Re: More Dell stuff

[PastorAsh]

Just spent $2700 yesterday on an Inspiron 6400 laptop with a few bells and whistles and a 2400MP video projector for our church. The laptop is just the next generation of the one we bought for ourselves last year, but I see that a number of the spec's have improved since we bought ours.
 
 The projector has shipped already and says it'll be here in a week, but the laptop says it'll be here on Mon. the 20th. Seems like a long time to build and ship a laptop, but I remember last year that our ship date kept changing a lot.
 
 We'll see, I love tracking this kind of stuff.

[Bulldog]

Lets us know how it is when you get to start playing with it   ;)

[JohnnyCastaway]

i use projectors quite a bit in my work, to do demos, training, etc, but I'd like to get one for home for the nights that we're playing diablo, mind you on a screen that size, your eyes would be bugging out of your head just after a few minutes.    :D  
 
 funniest thing that happened when I was doing a demo for a client in the early days of corporate Internet, we were teaching people how to use email, and the search engines on the Internet.  The most popular one then was "webcrawler", (yahoo was just a single page with about 20 logos on it)    :eek:  , so there's me, with everyone in the boardroom watching intently, and I go to introduce the magnificent search engines and how much great info they can help you find.  Unfortunately, I hadn't heard that the webcrawler site had been "hijacked", and by the worst kind of person!!!
 
 "...use this search engine to find anything you want on the web, it's called Webcrawler, and it's the best thing since sliced bread.. blah blah blah..."  and up comes "PeeWee's perverted playhouse" on the 10' screen.
 
   :rof:    :rof:

[PastorAsh]

I don't understand Dell, they're shipping everything in 3 packages. We got the projector on Tuesday (It's great, we tried it out Tuesday night at home using the most "visual" DVD we have, Pirates of the Caribean.) But at a cost of about 20 to 25 cents an hour, it's not really a use it a lot kind of thing, unless you're loaded with money. We'll probably use it about 2-3 hours a week on average, so we hope to get 5-7 years out of it before the bulb goes.
 
 The laptop is still in nowhere land in the USA, but it is moving now.
 
 The third package are the "Extras", in fact this morning I discovered they are in two packages, so now a total of four. In one is the surge protector, and in the other is the stuff I didn't want, but had to take (a mouse and a router). It should be coming today as it's only an hour away from me now in Regina.

[bellagio]

Wow PastorAsh - I'm assuming the Church is paying or else you'll never be getting to Cuba!!!!!!
 
 Has the laptop arrived yet?    I assume it's the same as mine - a Inspiron 6400.

[PastorAsh]

As of this morning the laptop was in Regina, an hour away from me, so it may actually show up this afternoon, tomorrow at the latest I hope. Yes, it's a 6400, the next generation of the 6000 that I use at home.
 
 And yes, the church is paying for it, but I'm collecting the 150 Air Miles for it on my credit card.  :D    :D    :D

[PastorAsh]

Ahhh, the box with the laptop is right behind me. Here goes the box cutter to open it...

[bellagio]

It's an exciting moment.
 
 I'm sure you'll love the 6400.

[PastorAsh]

Love the computer...
 
 HATE THE BLOATWARE!!!!
 
 Removing it as we speak.

[bellagio]

What's the BLOATWARE?   Some Canadian term for some of the useless software that comes with it.

[PastorAsh]

Yep, it's all gone, donwloading all the stuff I want now. With wireless I forgot I could do that and work on this computer, the "old" one, while the new one gets all the stuff I want on it.
 
 I see the 6400 has a few subtle differences over the 6000, a more robust touch pad, separate power key for just the DVD player, and the power cord is in a nicer place, on the side inside of the middle, wish I had that at home, nice feature.
 
 Overall, a nice computer, certinaly runs faster than this cheapie I've got now.

[Steve_YYZ]

Pastor.... just for curiosity. How do you figure the projector to cost .20 to .25 cents per hour to run? Is that the cost of the bulb divided by the rated lamp life? How many hours is the lamp good for? Do the Leafs look any better loosing on a 10' projected image?  :rof:    :rof:    :rof:  
 
 Sorry, couldn't resist. I'd love to try out my blank white wall at home with a projector hooked up to a video feed. Wonder what the sharpness/image would be like.
 
 Oh, and what's the native resolution of your projector? Like Johnny, I'm looking at one eventurlly but don't know much about them. Brightness, Contrast etc., and what is best to look for.
 
 Thanks
 Steve

[PastorAsh]

Originally posted by Steve_YYZ:
  Pastor.... just for curiosity. How do you figure the projector to cost .20 to .25 cents per hour to run? Is that the cost of the bulb divided by the rated lamp life? How many hours is the lamp good for? Do the Leafs look any better loosing on a 10' projected image?   :rof:      :rof:      :rof:  
 
 Sorry, couldn't resist. I'd love to try out my blank white wall at home with a projector hooked up to a video feed. Wonder what the sharpness/image would be like.
 
 Oh, and what's the native resolution of your projector? Like Johnny, I'm looking at one eventurlly but don't know much about them. Brightness, Contrast etc., and what is best to look for.
 
 Thanks
 Steve

20 to 25 cents an hour, is the 2000 hours rated life and the $450 replacement bulb. actually, it's probably more than 20 to 25 cents
 
 For someone with a few dollars, I think buying a projector is a much better buy than a large TV. The projector I bought was given so-so ratings for home theatre use, so I have no idea what is a good one, the one we bought was bought specifically for a large auditorium in mind. I'm actually surprised we got a Dell, but the big bible college near me used them and when I read the ratings on the one we eventually bought I could see it was just what we wanted.
 
 Ooohhh, and the wall comment. Get a screen! It's actually quite amazing the difference in quality of even a cheap screen versus a white wall. Like night and day (the wall still looks good, but the screen is noticeably bigger)
 
 And the Leafs, funny you should mention that, about 6 years ago we set up a projector to play some video games on a big screen. During a different part of the night I put the Leafs game on, and sat about 10 feet from the wall watching the game displayed in 8 by 8 feet. Pardon me saying this being a pastor, but I was in Maple Leafs heaven, it was awesome to watch that so big.
 
 Okay, enough rambling.
 
 Resolution, from the Dell site  Native XGA (1024 x 768) resolution with auto synchronization to UXGA (1600 x 1200)
 
 For home theatre use the resolution, sharpness, etc... are the things to watch for. In our church we need a high lumen count to counter the fact that we can't turn any lights off or stop the sun from shining inside, that's no problem in a home set-up. If you really are into that there's some new HD connectors out on projector's now (HD DVI or something like that) that you should check out, they didn't interest me but for home theatre they'd be awesome. and I guess for you you should watch the decibel level of the projector, ours is rated noisy but when it's 20 feet over people's heads that doesn't matter. And HEAT, ours actually raised the temperature in our house a degree and a half, it puts out a lot of heat, again, no big deal when it's at a 20 foot roof level.
 
 Please let me know if you do eventually get something, I've been casually keeping up on these things for about 10 years, and finally this Sunday we'll be using one, I'm like a kid in a candy store I'm so excited.
 
 Have I rambled enough?

[Steve_YYZ]

Thanks Pastor.
 
 I was only thinking of it for home theatre as a very minor secondary use. Already have the large screen TV. Primary use would be to take to remote locations to put on presentations with the laptop. Would be projecting both text, photos and graphics. As many of the rooms will vary greatly in ambient brightness, I'll have to plan for higher levels rather than suffer with washed out images.
 
 I want to be able to take an A/V show on the road, perhaps even Cuba so I also will have to look at keeping the total weight down to something reasonable, as well as physical size. I'll need to get the laptop and projector and misc stuff down to carry-on size.
 
 Thanks for your input.
 Steve

[PastorAsh]

Ahhh, interesting. Since size matters for you, there are definitely projectors out there smaller than mine, but for protection, the case we got was actually quite nice with lots of padding, we'll hardly get to use it though, and I wouldn't want to take it onto an airplane, that's for sure.
 
 On a side note, the Dell bag for my laptop (which I thought was the same as the one I got last year) is quite nice, and is much better for carrying extra stuff, they really do put a lot of planning into getting the most stuff into the least space, while still protecting it all.