[Danny]

Hey everybody,

I've been thinking about getting a high spec. notebook and a USB Intuos A5 tablet so I can be a bit more mobile and flexible from where I do some work. Mainly light PhotoShop and 3DS Max work. I also plan to use this setup to do some outdoor sketching. Something I've been wanting to do for ages. (I believe Spooge did this also at some time. If you read this Spooge, I would love to hear your opinion.)
I've been doing a lot of research on which notebook would best suit my needs. So far Dell and Gateway have sparked my interest. However I did come across some disturbing news regarding the display capeabilities of the TFT LCD screens that most notebooks seem to be using. I read that eventhough the notebooks are capeable of running @ 24bit, the LCD displays are only capeable of displaying 18Bit due to currentday technical limitations. This would seriously impact my plans. I can't stand colourbanding!!! I was hoping some of you out there have some more experience with notebooks than I do. I've asked several people (notebook owning coders) about his, but they don't have the same high expectations on the display abilities as we digital painters do. What I would like to know exactly is HOW 24bit images look displayed in 24bit mode on a notebook LCD screen. Is there visible banding?
Thanks in advance ladies and gentlemen...

Danny




------------------
[email protected]

[Frost]

Hey Danny.

As far as the 18bit goes, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Here are 2 possibilities:

1) You configure your display for 24bit and the drivers/display reduces this to 18bit, thus creating banding.

2) You configure your display for 16bit and the system will display 16bit properly. Now, 16bit isn't generally good, but Photoshop 5.0 or higher supports real-time dithering, so 16-bit displays actually displays extremely close to 24-bit quality. I doubt that at resolutions of 1280x1024 you'll notice that. =)

Of course, my suggestion is the second config.

Hope this helps. I don't know about painter though, I never used it.

Cheers Dan.
Keep up the excellent work.
frost.

[spooge demon]

Hey Danny,

i have an I-book, and the LCD screen is very contrasty. I don't know what is available in the PC world. It sounds good for 3-d, but for painting, um, a few years yet. Basic sketching, OK, control, no. Tell me what you decide and how it works out...

sd

[Snake Grunger]

Danny, my dad puts a hand on notebooks here and there and asks me to remove whats on them so he can sell them with Win98 freshly installed. I would say some LCD's plain suck. Especially the ones that are a bit old. But, I would suggest you to check out the NEC notebooks, which are the ones with the NICEST LCDs. (I've tried Toshiba Satellites, Compaq Presarios, IBM Thinkpads, DELLs, Eurocoms, etc..) The NECs have had the nicest colors and non-motion-blurs and it made me sad my dad had to sell them back

Best way is the actually TEST them out. It could be hard tho, walking up to hardware dealer saying "I wanna test out the contrast colors of your LCDs."

Like Spooge here said, it can be weird to set up your wacom pad in the middle of the wilderness (not having a desk..) Might be unconfortable and unpracticle. Oh well But personnaly, I would draw in Photoshop at school in the cafeteria with ANY LCD ANYTIME instead of having to talk to men of lower moral fiber (high-school friends) between classes .

Anyhoo, hope that helped you in your quest.

Francis

[This message has been edited by Snake Grunger (edited April 01, 2000).]

[Danny]

Thanks you guys... It's great to hear from fellow artists who KNOW what matters and what they're talking about! Sales reps. don't know bollocks.

Frost; thanks for the tips. I guess tip number 2 could work to some extend I suppose.

Spooge; I actually thought about getting an I-book, but I wouldn't be able to run Max on it. I'll give it some more thought.

Snake; hmm.. NEC's... never gave them a look to be honest. So I'll be sure to check them out! I actually was quite impressed by Dell's screens (some of their new models, Inspiron 5000, offer 1400x1050! at 15.7 inch). I do indeed plan to take it outside for some sketching. Will have to come up with a way to keep the sunlight and ambient light off the screen..

sigh... the things we do for a bit of painting eh?

Thanks again guys!

Danny


------------------
[email protected]

[Affected]

Wait - what about those wacoms that also function as monitors? Would they work for this? (Then again, you'd probably have to pay throught the nose for one...)

[neutral?]

heh well said snake, sketching on a desk is a bitch ain't it?

only really replying cause i spotted your monkey island quote. or maybe it wasn't, but either way.

Danny: Photoshop works fine for me without any banding @ 1024x768, 16bit colour. But then i'm not doing the kind of work you do.

happy hunting

------------------

Dan | neutral?
:: the digital thatre ::

[Shadow]

what happened to good old pencil and paper?
eheh maybe an even easier way to do it is take a photo and do it at home, but otherwise yer killing yerself while sitting @ the comp 24/7, might as well kill two birds with one stone, getting some fresh air and getting some art done

[Oscar Alexander]

Like I told you on the IRC, I have a Toshiba Tecra (PII 266Mhz) with 128bm RAM, 12,1" TFT screen and, ofcourse, a USB port. I found it quite haRd to draw on my notebook, because you have to look at your screen from the right (vertical) angle to be able to pick the colours you actually want (bightness issues). My lousy 2mb videocard tends to lag a little when brushing in long strokes rapidly... so a 4mb (or more) videocard wouldn't be luxurous. I hope this made sense.

[napalm]

If you have the money for it, check into the Sony VAIO line. A friend of mine from school bought himself a VAIO, installed NT, Softimage|3D and worked on his thesis animation on his spare time in a plane and in the hotel in Cancun while I was left stateside slaving away infront of my Tower (i'm bitter.. The screen is crisp, clear and its even available with a full 15" screen. Video performance seemed quite nice, I didnt notice any significant LCD ghosting/trailing that you sometimes see. Plus the VAIO just looks really cool



------------------
napalm (cia productions)
http://www.creators.org