IOGEAR GUC2025H USB 2.0 to HDMI External Video Card

Pros: easy to set up

Cons: This is NOT an external video card as advertised. It is a usb-to-hdmi signal converter. I wanted to add a graphics card to send a discreet 720p signal to a small tv via HDMI cable, simultaneous with viewing our large 1080i TV in HD - same display, different resolutions. This device down-converts the signal to the large TV just like any cheaper signal splitter would. I'm returning it since it's useless to me.

Other Thoughts: Should be very specific that this is a signal converter not a "video card."

Pros: Picked it up for 35 with a free HDMI cable. Installed in windows 7 without using the driver CD, just had windows search it's online database for the driver and it has worked great streaming video to a 720p HDTV. Audio quality is good, would purchase again if needed another.

Cons: Blue LED bar on the top is very bright, but I turn it upside down to mitigate this issue.

Other Thoughts: Video was stuttering at first due to high CPU usage of McAfee virus scan on a friend's laptop. Uninstalled that CPU hog and installed the free Microsoft Security Essentials. Configured the background scanner to limit CPU usage to 10% and there hasn't been any issues even if the scanner kicks in while using the IOGEAR USB to HDMI adapter.

Pros: Easy to install. I use it with windows 7. Works pretty well.

Cons: After testing everything out, this device isn't HDCP compatible. It won't play the newer movies/blu-rays that check for that.

Pros: 1080P resolution, works well on windows 7 /8.

Cons: NA

Pros: Inexpensive. Relatively easy to setup.

Cons: It's limited by USB throughput.

Other Thoughts: My rig is a Samsung QX-410 laptop (Core i5 quad-core, 8 GB of RAM, NVIDIA Optimus). It is already using an external monitor on the built-in HDMI port, but I needed a second external monitor for web development purposes. The laptop is running Windows 2008 R2 x64 as the base OS with Windows 7 x64 as a virtual machine.

I didn't bother with the CD that came with the unit. Instead, I went to DisplayLink.com and downloaded the latest version of the software (version 7.1). Here's the direct link:
http://www.displaylink.com/support/downloads.php

I installed the software before I connected the unit to a USB port. It took about 2 minutes to install. The odd thing was that it never reported that the installation finished successfully or unsuccessfully. Instead the installation status window just disappeared. However, Task Manager showed that the DisplayLinkUserAgent.exe process was running the background.

Then I connected the IOGear unit to a USB port on the laptop without a monitor being attached on the HDMI port on the IOGear unit. It took about 2 to 3 minutes for the driver installation/configuration process to complete. It reported that the following devices were installed successfully:
- USB Composite Device
- DisplayLink Display Adapter (4120)
- USB to HDMI
Then it required a reboot.

After the laptop rebooted, I gave it a couple of minutes to "settle down". The DisplayLink icon now appeared in the SystemTray area.

Then I attached an LCD monitor to the IOGear unit. It took about 1 to 2 minutes for the DisplayLink software to tweak the video configuration, and then the Monitor activated in Extended mode at 1920x1080 automatically. This is exactly what I wanted!

And as a bonus it got the orientation/location correct because it was on the right-side of the laptop and the when I dragged my mouse off of the right-side of the laptop display it appeared on the IOGear display. This was just a lucky coin flip, though.

The Remote Desktop Connection software works great across all 3 monitors now when I connect to my Windows 7 virtual machine from the base OS. It rocks!

Be aware that I'm just using this to display web pages while working on web sites, and this unit is perfect for this purpose. I did not attempt to stream 1080p BlueRay movies or NetFlix on it like other folks have.

The installation was flawless for me. No complaints. I recommend to anyone else that you skip the CD and download the latest drivers from DisplayLink.


See Ya!
Van

Pros: Watch movies from laptop to big screen TV
Sound come out from TV/Sound sys. instead of having to use a usb speaker.
25 bucks shell shocker

Cons: USB 2.0 is lagging/struggling with 1080 movies

Other Thoughts: If you limit the use of this adapter in using a 720p resolution maximum, you will have a very decent viewing experience, without lag, and a very good sound getting to your TV. It does it's job very well. Install the new driver (7.1) from displaylink.com, IOGEAR site is at 6.3. If it breaks, I'll definitely buy another one.

Pros: Works on Mac OSX!

Cons: * Slightly laggy when moving things around, but livable. At least I have my second screen now.
* Requires connection directly to a USB port on the machine, and not a USB hub.
* Makes the Mac fan run a lot due to the extra processing required for the second monitor.

Other Thoughts: I've had two Diamond USB-HDMI adapters before that worked fine, although they both died after a year. So I'm trying this one now to see how it goes. Its one of the few that seem to work for Macs, although its stressing my system a bit. I'll see how it goes over time and hopefully it will let the fan take a break :)
It comes with a USB cable only, no power cable. I was hoping to plug this into my powered USB hub, but it doesn't work there. Now I need to figure out where to plug my external harddrive I use for Time Machine, as it also doesn't work with the hub...might need a different hub, actually.

If there's any change/update, I'll update this review.

Pros: simply put, this is an average product at best. Meaning it wont hurt you if you have it, but it will not be the best product, so don't expect the highest quality in picture.

sleek, finish

Cons: Took a bit of time to get the hang of the hardware, and even more tinkering after your monitor's resolution change after using.

Either the hdmi cable I got supplied with in a combo pack (also by iogear) makes for a laggy unreliable media cable, or the adapter or both can be laggy at times. So don't expect a quality vid feed or fonts in video mode.

Adapter might not recognize audio coming from browser if browser/video was already in memory before connecting to HDMI port of tv, even after re-starting service in services.msc, cleaning cache, and re-starting window/video. Unreliable drivers/adapter not practical for everyday usage unless you are connected to a hdmi interface exclusively.

Other Thoughts: Dont care about nice looking activity light. I have to increase priority in task manager to get the best performance. Get it at a good price or look for a product with more reliability. It lets you watch your laptop or pc in an HDTV. Does what its intended to do, but as many have said, after tinkering with the settings, weaknesses abound, although they don't usurp the practicality its intended for, I just would not recommend it to a friend.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for choosing IOGEAR and we apologize for the inconvenience. We recommend using the updated software for this devise direct from displaylink.com. To better service you and understand your set up, please feel to contact our customer support at 1-866-946-4327 or email us: support@iogear.com. Once again, thank you for choosing IOGEAR.

Pros: Allows me to utilize a 3rd monitor, or a TV (in my case), without the 2 display restriction based on the outputs from my video card. Setup was fairly simple and consistent with other iomega products I've tried in the past.

Cons: Installation could've gone more smoothly and the additional output is not always labelled when identifying displays in the Windows config.

Other Thoughts: If you're expecting to use this as a way of playing 720p/1080p movies to another display or gaming, you're going to be disappointed. You'll get decent, but choppy playback - I didn't notice it on older movies when I tried it, but HD movie playback was too sluggish to be enjoyable. USB 2.0 connections weren't meant for those kinds of output, anyway.

Overall, it's a handy peripheral device to have if you have no HDMI-out ports or if your video card doesn't support the number of monitors you require.

Pros: I'm not a video buff, but I'm using this to connect different PCs to different TVs and it works. Generally using 1024x768 res.

Cons: It does take a little longer than expected to get the drivers all loaded up after connecting, but less than a minute.

Other Thoughts: I don't know if this works at 1080p or not, I haven't tried.