Bad quality playback: High-end VAIO

[chris_ng]

VPCEC4S0E

This is my new and second vaio, decided to upgrade after having a great experience with the first (VGN-NR11S).

Movie playback is awful! Sound is so low (everything on max) you cannot hear conversations, the picture lacks any kind of sharpness, details look smudged and liquid-like. It was also very dark that made it impossible to watch but this was fixed after the graphics driver update (not without problems of course), however the settings need to be adjusted (which can take a bit of time, to get things looking good, still not perfect though) EVERY single time you play a new file! I do a lot of film editing work and can go throgh as many as over 60 video files a day, having to adgust the settings every time is absolutely ridiculous.

I understand this is a laptop and cannot expect the ultimate cinema experience, but this is way too low of a quality for SONY, besides the old VAIO I have, that is about 5 years old, plays everything absolutely perfect!

Hence I am putting this up on forum, perhaps somebody can tell me what is wrong and how it can be fixed.

NB. there is no problem with the video files, they have been tested on other laptops for volume and image quality; the same is for DVDs; sound settings have been adjusted to the max in the control panel; the adjusted graphics card settings were 'applied'; SONY support have been contacted but they sent me a reply containing a copy of a forum thread on how to solve my issue despite the fact I told I have already done so.

If I wont find a solution to this, I will be obliged to complain to SONY and request a refund or a replacement.

[stephanius]

That's an interesting problem!

Before getting into your problem, I'd like to point out that the VPCEC4S0E's display is classed as 'VAIO Display' not 'VAIO Display plus' or 'VAIO Display Premium' (found on VPCF or VPCZ Series for example). So higher quality displays are definitely available within the VAIO product range.

That being said, I wouldn't have expected the problems you describe regarding movie playback suffering from darkness and low volume.

Let's look at these problems one by one.

Firstly, on the darkness part:

I understand your point is that a bunch of darker shades/colours are indistinguishable from black. Does that apply only to the video content itself, or also other displayed items, such as the GUI or better a test image with a nice row of different shades of grey? If yes, could you take a picture of the display showing such a test image?

Next the low volume:

Is it possible that the video has multichannel sound and it's not properly mapped to your stereo speakers?

Is the playback volume of windows sounds or stereo MP3s also affected?

[chris_ng]

stephanius, thank so much for your reply!

A very important point: the problem I described, the lack of sharpness and darkness is only for videos. Images, applications and anything else that's not a video file are of beautiful quality. Youtube videos are fine too.

Low volume: mp3s are not affected, neither are youtube videos, I am not sure about windows sounds, they feel like they should be louder considering the volume is on max. All DVDs are affected. CDs are not.

While 'testing'/ judging I don't forget this is a laptop and dont expect miracles, I mostly compare it to other laptops I have access to. When a video is played it seems like the volume is only up by 50% when it is actually on max.

I don't quite understand what you mean by saying if it is properly mapped to speakers... How would I do that?

Also, about models, my only complaint is that my older laptop has better quality playback, if anything I would expect the new one not to be any worse. Which is what makes me think something must be wrong

Here are two captures to compare what I mean by lack of sharpness. The first was taken from my VAIO VGN - looks more realistic. The second is from the new VPCE (after the graphics driver had been adjusted) - smoothed out details and overly embossed edges (very distracting when watching). The dvd was the same. These pictures don't show the difference too well but I hope you get the idea... The volume difference was drammatic - about 50% lower.

I am starting to think, perhaps it is something to do with the player and not the laptop?

[stephanius]

What I meant about the sound is this: If the movie is played with 5.1 (or whatever more than 2.0) channels, the content of the channels has to be mixed to fit your stereo speakers - if you mess it up (in the player or audio options) you can make channels disappear - and the center channel is typically where the dialog is. In normal-default settings stereo mix, it's output through your speakers or headphones fine - but if you mess with it you could mess things up.

Next, for Video, the question is what material you are watching, what codec it has been encoded in and which codec you have. And again which player you use. Also consider that you may be watching the same movie, but at a different resolution, so it needs to be interpolated differently.

I'd go and grab VLC - since that uses it's own stuff and is hard to mess up and try with that. I don't know by head where your sound mixing settings are. Look around in your sound playback settings if the dialogue is still not ok when playing with VLC.

[chris_ng]

Got VLC - same problem 😕

I see what you mean about the channels, makes sense... though I remember the first thing I used the laptop for is watch a DVD so I don't believe I could've switched/turned something off...

I am still having to adjust the graphics card everytime I put on a new video file, such a waste of time!

Anyway, after a prolonged time of browsing, searching, trying to figure something out, I am still stuck with this problem, went back to my old laptop, very dissapointed with the VPCEC4S0E

[mathewlisett]

ok here we go.

the 2nd larger picture where its all smudged, this i strongly believe is the responsiblity of the sony software as in the graphics side, i can bet you thats theres an option somewhere which deals with video noise and it likely isnt that advanced and therefore is calculating what noise is and isnt all wrong.

its also got the sharpness all cock eyes so to speak as per a lot of white thick outer areas such as the eyes etc.

so i woudl say find the software and turn the options off.

the first picture how ever looks like its a dvd or at leasta  dvdrip, and i say this becuase all dvd's have a slight grainy look to them, as in video noise in dark and light areas. so this is to be expected.

you actually also find this in blurays aswell shockingly but not as noticable.

now with audio, make sure you have installed a codec pack like from cole2k codec advanced pack, and select advanced option and select all of them items then reboot.

check the audio settings, ie right click the audio speaker, go to properties, i think its device volume >advanced and make sure the wav leveler is up.

if you have 5.1 and dts from the dvd / rip and you dont have the codecs installed, you will straight away have silent audio becuase there are no codecs makign the audio from the format come alive.

and lastly, you could have a 20k system, but if the format you are viewing from is a ceretain type , then the price, speed, resoloution of your system wont matter at all.