9300 digital audio output

I'm moving from an insprion 8200 to the 9300 which I just received. I should have checked the spec's better, there's no eraser head on the keyboard (stick mouse), no sp/dif out, and no ir port. Also no serial and parallel but I can connect to my printer with with usb and ethernet, so I can do without those, the othes are going to be sorely missed.

The 1920x1280 screen is nice, about 2" wider than my 1600x1280, and the same height, so I like the extra desktop space. The pixels are physically the same size. I do notice the sparkles and I have te LG screen, I may need to fix that.

For you guys that watch movies, don't you need a digital audio out jack? or are you just using stereo audio? It's not worth the time to watch something in stereo, I want D-Digital and DTS, the audio is half of the expreience. Is there a way to get digital out from the 9300?

This is really starting to bite me, I thought this was a top of the line notebook, it appears stripped down like a $600 machine with a big screen.

PCMark 2002 gave me 5790 on my 8200 with a 2.6Ghz Pentium 4-M, the 9300 with 1.86ghz is 6055, it sure seems to run the same speed to me.

So I'm trying to figure out what I'm getting besides a slightly bigger screen.

 

To me the biggest draw is the PM coupled with Go6800. The larger screen is nice too. Everything else is essentially standard. This is essentially a legacy-free machine, which means, no serial/parallel. Frankly, I don't miss them.

No I don't see the point in having digital out on a laptop -- simply because why would you want to watch DVD in surround sound, on your 17" screen? heh No thanks I have a DVD player + a big screen + a nice sound system for that purpose. The laptop is for maybe pop in a DVD on the go for me.

At any rate obviously this notebook isn't all things to everyone. It suites my needs just fine. [ ]

cheers,

yass

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by kdb4

 

Thanks, actually I use it as an HTPC (Home Theater PC) to drive a projector with the video out, my theater room is 24' x 36' with an 11' ceiling and and a 16' x 9' screen. My 8200 does 3/2 pulldown and scales dvd's for the projector, it works great. I could get a dedicated pc for this but I'm not using the notebook when I'm watching movies. It's occasional use of course, but my 8100 and 8200 did just fine.

It seems that leading up to the 8200, Dell tried to put everything they could into their 'top of the line' notebook, it appears that they have changed their intentions, or the 9300 isn't the top of the line. The 6000d doesn't have that stuff either. Maybe it's the XPS, but I'm really not a game player, I wouldn't want to carry around the extra weight for what I would get out of it. I don't view digital audio as all that unusual anymore, or an ir port for that matter, it's a lot more common now than it was three years ago when I bought my 8200, there are pc speaker sets that take digital audio. I've got a pda and phone with ir. It's kind of a common transport.

I was hoping that there was a pcmcia card or maybe a usb box that could provide digtal audio out.

 

Why don't you consider the Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Notebook. PCMCIA card that provides 7.1 surround sound for games and movies (Dolby and DTS). It retails for around $120.

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769

Amazon has it for $115 with free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00067KZJI/0805062971-20

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by kdb4