Computer And Technology Blog

There are several products out there that allow you to create a video port from other ports on your computer. This can be useful for when you want to expand your desktop to an extra display, but you’ve run out of video ports on your computer. Many people for instance have an auxiliary video port on their laptop, but want a third screen (in addition to the aux. display and their laptop’s built-in display), and so must create a new video port out of another existing data port.
PCMCIA

A product from a company called Village Tronic called the VTBook came out several years ago and was one of the first PCMCIA cards with a quality DVI port.
Pros: The card did not protrude from the laptop very much. The DVI port was built especially so that another Village Tronic splitter cable (sold separately) could turn that port into two ports: VGA and DVI, giving you four displays total (including your built-in display and aux display port). An included VGA adapter also allows you to use this card with one VGA display.
Cons: The street price is around $230 which is more than most ordinary graphics cards. This card isn’t designed for high-performance gaming or graphic intensive applications.
USB

There was a USB to VGA adapter sold by many online retailers that came out of China. They were blue, and somewhat transparent, and OEMed for several different distributors.
Pro and con: With a street price of around $85, it was a much more affordable way to add a video port, but the quality was about what you paid for.
Recently there has been a new USB to DVI adapter released in the United States. 128 megabytes of onboard memory makes this adapter like an external video card that you can connect to your system via USB. We tested this unit in-house and found the unit to work at standard video card standards, or with a difference that the human eye could scarcely detect. With an expected street price to be at around $120, it will probably become the most popular way to add a video port using USB.

Cameron “Goyin” Postelwait works as content manager for Sewell Direct, retailer of the up and coming USB to DVI adapter.

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