VGN-AR21M HD?

[Rich_UK]

Hi all, just bought a Vaio laptop VGN-AR21M, I was told by the sales person at PC World that this machine is HD, I told him I wanted it for playing HD games and watching HD DVD movies, he said I could use it for that, but... I've looked up the details of this model on various websites and can't find any mention of HD, is this machine HD or not? It has a sticker on it saying "Full HD 1080" the screen resolution of this machine is 1440 x 900, but when I looked up full HD 1080 everything with 1080 has a screen resolution that is higher than this?

I'm confused

[pariope41]

Futitsu Siemens 4200 rpm de 160gigas...

[Blencogo]

Hi Rich_UK and welcome to Club Vaio.

I have not seen a AR21M Vaio with a Full HD sticker!

The AR21M series Vaios have a screen resolution of 1440 X 900 so this is the maximum resolution that can be displayed. However, your Vaio is capable of processing HD video and outputting higher resolutions through the HDMI output to a suitable display.

If you wanted 1920 X 1080 resolution in the laptop display, you should have bought a AR21S series Vaio. This also has the 7600GT graphics card with double the memory and a Blu-Ray drive - but it costs £800 more!

On a 17 inch screen, I doubt if you can honestly tell the difference.

Neither will play HD DVD video formats but the AR21S series will play Blu-Ray formats.

[Rich_UK]

I bought this laptop under the impression that I could watch HD DVD's on it, and play HD games, looks like I was miss sold it, and will be taking it back for a refund, here's a photo of the sticker.....

[Blencogo]

That's interesting - I assume it refers to output via HDMI.

Have a look here John Lewis.

You need to be careful with formats at the moment. Only Toshiba and Acer seem to be supporting the HD-DVD format whicle Sony and Dell are going for Blu-Ray.

It looks like Blu-Ray are winning at this moment in time - but who knows. There is really only a place in the market for one of these long term. If you want an each way bet, you will have to wait until HD-DVD/Blu-Ray hybrid drives are commercially available. I think the first one is being launched at Las Vegas this week.

Personally, I would not buy either at the moment.

[Rich_UK]

I'd forgot about the 'VHS-Betamax' battle [:">]

That Toshiba is very nice but unfortuately out of my budget, my budget was £1200 max which was what I paid for the Vaio, well to be honest my budget about £1000 max but saw this and had to have it :smileygrin: interesting to see the Tosh has 3 hours battery life, this Vaio lasts about 75 mins maybe 90 mins tops.

It looks like I might be best to get a refund and drop back down to my £1000 budget then upgrade to HD/Blu-Ray in 12 months time.

[kee-lo_]

Hi Rich,

I think that sticker's refering to the fact you can output via HDMI to 1080

[Dekesh]

I have a AR11M and also have the full HD 1080 sticker. as kee lo said it means it can output the 1080 resolution via the HDMI out on the side of the laptop

[apierc1]

I do believe that Fujitsu have a device that will play both blue ray and HD-dvd nearing end of development