Monday, May 26, 2003
Let the Colorgraphic Voyager Aid Your Presentations
Posted by Perry Reed in "HARDWARE" @ 09:00 AM
So you've got a great deal of data on your Pocket PC and you'd like to share some of it with a larger audience. Or perhaps you've got to give a presentation and you've got Power Point slides, but don't feel like lugging a laptop into the meeting room. No worries, the Voyager from Colorgraphic is just what you need for your Pocket PC to fix you right up!
Forget about handouts at your next presentation. Don't even think about hauling a bulky laptop with you into a meeting room. Let your Pocket PC handle all of your presentation needs. Colorgraphic has put together a complete presentation package for the Pocket PC platform in the form of Voyager; a package that includes both hardware and software from Westtek -- essentially everything you'll need to use your Pocket PC as a presentation delivery aide.
Contents
The Colorgraphic Voyager is a Type I CF-Card that allows you to connect your Pocket PC to an external monitor, projector or television. It also comes with a cable/adapter to connect to the various ouput sources, an infrared remote control to control your Pocket PC, a CF-Card, PC-Card adapter and a CD containing the device drivers. The Voyager Shadow utility, the product manual and the ClearVue suite of document viewing utilities from Westtek are also included.
Figure 1: Included hardware
Installation
Installation is pretty straightforward, though not perfect. The first things you install are the drivers for the Voyager card and Shadow utilities. The included CD provides drivers for most Pocket PCs as well as HPCs and other Windows CE.Net-based devices. Once the drivers and Shadow are installed, the next step is to install the ClearVue software suite. There are a couple of things to look out for with this install. First of all, the ClearVue install will ask you to disable the automatic conversion of Word and rich-text documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations to their Pocket PC equivalents. This is to maintain the formatting of the original documents so you can use them in your presentations, but it makes editing the files within the standard Pocket PC tools impossible. Secondly, you're required to enter a rather long serial number on the Pocket PC device itself. It would seem much easier to me to be able to type it in on the PC itself during installation rather than the PDA, but those are minor quibbles and once the installation is done, you're ready to go!
Operation
The first thing to do, once the software and drivers are installed is to plug the card into your Pocket PC and attach the cable to it. You'll notice that the other end of the cable has three plugs on it: one for VGA (also supporting Wide VGA, S-VGA, and XGA), one for S-Video, and one for composite video (RCA jack). Any of these may be used to connect to a display, however only one may be used at a time. You will need the appropriate cable to attach to the Voyager cable as you cannot plug the Voyager cable directly into a display device. The VGA plug offers the best resolution, working well with most computer monitors and projectors.
I tested the card with both a 17" monitor and a Compaq projector and got good results with both. The display was sharp, clear, bright and colorful. Working somewhat less well is the composite video output. Plugging this into a 15" television produced an image that was bright and colorful, but not very clear. Small text was particularly hard to read. However, a standard television is simply not capable of producing a high quality computer display output and the lousy quality of the Voyager output on the TV is obviously the fault of the television and not the Voyager itself! In a pinch, and with a presentation produced with a TV in mind (few graphics, large fonts), a television could certainly be used as a decent presentation device. I did not have any S-Video capable displays available so I could not test this adapter, however generally one would expect it to fall somewhere in between composite video and VGA in quality.
Figure 2: Voyager cable ports
Software
There are two primary applications packaged with the Voyager. The first one, Voyager Shadow, lets you mirror your Pocket PC's screen on the external display device. This worked well with all of the applications with which I tried it and it has a number of options, including the ability to select the border color around the screen image. Since your Pocket PC screen dimensions do not match the standard VGA or TV dimensions, the image is surrounded by a border area by default. Setting the border color can help some projectors sync the image correctly. You can also adjust the update speed (one second is the default) which is useful for streaming video or playing games and you can rotate the image or stretch it to fit the external display dimensions, and select various other output parameters.
Figure 3: Shadow setup screen
Shadow works very well and would be a good way to demonstrate Pocket PC software for an audience. For actual presentations, or for viewing specific files, however, the ClearVue suite is the way to go. The ClearVue software is a package of four separate applications: ClearVue Document (for Word or rich-text format docs), ClearVue Image (for image files), ClearVue Presentation (for PowerPoint presentations), and ClearVue Worksheet (for Excel spreadsheets).
ClearVue Document does a great job with Word Documents, including displaying images, tables and fonts. ClearVue Worksheet does equally well with spreadsheets, even those with charts! ClearVue Image displays images individually or in a slide show. I've found the slide show feature a great tool for showing off family photos to friends. But ClearVue Presentation is really the king of this suite. PowerPoint presentations are displayed looking very much like they did on the PC they were created on, including images and even transitions and animations! Within ClearVue Presentation you can choose which slides to include in your slide show or re-arrange their order, but where the application really shines is when you configure it for use with the Voyager card.
Figure 4: ClearVue Document
Figure 5: ClearVue Worksheet
Figure 6: ClearVue Image
Each of the ClearVue applications has a setup screen similar to the one below, where you can re-direct the output to the external display via the Voyager card. (You'll need to shut off Voyager Shadow for this to work!) This re-direction is most valuable with ClearVue Presentation. One of the best uses of the software is to display the slides on the external display and show a small version with your speaker notes on the Pocket PC's own display.
Figure 7: Viewing a single slide in ClearVue Presentation
Figure 8: Viewing an entire presentation in ClearVue Presentation
Remote Control
One of the coolest things about Voyager is the remote control that comes with it. The remote is small, about the size of a PC Card (a little narrower, but thicker) and has "bubble" buttons for directional control and six "F-function" buttons. Along with the remote comes a tiny cheat sheet that lists common functions and the buttons to which they map. For example, in ClearVue Presentation, you can zoom in and out of a slide with the F3 and F6 buttons. You can also enable an on-screen cursor and move it around with the directional buttons. Of course, you can advance through your presentation slides with the remote as well. It's very nifty in concept. Execution isn't quite as good, however.
Perhaps this is simply an issue with my Jornada 560, but in order for the remote to work, I had to hold it VERY close (within a few inches) of the IR port on the Jornada. Given that the IR port is on the top of the unit right next to where the Voyager cable is coming out, the range of locations from which the remote would work was seriously limited. This also generally requires the Jornada to be upside down in relation to me, in order to line up the IR port with the remote, making speaker notes on the Jornada's display impossible to read. It's possible, though, that other Pocket PC models would have better results than I did, and the remote still scores very high on the coolness scale.
Figure 9: The remote control
Figure 10: The remote control next to my Jornada for size comparison
Specs
Where to buy
The Voyager is available from the Pocket PC Thoughts Mobile Planet affiliate store for $149.95 US.
Gotchas
I encountered no serious problems with the Voyager. A couple of minor annoyances with the installation of the software and a less than satisfactory performance of the remote control were about it.
Conclusions
If you make presentations on a regular basis and would like your Pocket PC to provide assistance, then the Colorgraphic Voyager is definitely for you! The combination of hardware and software provide an excellent manner in which to turn your Pocket PC into a terrific portable presentation aide.
Forget about handouts at your next presentation. Don't even think about hauling a bulky laptop with you into a meeting room. Let your Pocket PC handle all of your presentation needs. Colorgraphic has put together a complete presentation package for the Pocket PC platform in the form of Voyager; a package that includes both hardware and software from Westtek -- essentially everything you'll need to use your Pocket PC as a presentation delivery aide.
Contents
The Colorgraphic Voyager is a Type I CF-Card that allows you to connect your Pocket PC to an external monitor, projector or television. It also comes with a cable/adapter to connect to the various ouput sources, an infrared remote control to control your Pocket PC, a CF-Card, PC-Card adapter and a CD containing the device drivers. The Voyager Shadow utility, the product manual and the ClearVue suite of document viewing utilities from Westtek are also included.
Figure 1: Included hardware
Installation
Installation is pretty straightforward, though not perfect. The first things you install are the drivers for the Voyager card and Shadow utilities. The included CD provides drivers for most Pocket PCs as well as HPCs and other Windows CE.Net-based devices. Once the drivers and Shadow are installed, the next step is to install the ClearVue software suite. There are a couple of things to look out for with this install. First of all, the ClearVue install will ask you to disable the automatic conversion of Word and rich-text documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations to their Pocket PC equivalents. This is to maintain the formatting of the original documents so you can use them in your presentations, but it makes editing the files within the standard Pocket PC tools impossible. Secondly, you're required to enter a rather long serial number on the Pocket PC device itself. It would seem much easier to me to be able to type it in on the PC itself during installation rather than the PDA, but those are minor quibbles and once the installation is done, you're ready to go!
Operation
The first thing to do, once the software and drivers are installed is to plug the card into your Pocket PC and attach the cable to it. You'll notice that the other end of the cable has three plugs on it: one for VGA (also supporting Wide VGA, S-VGA, and XGA), one for S-Video, and one for composite video (RCA jack). Any of these may be used to connect to a display, however only one may be used at a time. You will need the appropriate cable to attach to the Voyager cable as you cannot plug the Voyager cable directly into a display device. The VGA plug offers the best resolution, working well with most computer monitors and projectors.
I tested the card with both a 17" monitor and a Compaq projector and got good results with both. The display was sharp, clear, bright and colorful. Working somewhat less well is the composite video output. Plugging this into a 15" television produced an image that was bright and colorful, but not very clear. Small text was particularly hard to read. However, a standard television is simply not capable of producing a high quality computer display output and the lousy quality of the Voyager output on the TV is obviously the fault of the television and not the Voyager itself! In a pinch, and with a presentation produced with a TV in mind (few graphics, large fonts), a television could certainly be used as a decent presentation device. I did not have any S-Video capable displays available so I could not test this adapter, however generally one would expect it to fall somewhere in between composite video and VGA in quality.
Figure 2: Voyager cable ports
Software
There are two primary applications packaged with the Voyager. The first one, Voyager Shadow, lets you mirror your Pocket PC's screen on the external display device. This worked well with all of the applications with which I tried it and it has a number of options, including the ability to select the border color around the screen image. Since your Pocket PC screen dimensions do not match the standard VGA or TV dimensions, the image is surrounded by a border area by default. Setting the border color can help some projectors sync the image correctly. You can also adjust the update speed (one second is the default) which is useful for streaming video or playing games and you can rotate the image or stretch it to fit the external display dimensions, and select various other output parameters.
Figure 3: Shadow setup screen
Shadow works very well and would be a good way to demonstrate Pocket PC software for an audience. For actual presentations, or for viewing specific files, however, the ClearVue suite is the way to go. The ClearVue software is a package of four separate applications: ClearVue Document (for Word or rich-text format docs), ClearVue Image (for image files), ClearVue Presentation (for PowerPoint presentations), and ClearVue Worksheet (for Excel spreadsheets).
ClearVue Document does a great job with Word Documents, including displaying images, tables and fonts. ClearVue Worksheet does equally well with spreadsheets, even those with charts! ClearVue Image displays images individually or in a slide show. I've found the slide show feature a great tool for showing off family photos to friends. But ClearVue Presentation is really the king of this suite. PowerPoint presentations are displayed looking very much like they did on the PC they were created on, including images and even transitions and animations! Within ClearVue Presentation you can choose which slides to include in your slide show or re-arrange their order, but where the application really shines is when you configure it for use with the Voyager card.
Figure 4: ClearVue Document
Figure 5: ClearVue Worksheet
Figure 6: ClearVue Image
Each of the ClearVue applications has a setup screen similar to the one below, where you can re-direct the output to the external display via the Voyager card. (You'll need to shut off Voyager Shadow for this to work!) This re-direction is most valuable with ClearVue Presentation. One of the best uses of the software is to display the slides on the external display and show a small version with your speaker notes on the Pocket PC's own display.
Figure 7: Viewing a single slide in ClearVue Presentation
Figure 8: Viewing an entire presentation in ClearVue Presentation
Remote Control
One of the coolest things about Voyager is the remote control that comes with it. The remote is small, about the size of a PC Card (a little narrower, but thicker) and has "bubble" buttons for directional control and six "F-function" buttons. Along with the remote comes a tiny cheat sheet that lists common functions and the buttons to which they map. For example, in ClearVue Presentation, you can zoom in and out of a slide with the F3 and F6 buttons. You can also enable an on-screen cursor and move it around with the directional buttons. Of course, you can advance through your presentation slides with the remote as well. It's very nifty in concept. Execution isn't quite as good, however.
Perhaps this is simply an issue with my Jornada 560, but in order for the remote to work, I had to hold it VERY close (within a few inches) of the IR port on the Jornada. Given that the IR port is on the top of the unit right next to where the Voyager cable is coming out, the range of locations from which the remote would work was seriously limited. This also generally requires the Jornada to be upside down in relation to me, in order to line up the IR port with the remote, making speaker notes on the Jornada's display impossible to read. It's possible, though, that other Pocket PC models would have better results than I did, and the remote still scores very high on the coolness scale.
Figure 9: The remote control
Figure 10: The remote control next to my Jornada for size comparison
Specs
- OS support for Windows CE 3.0 PocketPC 2000, PocketPC 2002, HPC 2000, Windows CE.net
- VGA, SVGA, wide VGA and XGA support with HD15 VGA connector
- NTSC and PAL TV-Out support with S-video or composite
- Output to VGA monitors, projectors or televisions
- Output orientation, centering and image enlargement
- CF Type I card
- PCMCIA Type II to CF type I adapter included
- Voyager Remote and Software included
- Westtek ClearVue Suite included
- Voyager Shadow software - mirrors handheld's LCD image to Voyager-connected display
- Combination cable with HD15, S-video and RCA connectors, length: 3ft or 900mm
Where to buy
The Voyager is available from the Pocket PC Thoughts Mobile Planet affiliate store for $149.95 US.
Gotchas
I encountered no serious problems with the Voyager. A couple of minor annoyances with the installation of the software and a less than satisfactory performance of the remote control were about it.
Conclusions
If you make presentations on a regular basis and would like your Pocket PC to provide assistance, then the Colorgraphic Voyager is definitely for you! The combination of hardware and software provide an excellent manner in which to turn your Pocket PC into a terrific portable presentation aide.
