I would agree--I've had HP, Dell, Gateway & Toshiba laptops. HP makes very nice stuff, and if I were to buy another laptop I wouldn't hesitate at all to buy HP. I am surprised (and happy...) to hear that these manufacturers are finally allowing more than 2GB of RAM to go into these machines. Great find Laurence.

TB

I didn't see you mention the processor and speed?

It's a 2.0 gigahertz http://processorfinder.intel.com/DetailsPrinterFriendly.aspx?sSpec=SLB53P7350[/link]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147793Here [/link] is a version with a slightly lessor processor for about $250 less after a $50 rebate.

Buy.com has some great HP deals.

I just got my daughter a a nice HP Pavilion dv9925nr Notebook / AMD Dual-Core Mobile Processor / 4096 MB Memory / 250 GB Hard Drive / 17.0" WXGA High-Definition Bright View Widescreen (1440 x 900) Display / 5-in-1 Reader / Webcam / Vista Home Premium / Factory Refurbished / FireWire /
$649.99 from Buy.com

From HP Refurbished Business Sales I got a HP 8710w XPP+Vista32+Vista64 CORE Duo2 T9500 2.6GHz 160GB 2GB DVDRW(LS) 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) WLAN BT NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M graphics, with 512 MB dedicated video memory Rmkt NB PC, HDMI out, FireWire, including Docking Station
$1,699 ($1850 with 3 year warranty incl. accidental damage) + $75 for an extended battery, leather laptop bag and mini optical mouse. I will max out the memory @ 4 GB and for $89 from ZipZoomFly I can get a 320GB Seatgate 7,200RPM 2.5" SATA HDD to replace the one installed.

Yes both are refurbished but they look to be surplus stock as both are in perfect brand new condition. Both arrived today and then we went and picked up another 42" Visio 1080P LCD for $899 NEW from Costco. Doing our bit to keep consumer spending up :)

Decent, but it's not a 8 or 9 series processor and it's only a single hard drive. Plus editing on a 1440X900 compared to 1650x1080 much less a 1920x1080 is rough. I purchased my current laptops at Costco through their custom HP laptop program and for a few dollars more you can get a nice editing machine.

Well 1440 x 940 is almost perfect for HDV, but i can see where a little more would be nice for an EX1 or EX3. I'm pretty sure that what looks like a single 320GB hard drive is actually some sort of 2 drive RAID system which I would guess is pretty fast. I use an external drive for my video anyway though. A good off the shelf model with an external eSata drive is plenty good enough for me.

"Well 1440 x 940 is almost perfect for HDV"

Sort of. An HDV frame is 1440x1080, but it has a pixel aspect ratio of 1.333:1 and is displayed at 1920x1080. The EX1 and EX3 frames are 1920x1080 with a PAR of 1.0. Nevertheless, they all display at 1920x1080.

Yeah they all display at 1920x1080, but the real resolution of the 60i HDV I shoot is 1440x540. IMHO there just isn't going to be any real advantage to using a higher resolution display when all that you're going to get extra are interpolated pixels.

Besides, we're talking a 17" display here. My reading glasses just aren't good enough to parse these subtle differences on such a small screen anyway. One thing I will say is that what I'm seeing so far on my own 1440x900 display looks frightfully good. ;-)

OK, Laurence, whatever you say.

I gotta ask laurence, what camera shoots 1440x540?? Also, its naive to think that a 320 is 2 hard drives. It COULD be, but with 500GB hard drives available at 5400rpm, and 320GB at 7200rpm that would be a poor assumption if you edited for a living and needed a mobile workstation.

[i]What kind of camera shoots 1440x540??[i]

There are actually quite a few cameras with three 960x540 image sensors, including cameras like the Sony Z1 and FX1 as well as the Panasonic HVX200.

To see what I mean, check out the following links"

http://digitalcontentproducer.com/hdhdv/depth/video_highresolution_dv/ (read the part that says "pixel math")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AG-HVX200

Basically the idea is this:

You use three 960x540 image sensors.

The same 540 lines of vertical resolution are used for both the odd and even interlaced scan lines.

The 960 lines of horizontal resolution are extended to 1440 by offsetting the three primary color sensors.

The 1440 is then interpolated up to 1920 by using a 1.33 stretch.

Thus the maximum resolution of a 50i or 60i hdv camera is 1440x540 before interpolation.

This sort of thing is why the EX1 and EX3 look so much better than earlier cameras. They really have 1920x1080 resolution!

I recently purchased this HP dv7 at Best Buy when a friend drowned my laptop in Coke.

I love it. My only quarrel is that the 4 gb of memory is two 2-gb drams that fill the only two dram slots in the unit. So, yes, expandable from 4 to 8 gb if you throw away those two 2 gb drams.

Also, the hard drive is one 320 gb drive (286 gb usable) but, there appears to be a second hard drive compartment. I say "appears" because I have not actually plugged a 2nd drive in. I do have another 320 gb SATA drive that may well work.

I am very happy. Full size keyboard actually takes a little getting used to, I am used to a smaller keyboard and sometimes get my fingers out of position in the dim light of my living room in the evening as I watch the news. Also, the keyboard is somewhat reflective and makes the keytop legends disappear if you don't have enough overhead light, or just the right angle. The keys reflect the screen and the legends disappear. Not a stopper, but a nuisance.

The Vista 64 home premium OS was a draw for me along with the Bluray, 17" screen and 320 HD, Bluetooth and Firewire port..

I also picked up an ASUS Eee 9" WinXP ultramini that I walk around the house with for only email, internet, and IM. No more reading catalogs and books in the "library"!. Amazing. If it was waterproof, it would visit my hot tub and shower..... Beside my bed and flipped open and on before I get up, and last thing at night.

This world is going to techno hell....... I love it!

David
EventVideoTeam.com

thrilled with my new HP so far, just got it today, super-solid construction and built like an ace, great display, tons of ports.. woot! thx Cheno for the reco, glad I got this over the Vaio.

-k

There are actually quite a few cameras with three 960x540 image sensors, including cameras like the Sony Z1 and FX1 as well as the Panasonic HVX200.

Only the HVX200 has 960x540 CCDs.

The Sony cameras have 960x1080 CCDs (as the article clearly indicates).

This doesn't mean that the Sony cameras are twice as sharp, because the Panny CCDs are scanned progressively while the Sony ditto are scanned interlaced.

There is certainly a difference in sharpness, but it's less than 2:1 (and how much depends on subject movement/camera movement and how well the Panny's in-camera uprezzing algorithm is able to perform on the specific subject).

Also from that article:
When, however, both HDV samples were compared to broadcast HDTV, there were major differences in apparent sharpness and overall picture impact. HDV simply lacks the quality obtained from the far more expensive equipment. Therefore, I cannot confirm the claims made by some Sony HDV buyers that FX1/Z1 video looks better than “any SD camera”...”

That is correct. The article author cannot confirm that Sony HDV looks better than "any SD camera," because he didn't compare with an SD camera. He compared with HDTV. Duh.