I reviewed the Village Tronic ViDock a while back, and I was happy to have the opportunity to take a look at one of their more entry-level solutions for adding additional monitors to machines without an additional video port. This one, the ViBook, is a USB-to-DVI solution.
It's designed to connect in one of several ways to the monitor: directly attached to the monitor's video port via a compact male-to-male adapter, via a cable directly connected to its embedded female adapter, or -- in a related manner -- via a short cable with the body of the device semi-permanently mounted on the back of the monitor with the included cradle and 3M adhesive pads. It's designed well enough that no matter where you put it, it will fit nicely and stay put (it has a studded rubber base, too). It is, by the way, both Mac and PC compatible. Read on for the rest of the review ...
Aesthetics and design are all well and good, but I should probably talk capability, huh? I've been through several versions of the USB->DVI offerings of various manufacturers, and have never been very impressed. Resolutions and refresh rates are improving, to be sure, but I haven't purchased or tried one that I've found really usable for the long haul. Taking into account that I had very low expectations, the ViBook proved to be a refreshing experience, even holding up to tasks which it doesn't purport to handle ... namely, video playback. I'm not going to say it will pass even the most rudimentary test a videophile would throw at it, but in comparison to some of the other solutions I've looked at, it provided smooth playback and great color.
