USB VGA adapter

We recently added a USB to VGA adapter to our product line. Before adding it, when I tested it I honestly had low hopes, but I was pleasantly surprised. We had tested several other adapters and found them to be unreliable at best. One of the other technicians tested one that showed the right side of the screen on the left side–so the sentence “Mary has a dog” would say “ogMary has a d” We had essentially given up on the idea–I just assumed that USB couldn't handle the VGA video signals.

The installation was simple, then I connected and powered on the monitor and it automatically picked it up, I opened a word processing document, and dragged it over onto the new screen. I expected a lag in the display, but it worked as fast as I could type. I pulled up images and other documents, everything seemed to work fine. I installed it on a laptop computer, agian it was a simple installation and worked without any extra ‘help.’ I tried playing a DVD on the monitor connected through the USB adapter. I was actually surprised how well it worked. The image wasn't perfect. It looked “digitalized” It actually reminded me of video clips on video games. Smooth movements and images, but not quite realistic textures. It wasn't bad enough to really distract from the movie. (for me at least)

My primary concern with the adapter is that the drivers haven’t passed Windows logo testing yet, so you see the error message that notifies you and asks if you want to continue. The adapter uses three different drivers, so when you first install the drivers off of the CD, you see the message 3 times before you have even connected the adapter. Once you do connect the adapter, it will actually install the three drivers and so you will get the message three times again. That is annoying, and some people might be concerned. I tested it on a desktop system running Windows XP Pro, and on a laptop using XP Home both of which worked fine, so I am not concerned that it will damage Windows. Hopefully the drivers will pass the Windows testing soon. One of the monitors ended up looking a little “washed out” colors weren’t a vivid, but with the monitor’s image settings it was correctable.

If you want really high quality video on an extended desktop, you will probably want to upgrade the Video Card or for a laptop we also have the VT Book But this adapter gives you a portable and simple extended desktop solution.