USB Video

[SiegeTank]

I get better technical expertise feedback here than some of the tech sites I go to (and always far less attitude ) so I'm wondering if anyone has experience with using a USB monitor?

This is not for gaming. This is a work application, like a POS system (point of sale) where we want to try to use USB-connected supplemental monitors in place of a serial or parallel pole display. There is a surprising variety of USB monitors out there, some as small as 5-inch display and some as big as full-size monitor (21, 23, 25"). I haven't dug too deep into the tech stuff yet but I am thinking of buying a couple and testing them out. They would end up part of a dual monitor display along with a standard VGA or HDMI-connected desktop monitor.

Some of the feedback I've read on tech forums and on Amazon complain about reliability, which would be an issue for us since we can't afford to have customer displays malfunctioning a lot.

The obvious question is if USB displays worked well, why bother with other connection types? Obviously image quality must be an issue since an HDMI connection must be far superior to even a USB 3.0 connection.... right?

Any thoughts or opinions?

 

[dewey2461]

About 4 years ago I got a USB 2.0 video card with DVI output. It worked ok but was slow to update video. Any kind of moving graphics would tear. It was ok for doing word, email, etc.

I wouldn't use it if there was any other option.

 

[htw]

My Dynadock 4k is USB3, and is connected to 2x 28" monitors. I run multiple EQ fine, and of course any desktop app, and any HD & blueray video (the laptop has a BD burner). I don't notice any difference doing that vs. using the laptop display.

So I guess it just depends on how good the hardware is.

htw

 

[SiegeTank]

Interesting. The DynaDock comes with a built-in video card, from what I read.

I forgot to mention that the computers we use are ultra small form factor so they only have motherboard video and there are no available expansion slots if we wanted to add a video card with multiple monitor ports. So we'd be running the second monitor directly from one the available USB ports. I assume the software that comes with this monitor handles the dual monitor setup.

I'll know more when I test out the two models we have incoming and I'll report back! Thanks for the feedback.