By J.R. Bookwalter

I recently wrote a review in the pages of DV for Village Tronic’s ViDock Gfx Pro, an ExpressCard-enabled box capable of adding two external monitors to a PC or Mac laptop, with mixed results. (It worked, but not always flawlessly.) Since that review, a number of other companies have jumped into the fray and done the ViDock one better, by making the adapter smaller, cheaper and exclusively USB 2.0. So, how does this new breed stack up? In the case of Other World Computing’s USB 2.0 Multi-Display Adapter, quite well indeed.

Roughly the size of a current-generation iPod nano (but thicker), the OWC adapter is a model of simplicity. On one end is a mini-USB port, which plugs into any standard USB 2.0 port on a Mac OS X or Windows desktop or laptop using the provided cable. The other end has a standard female DVI port, ready-made for modern displays. Additional adapters to convert the DVI port to HDMI or VGA are also included. A green light on the top of the unit lets you know it’s powered up and working. The box also includes a software install CD, complete with drivers for Mac OS 10.4.11 and above (Intel only) or Windows XP/Vista (32-bit). There’s even a preliminary driver for Windows 7, which should set some minds at ease about future-proofing.

Setup is so easy, the included quick-start guide isn’t really necessary. Plug the OWC adapter into an available USB 2.0 port, plug the monitor into the adapter, load the required software driver, restart and enjoy!

Well, almost. On my late-2008 15” MacBook Pro, using the OWC adapter to add a third monitor was a breeze. (I have a 30” Dell display using the dual-link DisplayPort connection, with the laptop screen itself as a second display off to the left side.) I jacked in an old, no-brand VGA monitor borrowed from my father’s old PC and it was up & running in no time. The OWC adapter even picked up the desktop image from my laptop and set the resolution to the highest available for that display.

I wasn’t quite so lucky with the HP Windows Vista box tied into my home theatre system. I had upgraded it awhile back with a cheap ASUS EAH-3450 graphics card for HDMI output, and when I restarted, I was greeted with a nasty blue error screen. Multiple restarts, same problem. Figuring the ASUS card was to blame, I popped it out and went back to the on-board VGA as the main output, and the system fired right up, complete with my new second display from the OWC adapter. I didn’t investigate this phenomenon fully, figuring most Windows users will be using their stock graphics card with the OWC adapter (and in my experience, the ASUS card and ATI drivers have been a finicky beast for me prior to this anyway).

Mac OS X users can control the new display from System Preferences > Displays as usual, while Windows users also get the option of setting their new display using the taskbar. Windows users can use up to six OWC adapters at once to power the same number of displays (Mac OS X supports up to four), with each one topping out at 1600 x 1200 (1680 x 1050 digital) resolution (the minimum resolution is 1024 x 786). Of course, a good USB 2.0 hub will also be required to power this much display at once, but there shouldn’t be much of a performance hit with the overall system, if the single adapter I’ve been running is any indication. It’s smooth and effortless, and it just works.

The OWC adapter is bus-powered, so no additional power supply is required (nor is it even an option). You can use it to mirror an existing display or extend it left, right, above or below, and it can be rotated left, right or upside-down as well. CRT, LCD and projector displays are all supported, and the adapter

Of course, anything that sounds too good to be true probably is, and the OWC adapter does come with a few small caveats. The current release does not support OpenGL 3D hardware acceleration, so if your software requires it, you’ll have to stick with your other displays for those. That leaves out Quartz Extreme, Quartz Composer and other frameworks based on OpenGL, such as those used in Apple’s Keynote presentations, iPhoto slideshows or iMovie (both part of the iLife ’09 bundle).

Unfortunately, that also rules out using the OWC adapter to drive a monitor as a Final Cut Pro video preview display (in my tests, the program didn’t even recognize the OWC-powered display was attached), although it works quite adeptly at spreading your FCP workspace out over multiple screens (if you’ve never experienced this, you’ll be spoiled quickly). Using Quicktime Player, I dragged a 640 x 360 H.264 movie over to the OWC adapter’s display and went into full-screen mode, but as expected, the lack of OpenGL acceleration meant the video playback was sluggish, even though the player reported it was indeed playing back all frames properly.

Those potential downsides out of the way, OWC’s adapter still makes an excellent, cost-effective method for putting older monitors back into use, especially for screen-hungry programs like Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. Given the simple plug & play nature of the adapter, it’s portable enough for laptop users, yet powerful enough for desktop systems. Now the only question is, what will you do with all of that screen real estate?
 

OWC USB 2.0 Multi-Display Adapter

SCORE: 

PROS: Drive up to six monitors (four on Mac OS X) by having multiple adapters with little performance hit, no-brainer cost & installation, DVI, HDMI or VGA input

CONS: Programs requiring OpenGL won’t work properly, not a substitute for a proper editing system NTSC/PAL display, potential software conflicts with other Windows non-motherboard graphics cards

BOTTOM LINE: Small, bus-powered, inexpensive and it just works.

MSRP: $99

CONTACT: www.macsales.com