HDMI Out - Picture Quality really 1080P?

[CoolioFoolio]

I am thinking of buying a Sony Vaio VGN-FW290 with a Blu-Ray drive. One reason for buying this would to use the HDMI output and hook it up to my 1080P Panasonic plasma.

My three questions are:

1. Should I expect a high-quality 1080P picture or something less?
2. Does anybody have a similar configuration that can speak w/experience?
3. Am I better off buying a stand-alone Blu-ray player if picture quality is my primary concern?

Thank you!

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by CoolioFoolio

I am thinking of buying a Sony Vaio VGN-FW290 with a Blu-Ray drive. One reason for buying this would to use the HDMI output and hook it up to my 1080P Panasonic plasma.

My three questions are:

1. Should I expect a high-quality 1080P picture or something less?
2. Does anybody have a similar configuration that can speak w/experience?
3. Am I better off buying a stand-alone Blu-ray player if picture quality is my primary concern?

Thank you!

I personally do not have experience with watching Blu-rays from a Blu-ray drive hooked up to a computer. I would say just from a technical guessing point of view, as long as your motherboard has HDMI output, your computer is equipped with sufficient hardware for processing high-def signal, and your operating system is capable of managing all that (XP, XP Pro, and Vista all are, from what I've read), then you should be OK.

Will you get a home theater experience out of your Sony Vaio HTPC that you'd get out of a standalone or dedicated Blu-ray player? I think your only real answer will be found in a side-by-side comparison test. You may have issues with some of the audio signals, from what I've found in my own research online. Either way, I'm sure you'll still get at least a very dependable 5.1 that sounds pretty dang good and would take a discerning professional to say that it's not as good as it should or could be if played in dedicated a Blu-ray player.

However this works out, I'd be interested to see your findings. I'm in the process of building a new HTPC myself, and am contemplating a Blu-ray drive.

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by CoolioFoolio

I am thinking of buying a Sony Vaio VGN-FW290 with a Blu-Ray drive. One reason for buying this would to use the HDMI output and hook it up to my 1080P Panasonic plasma.

My three questions are:

1. Should I expect a high-quality 1080P picture or something less?
2. Does anybody have a similar configuration that can speak w/experience?
3. Am I better off buying a stand-alone Blu-ray player if picture quality is my primary concern?

Thank you!

#1 Yes! As long as the machine/graphics card is set to the 1080P TV, absolutely! BE SURE to select TV ONLY when connected to a HDTV. Trying to display on both screens is likely to fail.

#2 Two(2) AR Series VAIOs here. I have connected the AR190G to a neighbors Home Theater with some large(didn't measure it) Panasonic HDTV and Yamaha reciever.
It was so good, he went and got a PS3 so he could watch Blu-ray Discs without asking me to bring my laptop over.
#3 That is something you will have to decide. 1080p is 1080p. Audio may be the only thing that a STB or PS3 may excell in as I don't think the FW(or my ARs) will do bitstreaming.
5.1 is not a problem though!

Hope this helps!

[CoolioFoolio]

Thanks you dadkins and brettallica; your feedback was very helpful!

[jmkoch]

Yes, you can use VAIO notebooks to see BDs on a big screen. Just make sure the model you get has a BD player / burner and an HDMI connection.

The one hitch is that the Intervideo WinDVD BD that comes with some VAIOs needs some tweeking to support the video on an external display. You do this by adjusting the NVIDIA card settings to use an external display. Otherwise, you'll see only black on the big screen. If you plan to use the big HDTV screen as your primary display, this is no big deal. The only chore is if you want to go mobile and must then reverse the NVIDIA card settings to use the LCD as your primary display.

For some oddball reason, the VAIOS will show the screen desktop and other PC applications on both monitors with no adjustments whatever. The Windows Media Player also shows on both screens. It is only when using the BD playing software per se that the adjustment becomes mandatory. I downloaded some VAIO updates, but none changed this little quirk.