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Models and features
There is only one VTBook model, but it comes in three different packages: the standard single display, and two different dual display configurations -- VTBook DualDisplay Stationary Edition, and VTBook DualDisplay Mobile Edition. Both DualDisplay packages employ special video cables that allow the card to connect to two monitors instead of one. The Mobile Edition has longer cables than the Stationary Edition. If your laptop computer has a second external PCMCIA slot (you can't fit two VTBook cards in tandem PCMCIA slots -- they're too big and produce too much heat), you can use two VTBook cards, thereby increasing the number of external displays to 4. If your laptop has a built-in external monitor port, counting the screen that is built into the machine you could theoretically have up to 6 displays running at once.
All VTBook packages come with a DVI-to-VGA converter. Not included but available is an adapter to convert Apple ADC display connectors to DVI.
Electrical and physical design
The VTBook was definitely designed and packaged with Apple users in mind, even if modern Apple machines can't use it. It comes in an impressive little case that looks like it was originally designed to hold eyeglasses. Inside are the VTBook PCMCIA card and the DVI-to-VGA adapter. The business end of the VTBook is shiny white plastic with silver lettering; the only thing that's missing is an Apple logo.
Cosmetics and packaging aside, two things bothered me about the way the VTBook is designed: first of all, it generates a lot of heat -- so much that it was too hot to handle after only 20 minutes of operation, and significantly affected the temperature of my notebook computer. Usually when something generates a lot of heat, that means it eats a lot of electricity, so I measured the power consumption. This is a little tricky with laptop computers because so many things like network activity and battery charge state can affect power consumption data. I did my best to standardize the test environment and recorded power usage data for 15 minutes with and without the VTBook. I found that on average, the VTBook would add about 3.6 watts of power consumption over an hour of operation. Considering the entire system drew an average of 22.8 watts, the extra power drain was significant but not necessarily noticeable.
Secondly, the way a monitor connects to the VTBook is a little clumsy. The VTBook sticks out of the side of the machine by about two inches, and the DVI to VGA adapter adds another inch. When you plug a monitor into that, it's like a huge, unmanageable growth on the side of the machine that ends up being a little too delicate. One wrong move and you can physically break some part of the connection (the card itself, most likely) and then the party's over. Even without the DVI to VGA adapter, it's still unwieldy to have something like this sticking so far out of the side of the machine without being flexible. If I were to redesign the card, I'd make the DVI connector face 90 degrees from the end of the card, which would allow the monitor cable to snake along the side of the computer. Coupled with some sort of clamp to attach it securely to the computer, it would be much safer and more comfortable.
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| VTBook utilities in Windows |
Requirements and compatibility
The only Windows versions supported are XP and 2000, and only 32-bit at that. According to a Village Tronic engineer, there are no plans to develop 64-bit drivers in the near future.
Apple users must have a PCMCIA (Cardbus) slot, which the standard Macbook and Macbook Pro do not have as of this writing.
*BSD and Solaris users are out of luck -- the VTBook won't work in any of the BSDs or Solaris.
GNU/Linux users have to go to a lot of trouble, but it is reportedly possible to get the VTBook to work. Drivers are provided for both the Linux kernel and X.org, and should work with most modern distributions.
Display resolutions up to 1920x1440 with a 4:3 ratio and 2048x1280 in a 16:9 ratio in VGA mode or 1920x1200 in DVI or ADC mode are supported.
Putting it to the test
I started my testing in Windows XP Home on an Acer TravelMate 2300. The installation process is a little strange -- you have to install the software on the CD first, then shut down the computer, then install the VTBook card, then adjust the Windows display properties to accommodate your second monitor.
I could not get the VTBook card and second monitor to be enabled by default when Windows started, so every time I restarted the computer, I had to go into the display properties and enable the external monitor and set the resolution for both screens. A Village Tronic engineer told me that this is not the intended behavior, but that he'd heard of this problem before. The suggested fix was to update the integrated video driver (the one in the laptop itself, not the VTBook), and if that didn't work, to use the hotplug/unplug functions of the VTBook software to save the display configuration, thereby making it easier to restore the proper settings. By the time I received this advice, I'd already put a different operating system on the test machine.
Getting the VTBook to work with GNU/Linux is tricky. First you have to patch and recompile your kernel with code provided by Village Tronic, then you have to install a proprietary X.org or XFree86 (does anyone still use XFree86?) module. So right off the bat if you don't have your kernel source installed (like most desktop distributions), you'll have to install it, then go through some command line exercises to get it patched and recompiled, then copy over the X.org module by hand.
I tested the VTBook in GNU/Linux with CentOS 4.3 and was totally unsuccessful in getting it to work. This was more or less expected; I've tested a few different devices over the years that have similarly convoluted processes for installing proprietary drivers, and I have never been able to make the process work as intended.
When I did get the second display working properly in Windows, I had no complaints about its responsiveness or image quality. I was a little disappointed in the versatility of the second desktop screen, though -- it had no individual task bar, and the right-click popup menu did not have the same options as it did in the primary display. It was easy to drag and drop program windows from one screen to another, though. These few shortcomings can be fixed by installing the VT MultiDisplay software; unfortunately this is either $50 extra, or it comes free when you buy DualDisplay cables. This program allows each display to have its own taskbar, which makes managing multiple programs in multiple windows a much easier task.
There is no way to boot up to the VTBook display instead of the laptop LCD.
Conclusions and manufacturer recommendations
Don't expect the VTBook to work well in GNU/Linux without a battle, and make sure your (older) Mac is properly equipped with a PCMCIA slot before you invest in a VTBook card for it. Windows users who need multiple displays from a laptop computer should be very satisfied with the capabilities, performance and price of the VTBook.
The VTBook hardware is truly a feat of engineering, though I think there is still room for improvement. The software -- drivers, specifically -- need a lot of work, though. Ideally the Linux driver would be open source so that programmers who work on the Linux kernel and BSD projects can make this device work in other operating systems. These days, hardware that only works well on a single 32-bit operating system is behind the times. And if (outdated) Apple computers -- with 3% of the computing market according to some estimates -- are good enough to invest time and money in supporting, then the other three percenters that use GNU/Linux and *BSD should be equally as valuable.
Here's what I'd like to see in future VTBook editions:
- More intelligent cabling design. If it's possible to do so, the DVI connector should be on the side of the PCMCIA card, not on the end where it is most likely to get yanked out accidentally.
- Better drivers. Whether it be downloading and installing them, compiling them, or configuring them after installation, the act of wrestling with hardware drivers is something that no one wants to do and, in this day and age, no one expects to have to do anymore.
- An ExpressCard edition. This is the formfactor that will replace Cardbus, and the new Macbook Pro has it as well as the latest machines from Lenovo and other high-end laptop manufacturers. Cardbus is a dead end.
| Device | PCMCIA video card |
| Manufacturer | Village Tronic |
| Device support | One DVI or VGA monitor with a resolution of up to 2048x1280 in VGA mode or 1920x1200 in DVI or ADC mode. Add-on for dual external displays is available but not included. An Apple ADC monitor adapter is also available but not included. Supported OSes: Windows 2000 and Windows XP, Mac OS X and OS 9, GNU/Linux (limited), and Windows Vista 32-bit (future) |
| Market | Traders and brokers, anyone who needs multiple monitor support in a laptop computer, laptop computer owners who do not have an integrated external display output connector. |
| Price (retail) | US ~$250 |
| Previous version | N/A |
| Product Web site | Click here |