The new & improved VGA Dongle for Samsung Series 9 is now available!
How do I know? I GOT ONE! And it works!
BACKGROUND:
The Samsung Series 9 is a fantastic ultrabook-style laptop, weighing less than a MacBook Air and thinner than one too. It has a hard aluminum plating (‘Duralumin’ – the stuff used to build airplanes) that surrounds the outside of the machine and protects the device by shielding it from damage while prevents bending or warping of it’s thin profile… something a certain “other” competing laptop doesn’t do so well.
ISSUE… VGA PROJECTION OVER LONG CABLING
One problem it has however is it’s VGA output: It actually has a micro-HDMI port on it and depends on a micro-HDMI-to-VGA dongle to provide VGA output for things like presentation projectors. While it works fine for short distances, this dongle has not worked for me for VGA cable lengths exceeding 10-12 feet.
This is a problem because as one would expect, many customer presentation projectors are built into conference room ceilings. (At Microsoft, virtually all conference rooms have this) The VGA cabling usually extends from the conference room table, into the floor, along the wall and to the ceiling where the projector is mounted. Consequently, this cabling is ALWAYS longer than 10-12 feet.
The result, when projection is attempted, is that the signal doesn’t reach the projector… or the laptop won’t even attempt to send the duplicated display… usually leaving you in a lurch when you’re trying to present to a customer. On rare occasions, I’ve found that the projection system I’m connecting to, hits a video receiver of sorts that’s within 10-15 feet and then outputs the signal to the project & in this case, I can get a ‘shaky’ signal to the projector which flickers and moves annoyingly but is still sort of visible.
ALTERNATIVES:
My original solution was to buy a Plugable USB VGA adapter (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004D0QC0A) – which works all the time for me. For ~$40, it effectively provides ‘another’ VGA port through your USB ports. The adapter allows for duplicating your laptop display through this second VGA port, and thus providing the desired effect of showing what’s on your laptop display on the projector… without cable length limitations, as the Plugable USB VGA adapter doesn’t suffer from the same limitations as the Samsung microHDMI-to-VGA dongle. It does sometimes not fully get the right screen size but it ALWAYS projects a display and is very reliable. I wrote about it in these posts:
https://kurtsh.com/2011/07/17/info-samsung-series-9-micro-hdmi-to-vga-dongle-or-how-to-use-a-vga-projectors-with-a-samsung-series-9/
https://kurtsh.com/2011/08/01/info-additional-accessories-for-the-samsung-series-9/
AND NOW?
Enter the REV:02 VGA dongle for the Samsung Series 9 laptop:
You’ll notice that I’ve purposely left on the plastic layer that covers the ‘heavier/larger’ VGA end of the dongle above. This is because this plastic has a label on it and this is the only indicator that it is in fact the REV:02 version of the HDMI to VGA dongle. This is the dongle that WORKS with longer VGA cabling, and thus the one I want to use for presentations. See below:
Anyway, I thought some folks might want to actually see what this new dongle looks like so they can verify that they bought the right one.
(UPDATE 11/21/11: Rumor has it that this might be a link for the Rev 02 dongle. I really don’t know if this is true, but if anyone wants to try spending $95 (??) for the dongle, you’re on your own. I make no guarantees since I’ve never ordered from this site. http://www.samsungparts.com/Products/Parts_and_Accessories/PID-BA39-01122A.aspx?model= )
kurtsh
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