Tritton SEE2 USB 2.0 adapter converts USB to SVGA

Want to add a second display to that Windows PC without having to install another graphics card? The Tritton SEE2 USB 2.0 SVGA Adapter will let you connect a monitor to your PC's USB port, doubling your display space. The $99 unit does have some limitations, though. USB 2.0 isn't fast enough to drive graphics-intensive games or DirectX, and if you want 32-bit color, you're limited to 800x600 (and forget about DVI, though you can run analog LCDs). Yes, we know installing a second graphics card can be cheaper and more versatile, but for ease of setup — or for laptop users who want to connect two external displays, this doesn't seem like a bad way to go.

[Thanks, Nick]

[Alex Rosen @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

I wonder if it can handle video... this is a very useful tool for laptop presentations - especially if there is an easy way to turn the video signal on and off quickly.

[Hiram Veciana @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

Anybody know of a USB-to-DVI connector???

Thanks.

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

You can buy this (or something very similar, probably just rebranded) at CompUSA for $80. If it was just a few dollars cheaper I'd be tempted to buy one just to see how well it works.

[Stickerbook fan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

Anyone know about Mac Mini compatibility? I'd get this in a heartbeat

[Martin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

I wonder . . .could this be used to add video out capabilites to the PSP?

[Adrian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

I thought about getting this a little while ago ... Compgeeks.com has this for $69. I read some reviews and it's basically for 2D display only and no accelerated video support.

[Marian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

This is pretty useless even for laptops.
I don't think there is a laptop that doesn't have video output, and most of the new laptops also support different screens (what you see on the laptop screen is different from what you see on the external monitor, if you need this feature).

[john @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

It would be very slow. Even at USB2 speeds, with its own port, it could only sustain the maximum speed of 480Mbits/second. Let's convert this to bytes because it's easier to imagine. And you need 1 byte of data to represent 1 pixel for in each of video's R, G, and B. So USB2 bus speed is 4,800,000 bits per second / 8 (8 bits in a byte) = 6,000,000 or 6 megabytes a second. A 1024x768 screen is 1.6 megabytes of data a 16 bit resolution (or 2.4 meg at 24 bit--which it doesn't support). Within 3 screen draws the bus is over run. But even more telling is that it could only ever draw 3 frames per second... at the most! Now, modern video drivers don't need to redraw the entire screen every time. Making this "video device" only work for UI elements like palettes, text and windows.

For a Mac... Don't bother testing it. If it doesn't have a specific Mac driver it won't work. In fact, if you have a PC I can't imagine this would have any useful application. Given the speed of the USB2 bus and all.

[l.st @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

umm, your math is a little off. 480 Mbits is 480,000,000 bits per second, or 60 megabytes per second. then the maximum refresh rate would be something north of 35Hz. tho you're right, that's the maximum; more reasonable would be...12 megabytes per second? something like 9 or 10 fps. however, if you're not displaying full-motion video, it's not going to matter too much. for instance, if you're driving two powerpoint presentations, like in my chem prof's lecture this would be useful.

[Dion @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

Hi,

I have a Sony Vaio Picturebook (which does not have a VGA out). However, it only has USB 1. Do think this will work at all? I would simply want to use it for straight forward text and minor static graphic powerpoint via my Data Projector.

Will it work?

Thanks!

[Hcomplyr @ Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM]

heres the deal, I got a rebranded compUSA one on clearence, and it works great for what its intended. Video as expected sucks since this is the equivalent of an ISA/VLB video card. But, it displays everything not requiring Hardware acceleration fine, Flash animations show up with a couple skipped frames, scrolling is a little jumpy. Power users need not apply. But the computer handles the device as a regular video card, I tested this by yanking out my AGP card and setting my BIOS to boot on all errors. The USB card showed up at the User Login screen and worked from the get go. The hardware should be capable of Overlay support which would make watching movies possible but the driver needs to be updated to support it. I think this would be better if the driver supported more of the basic multimedia functions (like better direct draw and basic Direct 3D support) And the latest set of drivers allows 32 bit color past 1024x768. i give it a 6 out of 10