<![CDATA[Gizmodo: vidock gfx]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: vidock gfx]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/vidock gfx http://gizmodo.com/tag/vidock gfx <![CDATA[ Lightning Review: ViDock Gfx Display Enhancer Adds Two Monitors To Your Setup ]]> The Gadget: The ViDock Gfx, a box with an ATI 2600XT inside that allows you to add two DVI displays to your ExpressCard Laptop (e.g. MacBook Pro). It doesn't affect your current display setup, which might already have an external monitor being driven by the on-board DVI port, which means you can have a total of three external displays plus your MacBook Pro's going at the same time. Mac and Windows versions are available in both 128MB and 256MB flavors, running at up to 2560x1600 resolution.

The Price: $329 for Business, $429 for Professional and $499 for Mac.

The Verdict: Multitasking bliss. We were able to add two 19-inch, 1280x1024 monitors to our 15-inch MacBook Pro without breaking a sweat. The two extra monitors (we were already running a 30-inch Dell off the internal DVI port) had very little slowdown while being powered through our ExpressCard port, and handled HD video like the Watchmen trailer without any signs of tears or imminent exploding.

What we did notice was that the unit was LOUD. In our pre-production unit, the fan ran started quietly on boot, but ramped up to 100% after a minute or two. It was loud enough to give us AND our unborn children a migraine. The people at Villagetronic said their release units would be softer, but note that the ATI 2600XT throws out a lot of heat. To us this means that you probably shouldn't expect this to be too much softer. Just something to watch out for if you need to use this in a quiet production environment. The other annoyance we've found is that the ExpressCard connection can't be hot-plugged on OS X, so you have to shut down your machine every time you want to swap in or out of the multi-monitor setup or else you'll get that curtain of death. Villagetronic tells us that it's a bug that Apple will fix in the future.

Is this great for multitasking? Oh sweet jeebus yes. You can have all your applications open at the same time, spread eagled across your four displays like Stalin planning to push the Nazis back into Germany (apologies for that undoubtedly historically inaccurate statement). Is it worth the as-of-yet-undetermined cost? Hard to say. Something like this won't be cheap, but if you're like us and value every pixel of your screen as if it's the last chopper out of Saigon (sorry again!), you'll look long and hard at the ViDock Gfx. [Villagetronic]

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Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EDT Jason Chen http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5031028&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ ViDock Gfx Connects Your Laptop to a Whole Bunch of Displays ]]> The ViDock Gfx is an Express Card/34 card and video box combo that can drive two external monitors. Nothing unusual there, except that the manufacturer claims this one is extremely fast and, quite frankly, seeing it in action in the photo above looked cool enough to be worthy of an entry in the Best Giz Readers' Computer Rigs contest. The ViDock Gfx will be available in April in 128- and 256-MByte flavors. Full press release after the jump.

CeBit 2008 - Village Tronic will show ViDock Gfx, an extraordinary graphics docking solution for portable computers. Hanover, March 4th 2008 - Village Tronic is proud to announce during the CeBit fair will that ViDock Gfx, the first product of a new family of graphics docking solutions for notebooks, will begin delivery early in Q2 this year. The ViDock family of graphics docking solutions is aimed at the professional user that wants to use a single portable computer both on the road and with a large display area made up of multiple screens in the office. ViDock Gfx allows IT managers and finance professionals to view large quantities of data across multiple screens. Creative professionals can take advantage of ViDock's powerful multi-display support to experience the final work on one screen while viewing edit commands on another. Home users and gamers can use ViDock to turn their notebook into a high performance graphics platform, with full HDTV support. ViDock Gfx takes advantage of the fast connection offered by ExpressCard technology, the latest standard from PCMCIA for notebook expansion, to deliver an uncompromised user experience in term of speed, responsiveness, 3D acceleration and resolution support. Combined with DVI Dual Link and Dual DVI video output, all the displays currently in the market can be supported, including the 30" ones at 2560x1600. The operating system compatibility ensures support for Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X. Aero accelerated user interface for Vista is supported. ViDock will be on the market bundled with the valuable software application "VTMultiDisplay" that improves the user experience when working with multiple screens. Village Tronic is an international, Multi-Display company and since 1996 is the world market leader for independent graphics cards for Motorola based Work Stations. In 2004 Village Tronic ignited the Multi-Display-Revolution for Notebook workstations with the introduction of VTBook for the Windows, Macintosh & Linux platforms. For further information about Village Tronic and its products, please visit the company's web site: http://www.villagetronic.com. EMail: press@villagetronic.com

[Village Tronic via Impress]

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Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:26:36 EST Jesus Diaz http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=365010&view=rss&microfeed=true