Laptop computers

[giljones]

I am researching which laptop to buy to use to present pte programmes. I note that nearly all the ones on sale only offer dvd as a possibility for playing back programmes. If this is so does it mean that I have to record all pte programmes to dvd and how do I convert existing one on cd to dvd/ Gilbert

[stonemason]

Hi Gilbert

All windows computers will play pte exe files, all you need ensure is that the laptop you buy has the cpu and graphics power to ensure the smooth running of the show. Anything with a 1.8ghz cpu and decent graphics card should be more than enough. If you do not wish to copy your presentations directly to the hard drive of the laptop, then running them from a removable usb stick gives far better results than running them from a CD.

Hope this is of some help

regards

Geoff

[alrobin]

Gilbert,

If you have a dvd drive in your laptop you have an advantage in that you can play dvd's as well as cd's.

You have the ability to save your shows to cd's (limited to around 700 Mb), as well as to dvd's (with over 4 Gb of capacity).

You don't have to create a video in order to use dvd's to save your shows. Just burn them to the dvd, in the same manner as you would to a cd.

If you want to transfer a show from a cd, just copy it to your HD, and then to the dvd. You can play back the pte show from a dvd in the same manner as from a cd, too.

Ciao,

Al

[ContaxMan]

I'm also looking at replacing an ageing laptop for presentations using PTE. I want one with a decent sound card in addition to a good graphics card.

Any suggestions - including experience with particular models - would be very welcome.

[Ronniebootwest]

I am not sure what you mean here! If you intend using a laptop to present PTE slide shows then you will also need a digital projector.

Ron

[Ken Cox]

I just finally got the svhs of my ati 9000 card hooked up to my tv system so i was interested in this thread, so did a search

Roger there may be some tips here that might help in the decision making

see

http://hardware.mcse.ms/archive14-2006-1-273785.html

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=laptop...le+Search&meta=

now the quality of my setup is nowwhere near dvd quality but for showing grandkids comedy clips it is good enough [ there might be some things i want to see a little larger as well:)]

and i can finally see p2e shows 16 ft away -- showing them under worst case conditions like this one can more readily see faults

ken

[Barry Beckham]

I recently bought a new laptop for use in digital lectures where PTE plays a large part. The machine came out well in maga zine comparisons and it had a 2 GHz porocessor and 2 gig of ram and a pretty good Radeon graphics card. Certainly one that should work well with PTE and Photoshop

As soon as I unpacked the laptop (bought on the internet) I thought it looked a bit flimsy and cheap looking, but if it worked well I wasn't bothered with that. At my very first lecture when I conected the laptop to a PC projector it went haywire. The graphics flickered like a flourescent light and running a slide show was just impossible. I had to quickly revert to my old laptop and did the demo with that. My confidence was shot with that make as I don't weant that sort of nonsence at all.

The upshot is that I am ditching laptops for my demos. My view is that I have to carry a car load of stuff anyway, so a small tower case will not make much difference. I use the PC projector to demo anyway and only need a small keyboard with the case

Comparing the rough spec

Laptop 2 GHz and 2 gig of Ram - Radeon Graphics card - 80 gig hard drive wiz bang DVD writer that I don't really need for this work. £1700

Tower Desktop 3.4 GHz and 2 gig of Ram + Top of the range graphics card, upgraded sound card - 2 * 160 gig sata drives - A DVD CD rom drive - £800

Twice the spec at half the price. Wouldn't want to have the desktop under my arm for ant length of time though.

Barry

[Conflow]

LAPTOPS

I have replied many times on this topic over the past 2 years, and seriously, there is only "one way" of

choosing a Laptop for PTE Workings.

1) Make up a PTE Show (with Music) of about 5~7 minutes and "burn this" to a CD-Disc.

2) Make sure the Disc is "Autorun"

3) Bring it along to any good PC.Store and INSIST that you Demo Trial a few PC's with this Disc.

Good Laptops cost way over 1500 Euro ~ Would you buy a used Car (of same value) without trying it ?

This 'Trial' will sort out the men from the boys in record time. If they refuse your request,go elsewhere.

Once you have chosen XX Model, now look at the 'available connections' on the rear of the Laptop.

It's wise to make a 'Connector List' before you visit the Store and when there, confirm that what

you are looking for is factually available on the PC.

Then 'Haggle'......

Brian.Conflow.

[Igor]

If you buy new laptop choose model with NVIDIA GeForce 6400, 5700, 7300 or any higher

or ATI Radeon 9700, X300, X600, X700, X1300 or any higher.

This laptop will works fine with PTE v5.00 and also will fully support new graphical interface of Windows Vista (October-November of this year).

p.s. I bought wonderful LCD projector - Panasonic PT-AE900. Althought it's wide screen 1280x720, it perfect for slide-shows - almost noiseless, no screendoor effect at all, terrific colors like best CRT displays, and perfect contrast. No "rainbow" effect and no flickering, of course.

We've added special screen mode (as option) to v5.00 to show slide on full area of wide screen with croping of sides.

- Fit to screen (as in current PTE, by default)

- Cover the screen (this new option).

And ability to manage these modes via command lines for any slide-show (e.g. "Myslideshow.exe -coverscreen").

[ContaxMan]

I am not sure what you mean here! If you intend using a laptop to present PTE slide shows then you will also need a digital projector.

Ron

Ron - I have the projector! It's simply to specify the main thing I'd be using the laptop for. When I do "technique talks" at camera clubs, I use PTE for nearly everything (I prefer this to using PowerPoint - I had enough of that when I was teaching teachers to do IT!).

So the idea was to give a feeling for the kind of laptop I want.

If the Microsoft "origami" computer has fast enough graphics/cpu, then I might buy this instead of a heavier laptop. Built in touch screen sounds cool. I wonder who will be the first person to run p2e on one of these computers?

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/feature...3-09Mobile.mspx

tom

I hadn't spotted this so thank you!

Barry, the laptop I have is an Advent running windows 1998. It's been all over the country and used/abused more times than I can count. And, touching ligneous material, has never let me down. But I also demo Photoshop and CS2 won't run on Win 98. So it's got to be replaced. The idea of a tower is intriguing but I take lots of other stuff too and don't want to get a bad back.

Thaks for all the contributions so far - they're all very helpful.

[Ian]

Hi Roger

Have you thought of a Shuttle? A few years ago we were deciding on a PC for the club, and settled on a Shuttle because it could be specified to the same level as a high-end tower, but is about the same size as a toaster so very portable. You can see some examples on the Shuttle website

Ian

[daveharris]

As a relative newbie to Digital AV having done anaolgue AV for over 30 years I decided to walk the digital route with a laptop last Autumn - settled on an Evesham machine. I would offer three key areas for consideration:

Sufficient memory - I went for 1gb and happily run Photoshop Adobe Audition and PTE on the machine.

Ensure the grahics is not an onboard chip - these have a habit of carving their memory needs out of the main memory. A giveaway here is 1 gb machine where "My Computer" shows considerably less, usually 64mb 128mb or 256mb less - guess where that has gone.

Whilst laptops have soundchips onboard I found a ~£50 Creative Audigy PCMIA sound card gave better replay and better recording. I use the output of this card to feed a quality amp and speakers when projecting in camera clubs.

One other accessory to consider - I bought Spyder PRO calibration software. The PRO version not only calibrates the monitor, it can also be used to calibrate the projector via the laptop. I have two profiles, one for the monitor and another for the projector.

Hope this helps,

Dave

[ContaxMan]

Thanks Ian & Dave - very useful advice, just what I need.

[JohnB]

I'm also looking at replacing an ageing laptop for presentations using PTE. I want one with a decent sound card in addition to a good graphics card.

Any suggestions - including experience with particular models - would be very welcome.

Good sound cards on laptops seem to be very rare -- I just avoided the problem by buying an external sound card. Mine is made by Creative. You can choose USB or PCMIA versions -- I chose a 'Soundblaster' with USB connection so I could use it with any computer at a cost of just over £50. I'm very impressed with it and would recommend it heartily.

I've just seen that this has already been recommended! So I'll just say that it;s very good!

[mbskels]

Dave,

Can you clarify how Spyder PRO is used to create a profile for your projector. Also why is the PRO version required?

Thanks

Malcolm

[daveharris]

Spyder PRO comes with a sensor you plug into a USB port. Running the supplied software you place it on the monitor as directed, it runs test patterns and creates a profile.

For projectors you set your projector up and run their software. This time the Spyder device is placed on a tripod facing the screen about 12 inches away from it. Again the software runs tast patterns and generates a profile. The software has comprehensive instructions.

Make sure you buy the PRO version; the cheaper version does not include the ability to create profiles for projectors.

Dave

[fromatoz]

Whilst laptops have soundchips onboard I found a ~£50 Creative Audigy PCMIA sound card gave better replay and better recording. I use the output of this card to feed a quality amp and speakers

If you need a really really really good sound card for your laptop, you might consider this one:

Indigo - Echo Digital Audio

It sounds marvelous (just for my ears) and has a decent built in head amp as well.

A little bit expensive though.

[JEB]

I have two questions coming out of this thread, the first I think is for Igor and the other for any other guru who is prepared to take the time.

I have recently purchased a new HP Compaq (1400x1050) laptop to go with my projector (SX50) which has I understand an ATI Radion XPRESS 200M graphics card fitted. I don't see this listed on your post Igor, can you comment please. I have had no problems so far but should I expect some?

My second question concerning audio is perhaps a bit of a diversion. For some time I have been aware that perhaps in the future I may wish to enhance the sound I presently get from a couple of small PC speakers I plug into the side of the laptop. Other than being aware that a USB bit of magic or card can be used to connect to an external amplifier and speakers I am totally ignorant. Can anybody point me at a web site that would explain in layman terms what would be a reasonable option? Any indication of cost would be useful in case I get too excited!

John

[mbskels]

Thanks Dave,

All is clear now

Malcolm

[fromatoz]

I may wish to enhance the sound I presently get from a couple of small PC speakers I plug into the side of the laptop. Other than being aware that a USB bit of magic or card can be used to connect to an external amplifier and speakers I am totally ignorant. Can anybody point me at a web site that would explain in layman terms what would be a reasonable option? Any indication of cost would be useful in case I get too excited!

Are you looking for something like this?

Klipsch

Altec Lansing

Google for reviews.

Both systems available at amazon.com

[daveharris]

For my shows in the Camera Clubs I use the Creative Audigy PCMIA card about £50 see

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/produ...4&product=10769

This connects to the amp with a mini-jack to two phone plug lead - use a quality one not the cheap one thats little better than wet string!

I plug this into a standard Rotel Stereo Amp and a pair of B & W Speakers, together cost £500.

At home I use the Augigy card into a Quad bi-amped system with large Catle Howard Speakers - quality is excellent.

Does this help?

Dave

[Igor]

John,

ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics card should works well with PTE v5.00, as I know. Also it's compatible with Windows Vista.

[JEB]

John,

ATI Radion Xpress 200M graphics card should works well with PTE v5.00, as I know. Also it's compatible with Windows Vista.

Thank you all for your swift replies. I am always amazed at the help and assistance I receive from this community not forgetting the speed at which it arrives.

Regards

John

PS Sorry this should have been added to above.

Fingers!

[ContaxMan]

Thank you all for your swift replies.

And me too - very useful advice received. Any further ideas always welcome too.

[alrobin]

John,

Just plug the output from your sound card (either line-out, or headphones) into the input of your best stereo system (e.g. "auxiliary" input). I use a mixer in between the two for maximum control.