Plugable

Features

• Connect 3+ monitors to any brand of laptop or desktop (one adapter required per monitor, up to 6)
• Adds plug and play, extensible USB 2.0 connectivity to any VGA, DVI, or HDMI monitor or projector
• Uses the top-of-the-line DisplayLink DL-195 chip, supports resolutions up to 2048×1152
• Supports rotation to portrait mode for full-page editing (requires monitor stand that can rotate)
• Windows 7/Vista/XP drivers installed automatically via Windows Update.
• NOT RECOMMENDED for use with Mac OS Lion (10.7). Linux configuration for advanced users only

Product Description

This adapter allows a standard VGA, DVI, or HDMI monitor to be connected via a standard USB 2.0 connection. Up to six adapters supported per PC. The virtual USB graphics driver extends or mirrors your desktop. Displays are configured using the standard Windows or Mac display control panels.

Package includes a USB 2.0 cable, DVI->VGA, and DVI->HDMI passive hardware adapters. No power is needed – power is provided by USB (adapter has LED indicator light). No fan – solution is very low power and completely silent.

Analog VGA connections support up to 1920×1080 and digital DVI/VGA connections up to 2048×1152. All standard monitor modes up to that maximum resolution can be set by the device.

Multiple Displays

We often hear customers say “After using multiple monitors, I can’t go back!”. If you’re doing information work — looking at one document while editing another, researching, or generally working on several things at once — it’s indispensable.

Simply drag windows back and forth to make use of all the extra Windows desktop space.

Plugable USB graphics adapters fully support rotation — turn one or both screens to show documents in gorgeous full-page layout (with a monitor stand that’s capable of rotation).

A common setup is to create a beautifully symmetric yet flexible 3 display desktop, combining your laptop display with 2 extra monitors on either side with your laptop’s external graphics port + one Plugable adapter, or with two Plugable adapters to allow easy USB dock/undock.

Hardware Requirements and Recommendations

• CPU: Dual-core or 2GHz processor or better recommended on Windows Vista, Win7, and Mac (Single core ULV or Intel Atom class processors or better are recommended for Windows XP and Linux)
• GPU: Used for 2D/3D rendering on Windows Vista and Win7, requiring a single Intel, nVidia, or ATI primary WDDM driver.

Driver and OS Version details

WINDOWS VERSION COMPATIBILITY:
Drivers are provided automatically via Microsoft’s Windows Update mechanism with approved drivers across all of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. 64-bit and full Aero support on Vista and Windows 7. Windows XP 64-bit not supported. Note that Microsoft limits multiple display support in Windows 7 “Starter” Edition and Windows Vista “Home Basic” Edition to mirroring screens.

For Windows Server 2003 (32-bit), Server 2008 (32 and 64-bit) and Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) you will need to download the drivers from the DisplayLink website.

MAC VERSION COMPATIBILITY:

NOT RECOMMENDED for use with Mac OS Lion (10.7) because of performance and compatibility regressions from Snow Leopard to Lion. Lion users on hybrid graphics laptops must set power saving to “highest performance” (to prevent GPU switching) before installing DisplayLink drivers, to avoid problems with blank login screen, etc.

DisplayLink provides beta-level drivers for Intel OS X 10.4 or later, 32 bit and 64-bit kernels. Up to 4 DisplayLink devices. There are limitations in Quartz Extreme support:

• No 3D (OpenGL) acceleration – some features of Mac OS X applications that require hardware OpenGL acceleration, such as Keynote presentations and iPhoto slideshows, will not function properly with the USB attached screen.

See http://displaylink.com/mac for more info

LINUX COMPATIBILITY:
As of Linux kernel 2.6.31, this adapter has open source drivers in the kernel staging tree. As of 2.6.38, the driver was promoted to the main kernel tree. Configuration of X Windows for USB displays is still distribution and scenario dependent, however, and only for very adventurous users. Plugable is involved with Linux development work, see http://plugable.com/category/platform/linux/ for details.

Included in the package

USB 2.0 mini-B to A cable

DVI to VGA Adapter

DVI to HDMI Rotating Adapter

Resolutions Supported

The hardware is capable of supporting nearly arbitrary resolutions, up to its limit of 2048×1152. VESA standard and widescreen resolutions are supported by most software, including:

2048×1152, 1920×1200, 1920×1080, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1400×1050, 1280×1024, 1280×768, 1152×864, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480

For all resolutions, the display is refreshed at 60Hz, and the hardware is capable of 8, 16, and 32bpp color depths. Some operating systems require specific depths, like 32bpp for Windows Aero support.

HDMI

The HDMI standard is built on DVI. This enables conversion from DVI to HDMI 1.0 with a simple, physical, passive adapter like the one included with the UGA-2K-A. HDMI routed through DVI does not include audio signals, and does not support HDMI content protection. It is suitable for displaying applications on a HDMI monitor and some TVs. It is not for Blu-Ray quality video playback.

HDMI TV Compatibility

Most, but not all, TVs are also compatible. The exceptions are TVs that don’t support EDID (which communicates monitor capabilities to the PC) or which require specific higher versions of the HDMI spec, beyond 1.0. Many TVs that have a VGA port in addition to HDMI, assume that computers will use VGA for connectivity rather than HDMI, provide the best results with VGA.

Performance Tuning

A USB graphics adapter is a “virtual” device that uses your machine’s CPU and memory to render graphics. It then transfers just the pixels that change over the USB 2.0 cable to the device. The screen itself is refreshed continually (60 times a second) by hardware over the monitor’s own cable, from memory on the device.

• When nothing on a USB screen is changing, the PC is doing little or no work and nothing is going over USB. Meanwhile, the screen continues to refresh directly from the device.
• However, when most pixels on the screen is changing, your CPU is doing the heavy lifting, and also the (480Mbs) USB 2.0 bus can become a bottleneck. You may start to notice lags in mouse or window movements.

If you’re experiencing slowness or latency on your USB display:

• Reduce your screen resolution with the operating system display control panel.
• Play 3D games and videos on your primary (non-USB) screen.

By reducing the amount of data that needs to be compressed and sent over USB, you’ll increase responsiveness.

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