Two Taiwanese companies are making laptop PCs users can hook up to their high definition (HD) TVs to make more use of the laptops" internal high definition optical drives, either Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD. Micro-Star International (MSI) is displaying several laptops with HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) outputs at the Computex Taipei 2007 trade show. This way, the laptop doubles as an HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc player on the family HD TV.
Most of the MSI laptops, including the PR210, RR210, GX610, GX710, and ER710 models at MSI"s Computex booth have Turion 64x2 dual core processors from Advanced Micro Devices and ATI graphics chips. The GX710 and ER710 are higher end laptops with 17-inch display screens. Most of the other laptops have 15.4-inch screens. The company showed two laptops, the GX600 and GX700, with Intel Centrino Duo processors and Nvidia graphics chips. The company is still testing HD optical drives, and will let users choose what kind of drive they want in their device, an MSI marketing manager said.