TRENDnet Makes Multi-Monitor Setups Easy with USB-DVI (with a Wireless-N Camera To Boot)
It can be easy to overlook companies like TrendNet, since they aren’t as well known as some others, and the devices may not be as sexy. We suggest taking a closer look though, as you often get the same quality, a lower price, and less marketing hype. We’ve reviewed one of their wireless cameras before, and came away with pretty positive impressions. Can the latest model hold up? And can a different product from their lineup hold up?
The ProView Wireless N Internet Camera, or TV-IP512WN, is quite different than the previous camera. For starters, it doesn’t offer the nifty panning and scanning action that made that one unique. It still offers 2-way audio, motion detection, email alerts that we liked from its predecessor, but lacks the superior night/infrared vision. It gains a removable lens (granted, not particularly useful) and adds some nice included mounting hardware. It’s equally easy to setup, though the interface hasn’t improved a whole lot and still feels quite clunky. Browser support has improved though! Image and audio quality seem a touch better, especially the clarity of stills- both models are 640×480, but frame rates feel more solid on the ProView (both offer up to 30 frames per second).
The new model definitely has a higher build quality, and feels more stable. Further, this model offers digital zoom up to 16x, something we would have liked on the other model but that doesn’t actually add a whole lot (it gets grainy quickly). The SD card slot is an interesting extra, especially useful if your network goes down. Unfortunately, the advantages of wireless-N weren’t particularly apparent. Certainly, using default router settings, we were able to push our camera much farther away using 802.11 N than G, up to a floor and a couple of rooms away with stable signal. But without greatly increased video quality or frame rate, it feels as if the extra bandwidth is underutilized. This one is much better outdoors though, as it will adjust to the extra light pretty well. For the extra versatility and stability, the ProView seems like a good bet at around $200, but we do miss the fun rotating eye, and do hope for better and more capable software.
So you’ve put up your camera (or cameras). Now what? Do you really want to but a completely separate computer just to display them? Or would you rather flick back and forth between the camera view and other applications, potentially missing something important or accidentally closing the software. Some computers offer dual-display options built-in, but most do not. Hence, an easy use for the USB to DVI/VGA adapter. TrendNet offers a wide variety of USB and Firewire adapters, for everything from ethernet to serial to parallel to serial ATA. But this one offers a pretty handy feature- an instant second display. Plug it in, plug in your monitor, and Windows or Mac OSX will offer a virtual secondary screen at resolutions up to 1600 × 1200. Widescreen or standard, flat screen LCD or CRT, it can handle it. Also, they include the DVI/VGA adapter so you’ll be set either way.
You’ll need a pretty fast computer- they claim a Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent with at least 512 MB of RAM. Most PCs fit those specs these days, but you might still want to check, especially if your machine is a bit older. We liked that you didn’t need extra power, and that you could actually add several of these devices. That way, you can either stretch your screen over multiple screens, or offer multiple different displays- say, one for stocks, one for email, and another for your security camera. At $70, it’s a cheap and easy way to add more displays, even if they probably aren’t quite gaming-ready- and do get a bit hot.
