How high can you go? - Village Tronic says 1920
Posted by Jon Peddie on October 28th 2009 | Comments Closed
Categories:
Hardware Review
Tags:
television
usb
ebook
vibook
Village Tronic is one of the pioneers of multi-display solutions and the company just launched a new member to its ViBook family of display extenders. These little modules provide computer users with a simple way to run several displays from a Windows or Mac desktop computer or laptop. The ViBook Plus is one of the first devices to use DisplayLink’s new DL195 chip, enabling it to support higher resolution screens of up to 1920x1200 and up to 28 inches with faster graphics and improved video playback that includes HD video streams.
Up to six displays can be driven by one Windows-based computer and up to four for a Mac OS machine. Each display is driven by the ultra compact ViBook Plus that plugs directly into the DVI socket of the display and the other end of the cable goes to the USB port of the desktop or notebook.
ViBook Plus is supplied as a complete USB Graphics System that includes a DVI to VGA cable for high quality analog output to displays, a VESA mounting cradle, Village Tronics’ sophisticated multi-screen software for an enhanced user experience, and VT MultiDisplay software for Windows and VT Voilà for Mac. Other cable options are available as optional extras.
The ViBook Plus is compatible with any computer system with an USB 2.0 port running Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 on Intel-based Mac; and Windows 2000, Windows XP (32-bit), Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32 and 64-bit). It can support displays up to 28” in size, with a resolution of up to 1920x1200 in 16- and 32-bit color. As it draws its power from the USB within the USB power rating, no additional adapters are required and it can even work via a USB hub. It can be used with or independently of the video card already installed in the computer and can even drive projectors and HDTV displays.
The adaptor is extremely small at only 4.3cm by 7cm by 2.4cm (1.7 inches by 2.8 in by 0.9 inches) and has a three year warrantee.
The new ViBook Plus USB display extender costs €129 in Europe, which includes VAT and free shipping to mainland Europe if ordered from the website www.vibook.it In USA and Canada, the ViBook Plus costs US$129 from the website.
What do we think?
We like it. You can add a monitor for less than the cost of a graphics board, and if you don’t have an open slot in your computer you can still add one or more monitors. However, a new graphics AIB can be had for under $100 and will have two to three outputs. The other complaint leveled against a USB adaptor is video. The max 480 Mbps available from USB 2.0 can be problematic and the DisplayLink engineers have been working on that. So video and fast FPS games at high res are still a challenge, but everything else is perfect. We use lots of the adaptors here in JPR land, and they’ve never given us a bit of trouble.—JP
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Commenting is not available in this section entry.Jon Peddie
Dr. Jon Peddie is a pioneer of the graphics industry, starting his career in computer graphics in 1962. After the successful launch of several graphics manufacturing companies, Peddie began Jon Peddie Associates in 1984 to provide comprehensive data, information and management expertise to the computer graphics industry. With those same goals in mind, he left JPA to form Jon Peddie Research in 2001 to provide a more customer intimate environment for clients, and to further explore the business of multimedia. Peddie lectures at numerous conferences on topics pertaining to graphics technology and the emerging trends in digital media technology. Recently named one of the most influential industry analysts, he is frequently quoted in trade and business publications, and contributes articles to numerous publications including as well as appearing on CNN and TechTV, and a contributor to Advances in Modeling, Animation, and Rendering. Peddie is also the author of several books including Graphics User Interfaces and Graphics Standards, High Resolution Graphics Display Systems, and Multimedia and Graphics Controllers. Jon Peddie is recognized as one of the leading analysts in the country by AdWeek Magazine.
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