Need help with monitor, Media center & video options

jasno999 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 122 Location: PA

should I go 17" screen or 15.4" screen?

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Tue, 23 May 2006 08:55:30 Post Subject:

My laptop is 15" and it is just fine with me at 1024x768. But, if you have the $$ go for the big fella! Grin

Enigmachine · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 122

Hi!

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for. I don't see exactly what you're hoping to do with this machine, and why you're looking at remotes. I mean, the machine is portable, so why not carry it to where you're listening to music? If it's because it's plugged into a sound system, then it makes more sense to get a remote - but then that means it's also in a fixed location where you can plug a tv cable into the cable tuner and your video card into your wide screen TV... Well, it's just me... I like toys but I don't see how these options are coherent.

So what exactly do you intend to do with it? Smile

One thing about remotes/tuners/Media center, I don't know if this was clear enough, but there's actually 3 parts involved:
1) The TV tuner - plug any TV coax cable into it to get TV
2) The TV software - You can use Media Center, or BeyondTV or SageTV or whatever - this is what would actually let you watch tv in a fun way, schedule recordings, etc.
3) The remote - remotes are usually compatible with Windows Media Center, but they can also be compatible with the software in point 2 above - it depends on the software itself.

So... I guess if you just want to remotely control your music, go with a MCE remote. If you're really thinking about turning your portable into a tv-watching device, plan ahead, there's a lot of details to be concerned with.

Oh, and for the video card, anything that's equivalent to an ATI 9600 or more should be quite enough to watch TV on all softwares, so I don't think there's any worries there.

LaTech · Posted: Tue, 23 May 2006 19:03:15 Post Subject:

If you're going to be watching movies and the like (or more than one of you will be watching movies) spring for the 17". Eyesight is one of those things that you only have once.

jasno999 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 122 Location: PA

My theories-

If this computer was goign to be only a replacment to a desktop and it was goign to stay basically in one place all the time then fine I say teh 17" is great. And I think that may be a lot of what I do - however since there is the chance that I may want to use this in other places and bring the laptop with me I am thinkign the 15.4 inch might be best. It is more portable.

And I don't see myself usign the laptop for music since I own an IPOD - jsut use it to manipulate my music and load it to my IPOD. I also do nto see using it for watching DVDs maybe once in a blue moon but that is it.

And since I hate the finger controlled mouse I am back to thinking that maybe my best option is stil lto get the Gateway CX200X convertiable notebook/tablet computer. IT is definitly more expensive than the dell E1505 but the whole idea of usign the stylus still makes me think it could be very useful and eaiser to use.

It basically comes down to price. I can get a pretty nice dell 100GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, 256mb viedo card, upgraded monitor, dupo processor and some other doodies for around $1150 with the dell savings and savings I get thru work. THe Gateway give me something like a 80GB hard drive, pentium M procesor, 1GB RAM, 64mb video card, and the tablet ability with stylus to use the stylus to write and as a mouse for around $1500 after I tak down their sales department.

Another hting I wanted to get cause I like it is Street and trips 2006 the software and GPS locator that you can hook up to the car and use via your laptop. It is only $100 and I think I would liek it. HAve to decide between that and atlis 2006.

jasno999 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 122 Location: PA

Thsi is a double post but wanted to let you all know what I decided on:

Well I made a final decision. I really did like the gateway but the price was too high and the whole stylus thing was something I was not sure if I was going to use or not. So I went for the Dell. I got upgrades all around.

- 256MB ATI MOBILITYâ„¢ RADEONÂ® X1400 Hyper Memory â€“ Was the best I could get in the selection

- 100GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

- Genuine WindowsÂ® XP Media Center Edition 2005

- 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

- IntelÂ® PRO 3945 and Dell 350 Bluetooth Internal Wireless Cards

- 15.4 inch UltraSharpâ„¢ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLifeâ„¢

- IntelÂ® Coreâ„¢ Duo processor T2500 (2MB Cache/2GHz/667MHz FSB)

- 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm

I also purchase a bag for the laptop along with a wireless router and the software/GPS combo from Streets and trips 2006.

My final pricing for the computer, software, bag and all of that good stuff was $1500. I know you guys are great at finding deals and you know all the nooks and crannies all over the web. But I think this pricing was pretty good. I got the Dell 22% discount along with a company provided 16% discount on the computer and 6% discount on software and bag. So all in all it worked out. IF I had selected the gateway I would have ended up spending around $1800 for all of that stuff. So I decided that a computer with a Pentium M processor, stylus, less hard drive, less video quality, and less options was not what I wanted for a higher price.

I do appreciate everybodyâ€™s help. It was a hard decision because I like to be different and I like to get stuff that is interesting and new. But the money became the factor.

One thing I just read was that the new Microsoft OS id going to have a tablet PC functionality built in. I am not sure what that means or how it will work. I just hope I donâ€™t end up being pissed off for not waiting for this system to come out when it does.