Rock making HD DVD standard on select laptops

Although Toshiba has been quite a player in bringing HD DVD to more and more laptops, Rock is now boasting that it is the first company to "feature HD DVD as standard" on lappies. Granted, it's only standard on select machines, but at least it's a start. The firm's Pegasus 670 features the obligatory HD DVD reading / DVD writing drive along with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 processor, a 15.4-inch WSXGA panel, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA's 512MB GeForce 8600M GT graphics card, WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, and Windows Vista. The higher-end Xtreme 770 is available with most of the same specs, save for the 512MB GeForce 8700M GT, 17-inch WSXGA+ display and a number of additional ports. An HD DVD-equipped Rock laptop can be yours for as low as £999 ($2,037), but if your credit card is up for some pain, you can ratchet that figure way on up.

[Via Stuff]
Read - Pegasus 670
Read - Xtreme 770

[Paul @ Oct 4th 2007 7:27AM]

What's the point of having an HD-DVD drive if the screen's resolution won't take full advantage of it? That 15" screen's resolution won't even be 1080p...

[Nfinity @ Oct 4th 2007 7:41AM]

How do you figure?

15.4" 1680x1050 (almost 1080p)
17" 1920x1200 (more the 1080p)

but even if you get a lower priced 15.4" display at 1440x900 or 1280x800..it still falls into HD.

I'm not sure I understand your point.

[a ham sandwich @ Oct 4th 2007 12:17PM]

well firstly even if it was 1080p, you'd never be able to tell the difference between that and a lower resolution on a 15" screen. and secondly, i'd imagine it outputs 1080p to an external monitor (well at least i hope)

regardless, of all that tho, ur right. i think it SHOULD have a screen that can show 1080p.

[DAZA @ Oct 4th 2007 7:49AM]

The best thing about newer laptops is they nearly all feature HDMI out. Yep, full 1080P support. It means you can have a laptop/HD DVD player all-in-one. Until HD DVD players really come down in price, you could certainly get by with one of these. Or you could just get a super-cheap laptop with HDMI out and get an Xbox 360 HD DVD addon. Lots of options available.

[Kaminix @ Oct 4th 2007 8:15AM]

Well that's a bold move. I'd never buy a laptop featuring HD-DVD or BluRay. Non of it is standard, and one can't even be sure either format will become standard before something better is released.

I think all this fighting over HD-DVD and BluRay will result in a draw, no one will ever really use any of the formats, except on gaming consoles.

[J//S//F digi_click @ Oct 4th 2007 9:15AM]

Too bad the Pegasus 670 is plagued with problems, just take a look at Rock's forum. The most common gripes being a shoddy keyboard, noise when using headphones and battery drain (when plugged in!!!). Also there's the standard Vista problems as well.

[NAK @ Oct 4th 2007 10:08AM]

like Sandwich said, you should be using the HDDVD drive for the output resolutions. Even on the WSXGA screen the HDDVD will look alot better than standard DVD. It also has a higher native resolution over the 720p HD resolution.

By the way that laptop looks pretty slick. How is Rock supposed to be, never heard of them.

[Mak @ Oct 4th 2007 10:14AM]

LOL, Standard on some laptops, talk about desperate twisted marketing speak.

Basically not standard then...

[gilo @ Oct 5th 2007 12:10PM]

Who is the ODM of the 670 and what model if you can ?

It looks nice but reports indicate sub par quality .

[zeke @ Oct 5th 2007 1:04PM]

It's just another rebuilder using the Sager/Compal notebook to build on. See:
http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=10641