5920G - What exactly = Gaming Performance + HD-DVD?

I have searched the forum but couldn't find a definitive answer. Sorry if I seem repetitive.

I own an Acer AS5920G-6273 from Canada. It is a T5250 (1.5 GHz), 250GB HDD, 2GB Ram, and 8600M GT.
I tried three games on this notebook: Portal (from HL2), Unreal Tournament III, and of course, Crysis.

Portal ran pretty well, and Unreal has hiccup at times. But both games were pretty playable. Crysis, however, suffered a bit even in medium settings.

That's when I started looking for solutions, and eventually lead myself to solutions involving laptopvideo2go.com

I tried their drivers, including 169.25, 169.09, 167.43, and 165.01. The reason I went through these various drivers was because after my initial installation of 169.25, Acer Arcade Deluxe couldn't play my HD-DVD anymore. It can read the name of the disc, but it just wouldn't play, saying that it has something to do with Windows Aero being disabled, or something about my VGA card (I think). I checked Aero and it was still on. I then installed the driver found on Acer's site, and then the HD-DVD was playing with flicker and white lines across. I actually saved myself using Windows' System Restore.
Ever since then, I tried these various drivers where people said worked with their HD-DVD rom. However, each time was without success, and I rolled back drivers each time to restore to a working setting.

I have no idea what the problem is. I don't know what WHQL certified is, but I would understand if a driver disabled the HDCP on my video card. I read some abstract posts about AnyDVD, or maybe updating the HD-DVD drive's firmware. I haven't tried AnyDVD, but when I downloaded an HP driver to update the drive, I realized the firmware of my drive was not the commonly found AC06, but AC07. The HP21 driver was released on a later date than AC07, but I wonder if they were the same drivers (meaning I am up to date).

I hereby hope that someone can definitively tell me: What setup would guarantee the best gaming performance, and maintain the full playability of HD-DVD? I understand that my processor is slower than the 2.0 that most people have, and that is why I want the best gaming performance possible on my current setup.

Thanks for your time, and I hope I am not too big of a hassel to deal with. I DID bother to search before posting, except I may not be the brightest mind of the bunch.

 

bakudan...where can I download Acer Arcade Deluxe, so the HD DVD ROM can work? got the same unit as you from the same source as you. we picked up the only two our store had. screaming deal, eh?

 

I'm not sure about gaming performance but HD DVD playback can be a hassle and one that I ran into myself. I do suggest using AnyDvD though, that solved the HDDVD playback problems I had.

To be honest though, while this notebook can run games pretty decently, it's never going to be a powerhouse that Crysis demands.

 

I actually don't know about being from the same source =P I actually bought the laptop a few days before the 799 deal hit.
Arcade Deluxe came with the notebook. I don't know, but you may try the European Acer site to see if they have the installer, because the Canada site has completely outdated drivers. Honestly, everything on that site is more outdated than what came with the notebook itself.
For your information, my Arcade Deluxe's version is 1.12.4706.

So you are using AnyDVD with modded Nvidia drivers, and HD-DVD playback remains intact?

 

Yes, HD DVD playback remains intact even with modded drivers. With that you should be go to go as far as watching movies.

 

AnyDVD HD is freakin expensive! like $80US because you have to get AnyDVD first, which is $40 and then you have buy the AnyDVD HD upgrade for $30

 

Darn. I just tried AnyDVD HD with 169.25. It was no good.
And Arcade Deluxe's message was about Windows Aero color scheme being turned off, and that my video card may NOT prevent screen capture for copyright materials.

do I need WHQL enabled drivers?

 

I'm in the same boat with 169.25 drivers, same error message...does anyone know of a driver that works with HD (other than the shipped driver) ?

 

you can use the sony whql drivers from lv2go
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16276
for me these drivers are great

 

Well I tried these drivers, still no joy... Anyone else have a fix?

 

I know the 158.45 modded drivers work, at least for me with AnyDVD running. I also had a lot of trouble getting the right combo to work but these drivers seem pretty good for HD DVD and I can still play what few games I have installed.

 

So, with AnyDVD HD running I tried the latest mobile WHQL driver 156.87, still the same error. I looked for but cannot find 158.45, the closest is 158.51 (which is an XP driver). Can anyone help me out, I am running Vista Home Premium SP1 beta... I keep getting the Windows Aero being off (which it is not)/VGA does not prevent screen capture for copyright materials error when attempting to playback an HD DVD with Acer Arcade Deluxe. Thanks...

 

I'm having hte same issues with the same laptop. Sorry, been posting my own threads (didn't search well enough for other threads first!). Try using the newest Toshiba driver which fixed my issue, well, except that Bourne Ultimatum still won't work when outputting to TV, but everything else works. Also, I think this laptop's CPU may be a tad slow for HD-DVD playback as I was getting stuttering on the HD-DVD demo disc when outputting to TV.

See here for the upgrade to the HD-DVD drive.

http://www.toshibaer.com/firmware/

Click on the TS-L802A folder and choose the AC06 one.

... and here for the Toshiba driver:

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...hhegdecgfkceghdgngdgmn.0&ct=DL&all_docs=false



Note that to install the Toshiba driver you can't run the setup routine but have to use the Device Manager ...

Cheers.

 

Toshiba driver worked!... now all that remains is checking to see how some games do with this driver... Thanks for the help!

 

No problem, try it with a newer HD-DVD if you have one, like Bourne Ultimatum. Interested to see if you'll get the same error!

Cheers.

 

You can download Arcade Deluxe 1.12.4327 from here: http://www.acerpanam.com/flex/acerdrivers/bin/drivers.html?CFID=4803488&CFTOKEN=34770863

Description: Corrects an issue during playback of a HDDVD, when pressing the fastforward or rewind button and then pressing play, the video will freeze and sound will be very distorted.

 

My laptop came with 1.12.4706, so I assume this is a newer version of Arcade?