Sony Vaio

[Singsation]

I thought i'd use my Sony Vaio as a back up computer for hoster, I down loaded demo and set up displays and tried it out, All works fine untill you try and play video, it will show video if your show display is on your primary monitor but as soon as you drag the display to your second monitor you just get a black screen where the video should play. After a lot of farting around i found the following post on the webb.

But while it has component output, it won't play movies over component except at 480i (more Sony DRM paranoia). According to Sony, this restriction is a feature, not a bug! You might as well use a $20 DVD player connected to a ten year old TV and save yourself >$2,000.

After multiple calls to Sony support (and one house call) they could not get the video board/driver to output 1280:720 (or any other 16:9 aspect ratio resolution) to my widescreen Philips plasma monitor via HDMI. It only allowed resolutions with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which resulted in very distorted TV and movie playback. Yet the Vaio would output 720p via component to the same monitor! It just wouldn't play movies at that resolution on component-out.

And the Sony graphics card requires custom Sony driver software. So you lose out on the regular updates that nVidia makes to their unified driver architecture.

If you plan to use a widescreen monitor with your Media Center PC (or think you might upgrade to widescreen some day), don't buy the Sony Media PC.
My Vaio is a RC series so i dont know if it's the same on others but it looks as if you have to remove the Nvida 512 mb card and buy a new card.
It does the same on my wifes Vaio laptop as well. so be aware.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by Singsation

I thought i'd use my Sony Vaio as a back up computer for hoster, I down loaded demo and set up displays and tried it out, All works fine untill you try and play video, it will show video if your show display is on your primary monitor but as soon as you drag the display to your second monitor you just get a black screen where the video should play. After a lot of farting around i found the following post on the webb.

But while it has component output, it won't play movies over component except at 480i (more Sony DRM paranoia). According to Sony, this restriction is a feature, not a bug! You might as well use a $20 DVD player connected to a ten year old TV and save yourself >$2,000.

After multiple calls to Sony support (and one house call) they could not get the video board/driver to output 1280:720 (or any other 16:9 aspect ratio resolution) to my widescreen Philips plasma monitor via HDMI. It only allowed resolutions with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which resulted in very distorted TV and movie playback. Yet the Vaio would output 720p via component to the same monitor! It just wouldn't play movies at that resolution on component-out.

And the Sony graphics card requires custom Sony driver software. So you lose out on the regular updates that nVidia makes to their unified driver architecture.

If you plan to use a widescreen monitor with your Media Center PC (or think you might upgrade to widescreen some day), don't buy the Sony Media PC.
My Vaio is a RC series so i dont know if it's the same on others but it looks as if you have to remove the Nvida 512 mb card and buy a new card.
It does the same on my wifes Vaio laptop as well. so be aware.

you can only now see a video display on your singers screen on 4.08, they took that capabilities due to some people having problems with the new player..i'm nor sure if it is set up the old way, but in order to play /see the video on the singers screen you have to play a kma file first, then drag the screen over to the singers screen, then play a vcd..

[Singsation]

that's what i'm saying with the sony you can't even see that, only if the singers display is on your primary display. Sony have made it this way to stop copying.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by Singsation

that's what i'm saying with the sony you can't even see that, only if the singers display is on your primary display. Sony have made it this way to stop copying.

can you play a kma file and be able to see it on your 2nd monitor? i'm not sure if the demo is set up to play a vcd..have you try playing a kma first ( you dont have to play the tune) before playing a vcd?

[Singsation]

yes everything else is fine it will even play a video taken on a mobile phone on the second monitor just not any video above 480p, I have run 4.06 demo on this machine before and you see both displays playing a video file as long as it's on the computer screen but as soon as you use the second screen the video box opens the sound will play just no video, the video card and sony software just blocks the output from the S-vid component out put. I only posted this thread to see if any other sony vaio users with multiple displays had come across this.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by Singsation

yes everything else is fine it will even play a video taken on a mobile phone on the second monitor just not any video above 480p, I have run 4.06 demo on this machine before and you see both displays playing a video file as long as it's on the computer screen but as soon as you use the second screen the video box opens the sound will play just no video, the video card and sony software just blocks the output from the S-vid component out put. I only posted this thread to see if any other sony vaio users with multiple displays had come across this.

that is what im saying, hoster 4.08 doesn't show video on your preview screen anymore, when playing a vcd,only on the singers screen, and if it set up as the old player, the only way to see the video on the 2nd screen is for you to have to play a kma file first, then play a vcd and drag it over to the 2nd screen.what program do you use when playing a video using your mobile phone..

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by Singsation

I only posted this thread to see if any other Sony vaio users with multiple displays had come across this.

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-AR61E The video works fine on this model. I use the s-video out option, it also has HDMI but I have never tried that. I only use this computer as a back up for my shows, the only thing I've had problems with is the internal DVD can not read cg+g but I'm not bothered by that as I use a usb CD drive for imports.

Roy.