A Nifty And Workable Solution
Written: Oct 12 '05 (Updated Oct 13 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use, the cheapest way to use a PDA for projection, reasonable quality output
Cons: No editing ability
The Bottom Line: This is the simplest and cheapest way to hook up a PDA to a data projector. It works well, and I highly recommend it.
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| kellynz's Full Review: VGA Adapter Cable for Dell Axim X50v (X50v only) (... |
I bought my Dell X50v in part because of this accessory. My job requires me to make Powerpoint presentations 2 or 3 times a week, and I often travel to do them. This involves carrying around a data projector and a laptop. Sometimes I want to rehearse my presentation on a plane or in the airport lounge, and this involves getting out my laptop, loading windows and then Powerpoint, and having the people in the seats beside me read my presentation over my shoulder. How much simpler if I could use my PDA to run the data projector!
There are ways of getting a PDA to run a data projector. You can buy a VGA port mounted to a CF or SD card. The cheapest of these is $US100, and they run up to about $US250. Then you will need software to use them, another $50-$150. The output from these cards is generally limited to 600 X 800 at best, and is often less. This is because running a projector from most PDAs means you will be limited to QVGA output and whatever the add-on card can beef that up to by way of pixel doubling. The new crop of VGA PDAs - for example the Axim X50v and the Ipaq 4700 have changed that though, and the graphics chips of these new machines have made PDA presentations a realistic possibility for the first time.
The Axim x50v presentation bundle is available only through Dell's website.It gives you a simple cable to plug into the bottom of the Axim X50v with the Dell proprietry plug on one end and a VGA port on the other. It allows direct attachment of any VGA device to the Axim X50v or X51v, but no other Axim. It comes with the Westtek Presentation suite,which contains five separate programs. These are all viewers to allow showing but not editing of output from various desktop programs. Clearvue Presentation lets you show Powerpoint slides; Clearvue Document shows Microsoft Word documents; Clearvue PDF shows PDF files; Clearvue Worksheet shows Excel spreadsheets and Clearvue Image is a very nice little picture viewer, which allows you to view or project photos. Image also allows some simple editing of photos. This software suite is available without the cable from Westtek's website and portions of it are built into ROM on the Ipaq 4700, although you will need to buy a VGA-CF combo to project them from the IPAQ.
In use the software works wery well. The programs read the native files of their respective desktop programs: that is, unlike some other PDA viewers Clearvue doesn't convert them into its own format before using them. You drag and drop the files onto your PDA using the Explorer function Activesync, load them into your viewer, and click the slideshow Icon and you're away. There is no need to put the PDA into mirror mode or fiddle around with any other settings. There are some rudimentary options available. The screen of the PDA shows whatever is shown on the external screen, and you can choose whether the PDA shows it in portrait or landscape mode. With the presentation viewer, you can opt to have the PDA show both the slide and any notes you have made. Changing orientation on the PDA doesn't change orientation on the external screen. You can choose different output definitions from 640 X 480 all the way up to 1284 X 1028. All output is in 16 bit colour and runs at 60 mhz. Slides are changed by tapping the screen or by clicking the direction pad.The presentation viewer can be set to advance slides automatically with user definable time intervals, and can loop presentations - so it coulod be used to power an unmanned display.
Using the PDA with a data projector has some limitations. For one thing you are tied to the projector by the cable. If you are using the PDA as your prompt, the writing is very small, and you can't just leave it on the lectern and tap it - you will need to have it in your hand. Slides retain all the features they would have on a desktop - animations work in exactly the same way, and are just as fast. Slide transitions are a bit slow however. Slides switch OK but take about 2-3 seconds to "recover" before you can switch again. If you have a few quick fire changes this can be a problem. Quality is good. Colours are excellent, but curved lines are slightly more pixellated than they would be if shown from a laptop. They improve at higher resolution settings,and are perfectly readable at all settings, but there is a small drop off in quality. You have to be careful to set your power settings on the PDA appropriately. If you leave your slide up on the screen for too long, the PDA switches itself off, and you lose the picture. Of course it's right there when you turn the PDA back on, but it's better to disable the swtich off feature. The presentation cable has a port to allow the Axim to have the power cord fitted while in use, so long presentations are not going to run the battery flat.
The one big shortcoming for me is that the software doesn't allow editing of presentations. Often I make last minute adjustments when I get to the venue, or when reviewing the show on the plane, so now I have to be more careful before I leave home. The clearvue suite allows me to change the order of the slides but that's it.
In conclusion, I am delighted with this bundle. It is a cheap effective way of using the PDA to make presentations. If I want to make changes on the way though, I still have to bring along my laptop
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kellynz
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 2 members
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