful at the moment and in the long term.

[b5s4]

thanks for the replies. matt, I'd like to have a hd dvd drive because I have a ps3 so that covers blu ray for me. I could buy the xbox 360 hd dvd drive and hook it up to a laptop and then output that signal to my tv but I thought since I'd have to buy a new laptop for that (since my acer only has vga output) it would be more convenient to have the hd dvd drive built in. I looked at docking stations that have dvi output but the resolution is limited to 1600x1200 which isn't 1080p. Another question I have that I couldn't find an answer to is if I did output my signal via hdmi, would it carry the audio too? I know acer isn't well respected but mine hasn't given any problems other than the lcd screen and they took care of it promptly. I've heard bad things about toshiba but I'm sure every company has problems. If cost were no object I'd love to get an asus and am contemplating paying the premium for it but for now I'd like to keep the cost as little as possible. I saw this thread:
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD: Finally available for upgrade
could I buy the toshiba hd dvd drive and put that in a laptop that has hdmi out? this would allow the purchase of an older laptop but if it costs the same I'd just buy one with the drive already in it. thanks again for the help.

*edit* matt just gave me an idea. I could buy a laptop with a blu ray burner and buy the xbox 360 hd drive and hook it up to the laptop for any hd dvd movies. with the blu ray burner I could burn any high def content onto blu ray discs and play them on my ps3. sony and dell are the only companies to have blu ray drives right? I think hp has it for business and apple will have it sometime soon for the mbp?

[matt_h1]

Sony has Blu Ray as does Asus, the G1s can be configured with blu ray (G1s-A3) but your going to be paying _alot_ for that. The Sony FZ190 has Blu ray I think. Dont take this the wrong way, But the only other source of HD content at the moment would be downloading it (Other than Blu ray and HD-DVD which you have covered) Which you could just as easily burn onto a DVD, If you look online you will see that most HD rips of BR or HD-DVD are designed to fit on one DVD or a DL DVD. So there really isnt any need to buy a laptop with BR or HD-DVD burning capabilities, I remember I jumped the gun and bought a DVD buner for 200AUD, Within 6 months they were available for 70$ with 10 free discs and burnt at 3 times the speed, Blu Ray and HD-DVD are following the same trend, They get cheaper and faster every month, I would wait for this medium to mature before buying burners, Readers will do you for now. This is unless you plan on "backing up" your Sony games which is also pointless for now as their isnt a backup chip available yet. Also keep in mind that Laptop drives tend to be a bit flaky compared to their full size desktop counterparts. If you only plan on using the BD/HD capabilities when your stationary next to your TV you might be better off going with External drives.

Now onto your next point, In my experience most laptops dont seem to output audio with HDMI, I know this has been reported with the 5920 and the G1s with HDMI, This is not to say that all laptops dont, Or that these models never will, It might just be a driver issue.