Visiontek PC2TV

I purchased this unit yesterday (8-21-08) at Fry's hoping it would be simple to use. Similar to the new Roku set top box for Netflix. Unfortunately the VisonTek Pc2Tv seems to follow the trend of similar devices sold. Unless you have three days to kill messing with it; or money for a hardware/router changes don't bother.

-Pro:
- All cables are included and are of decent quality.
- The set top unit was detectable on my FiOS router, passing the ping test.
- Size: the set top unit is small enough to be put on most entertainment systems with a footprint the size of an average hardback book.
Cons:
-After 3 reinstalls the software still refused to find the set top unit.
- The error message read to check the subnets to make sure they matched. After double checking and resetting the router; the software would not detect the set top box. Despite being detected by the router itself, with matching IP's and subnet numbers.
- The only way to...Read more

Like the first reviewer, I purchased my unit from Fry's. Got it home, plugged everything up and installed the software on my wireless laptop. I didn't realize it would be using our wireless network, and was surprised at first to see that it connected immediately to it, and that it also assigned a different IP address to my computer (no problems with that). I had the PC2TV unit connected to my Samsung 42" LCD, and the picture was clear and stable. I played a few YouTube videos through the laptop to the TV, and while somewhat choppy (to be expected), the overall quality was presentable. I will be testing this tomorrow at my school to see if the unit is acceptable for classroom use.

After some use now, we can now report about our experience with the PC2TV. I have tried the product with three TVs in two households with FIOS wifi and with Brighthouse WiFi. You have to make sure that the device is set for video, not pictures or it will really get choppy.

It seems to work best if you use the direct connection option rather than go through a router. We had a very good signal in all cases, but there are short interuptions every time we use the device. I never did find out what the resolution maximum is. I think that the box uses the resolution of the PC screen.

We moved the box to my business partner's house and now I miss it because you can install the server software on all of you PCs and laptops and easily display emails, pictures, internet to your spouse on the TV.