i recently got the vaio VGN-FW230J. for some reason i can't find it on the internet...and the closest I found are these:
VGN-FW230J/B
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vai...?tag=mncol;rnav VGN-FW230J/H
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vai...?tag=mncol;rnav it is most likely that the different model numbers just represent the colour of the case...
now onto the main point. i tried to play a 1080p video and one of the cpu's maxed out giving me a choppy and laggy out of synch video while the audio was fine. then i went to test another 1080p video and the video was the same, except that there was no sound this time. then i proceeded to try a 720p video and at first it worked out fine, but after skipping to a random part of the video, the cpu maxed out and ended up like the 1080p videos. i tried the 720p a few more times and the same thing happened. i know that the 1080p videos obviously have a higher resolution than my display and for many computers it shouldn't work, but i can't understand how 720p doesn't work, especially when my laptop is built to play 1080p as it has the (notoriously misleading) black and gold Full HD 1080p sticker. can someone please help me or explain what is going on?
p.s. my friends suggested to get more RAM and and to adjust the graphics memory in the BIOS. the latter i believe isn't possible and the first just doesn't seem like a good idea after spending so much on the laptop itself...but does adding RAM actually help?
btw, i am a computer noob so dont use big words plz
It's somewhat a marketing scam as all a laptop needs to earn the Full HD1080 logo is a screen that can display that resolution. (Though I see it doesn't even have that, 900 vertical height not 1080)
It doesn't actually have to perform well enough to make that resolution watchable. Using a more efficient video codec like CoreAVC will help, but piss-poor integrated graphics chips like the M4500 are utterly inadequate for 1080p - though they should play 720p fine.
apparently the 1080p logo was supposed to mean it can play 1080p so you could watch on a better sceen via HDMI, but now I can't see how my laptop qualifies to have that logo in anyway...so what should i do now? go complain about it at future shop? i really don't want to exchange or anything after transfering all my stuff...
Live with it, or move your stuff to an external and change it for something with dedicated graphics (Preferably Mobility Radeon HD something, something better than 3200)
i have discovered one last explanation for the sticker. i think it could mean that my laptop can take in a 1080p signal via HDMI and play it with an obviously lower resolution as a substitute for a full HD diplay(assuming that the signal can bypass the cpu and directly go to the screen and speakers or something of the sort). i have no way of testing this at the moment so i guess i will live with it, but Thanks for looking into my problem anyway.
P.S. before we leave this thread to die, can you please tell me whether my HDMI is possible?(and/or explain what the process is like)
edit: i was testing with more videos and i discovered that although the cpu is near max, the video only goes out of synch and cpu maxes out the at moment the karaoke subtitles appear(also applies to any other instances of big, flashy, and animated fonts). the problem is severe in 1080p and not as bad but still noticabe in 720p. i use cccp to watch my shows. is there a way to work around this?
Personally I would take the thing back and give them a piece of my mind. The unfortunate reality is that the average consumer doesn't have the time or interest to keep up to date with current technologies and they end up getting lied to and taken advantage of. The absolute worst stores for this is Future Shop/Best Buy (They have the same owner and are essentially the same store). I no longer deal with them as I have had absolutely horribly experiences myself with an old laptop, car stereo, and PS3. Their products are over priced, their staff will lie and mislead you, and they will not honour the warranty you pay for.
For my previous laptop that was a lemon that was a replacement for the original lemon they sold me, knowing full well why it was previously returned, took me nearly 20 hours of my personal time inside their store, waiting for customer service and being bullsh*t on.
There are understandable imperfections in the customer/business relationship. Best Buy/Future Shop step far past any point of reason to near abuse and theft. The only way things like this will get better is if people start hurting them in their wallets.
If you are still within your return period I will personally help you find a better alternative from another retailer that will suit all your needs.
yes that is my laptop but it's been a little over a month but the problem isn't too bad. basically i like this laptop and i'm just slightly disapointed that it can't play 1080p or 720p just beacause there is flashy subtitles. i dont feel that it is as big a problem as i initially thought it was...but it's still slightly disappointing.
i wouldn't say they lied to me about the laptop, it's more like sony built it to do the job with no room to spare, but for the price i got my laptop for i can't say it was a total ripoff. the salesman gave me $100 discount on the laptop, discount on the warranty(forgot how much), and discounted(could have been free but i dont remember) MacAfee total protection, and he also told me not to get the higher model for at least $200 more which had 1Gb of extra ram because i could upgrade mine for $50(btw does adding RAM ease the workload of the CPUs if the current amount of RAM is still has some room from being completly get used up? or does it only help if the computer already uses all its RAM). in fact that guy is probably to best staff futureshop will ever have. last year my gramps bought a higher end desktop(idk why he wanted such a good compter that he doesn't need) from the same guy, it was a quad core but it kept on freezing and hagning for no reason. i checked the system with with dxdiag and it said it had some AMD CPU. i was like o.O WHAT!?!? and i checked the sticker on the bottom...it said intel core 2 quad, so we went back to get it exchanged. when we got there, the uncool staff were asking pointless questions in their unwilling-to-help attitude. the sales guy walks by and asks us what the problem was, then he just grabs a new machine off the shelf and tells us to come back for it the next day when they finish setting it up. the moral of the story is that you should always go the bald and snappy middle aged guy that appears to be losing money for the company for help.
anyways back to the main point. this laptop enough for me to play CoD4 fine(obviously not in best graphics settings), and i'm quite sure 1080p videos would work without subtitles...but i watch subs so i need to find a way around it. that is all i think i can do now as i can't exchange and in my case, the 1080p sticker isn't even much of a lie...it's just that doing anything slightly beyond it won't work
