Is Acer’s Gemstone Blue a true 1080p notebook or not? Answers here!

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Friday, 18 April 2008

Page 2 of 3 The second point of confusion arose in the Smarthouse.com.au article. Smarthouse had contacted Henry Lee, Acer's Senior Product Manager, Retail Notebooks, who did the presentation on Tuesday at the Westin Hotel to find out whether the screen was 1080i or not, primarily because of the less than 1080p resolution being displayed on the Westin’s flat screen TV through VGA because of the HDCP and HDMI issue. Unfortunately for Lee, even though he had been firmly saying at the event that the 18.4-inch Gemstone Blue was a true 1080p HD device, for some reason he told Smarthouse the following: "The Aspire Gemstone Blue 8920G's LCD is 1080i as Acer in Taiwan highlighted to you. Acer has marketed the Aspire Gemstone Blue 8920G as Full HD resolution, 1920 x 1080, and the capability for the unit to output 1080p via HDMI. So for users to enjoy the full potential of Blu-ray Disc movies, it is recommended they connect to their favourite large size TV and output via HDMI at 1080p". Now, given that Smarthouse had received this information from Lee, which directly contradicted Acer’s own press release and press event, Smarthouse was right to run with an exclusive story containing the explosive claim that Acer’s Gemstone Blue wasn’t 1080p after all. As it was after hours, and it wasn’t possible to contact Acer locally, I decided to wait until today to talk to Acer to find out what the story was, for if Acer had been telling porkies, it would have been very serious. But the truth is that Henry Lee was right in the first instance, and wrong to tell Smarthouse that the screen was only 1080i. Why incorrect information was given to Smarthouse in the first place seems to have just been an unfortunate accident, but Acer in Taiwan, where the global headquarters are based, have confirmed to Henry Lee that the screen is a true 1080p HD device. What Henry Lee told iTWire is the following: “The Aspire Gemstone Blue 8920G supports 1080p (1920 x 1080) right on the 18.4" screen and also externally via the HDMI port. This will enable the user to project full HD of their favourite movies to larger screens.” Lee continued that: “During the press conference, the Westin Hotel plasma only accepted VGA connectivity hence I was not able to demonstrate the true potential of the notebook externally on the larger screen due to Blu-ray content having protection and will not project via VGA connections.” Please read onto page 3 for a new development... << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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