Digital Video - December 2008 - (Page 15)

VILLAGE TRONIC VIDOCK GFX PRO IN REVIEW MINI MULTIPLEX POWER UP MULTIPLE SCREENS FOR THE RIGHT VIEW. BY J.R. BOOKWALTER I n recent years, laptops have gained ever-higher amounts of memory and ever-faster processor speeds and storage options, but they’ve often been crippled when it comes to external display choices. My late 2006-era Apple MacBook Pro 15" is capable of powering a 30" display with the laptop screen as an extended desktop, but for editing, extreme Photoshop work, or even just day-to-day computing, two displays may not be enough anymore. Enter Village Tronic, which has been offering a number of external display options in recent years, such as the VTBook for CardBus laptops. The company has now extended those options to include ViDock Gfx, an external box containing an ATI Radeon HD 2600 video card capable of powering two external displays at up to 2560x1600 analog or 2560x1600 on the primary screen and 1920x1200 on the secondary screen for digital, with the ExpressCard/34 connection common to most laptops sold today. The model supplied to DV was the Pro version, which comes with the VT MultiDisplay software on CD (version 3.02, SCORE VILLAGE TRONIC VIDOCK GFX PRO WITH VT MULTIDISPLAY PROS: Adds two additional external monitor ports to any ExpressCardenabled laptop, beautiful, high-resolution video, hardware compatible with PC or Mac. CONS: External box is on the large side, runs loud and sometimes hot, not fully hot-swappable, some quirks with the included software. BOTTOM LINE: The expandability and image quality outweighs some compatibility issues. Recommended, but with some caveats. MSRP: TBA CONTACT: www.villagetronic.com/vtmd www.dv.com which is a beta to add Vista compatibility) and a license key that is entered at the time of installation. I first installed the software on my niece’s Toshiba Satellite A212 laptop under Windows Vista. The software installed without a hitch as a system tray icon; you are prompted to plug in the ViDock prior to a system restart. Unfortunately, when the system came back up, the laptop screen was black and video was output only to the external ViDock displays (in this case, two different models of 20" Apple Cinema Displays). The software offers a dizzying array of options, but try as I might, the system recognized only the two ViDock displays. After shutting down and ejecting the ViDock card, I restarted and the laptop display kicked on normally. Strangely, once the system was up, I inserted the ViDock and all four displays were recognized (the Toshiba screen and its unconnected external video port, and the two displays plugged into the ViDock itself). This anomaly occurred regardless of what combination and types of monitors I had plugged in. Despite that quirk, the video displayed by ViDock is gorgeous. A few clicks got the highest resolutions available for each display (and VT MultiDisplay automatically showed all available resolutions in every case), with the desktop extended to each. I was able to quickly and easily move windows between screens, move the main display from monitor to monitor, and change resolutions on the fly (all screens go black for a moment during resolution changes, but they all reappear just as before). VT MultiDisplay also gives you a number of options for saving and restoring desktop icons and customizing screen savers (each display can be set to something different). DV You’ll find an extended version of this review on our site. Visit DV online. dv december 2008 15 http://www.azdencorp.com http://www.dv.com http://www.azdencorp.com http://www.villagetronic.com/vtmd http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - December 2008

Digital Video - December 2008 Contents DV Expo Gallery First Look: Ultimate 35MM Lens Adapter Vidock GFX Pro Videostudio Pro X2 Instant Expert The Making of Roman Close-up: Dave Ruddick Crypto Camerawork Click To Play DV101 Production Diary

Digital Video - December 2008

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