defii

Hello, I'm looking at the July 2003 edition of Pocket PC Magazine. There is an ad for a company called LifeView Inc., selling a CF card called FlyPresenter. It is supposed to "project the contents of your Pocket PC's LCD screen onto an external projector, monitor, or television."

Has anyone reviewed this item? I just ordered a CF from Dell that includes cables, PowerPoint converter, remote control etc for $199. I can't figure if the two products are the same. If anyone knows, please advise.

Thanks.

oymd

Aloha to all..!!

I'm in the market for the same card...well...
there are 3 cards that do the trick...

1.The MARGI one $199....this one is reviewed here..

2.The IA PresenterTM CF VGA Card ...$99..:crooked: reviewed at Pocket PC thoughts

3.The FlyPresenter CF card for $119


Now can someone point out to me why the IA card is a whole $100 CHEAPER than the MARGI??!!!

tgreenstein

Quote:

Originally posted by defii I just ordered a CF from Dell that includes cables, PowerPoint converter, remote control etc for $199. I can't figure if the two products are the same. If anyone knows, please advise. Thanks.

I'm pretty sure that Dell sells the Margi unit.

I've been looking for some time, but have been unable to locate a review of the FlyPresenter. Spec-wise it looks pretty interesting.

__________________
Ted.

oymd

Quote:

Originally posted by oymd Aloha to all..!! I'm in the market for the same card...well... there are 3 cards that do the trick... 1.The MARGI one $199....this one is reviewed here.. 2.The IA PresenterTM CF VGA Card ...$99..:crooked: reviewed at Pocket PC thoughts 3.The FlyPresenter CF card for $119 Now can someone point out to me why the IA card is a whole $100 CHEAPER than the MARGI??!!!

ummmm:rolling: ..found another one...

ColorGraphic's Voyager VGA CompactFlash ....$149.reviewed at http://www.pocketpclife.co.uk

tgreenstein

Quote:

Originally posted by oymd Now can someone point out to me why the IA card is a whole $100 CHEAPER than the MARGI??!!!

The review on PC Thoughts says the range of the remote is only 3-4 FEET. I don't know about anybody else, but that limitation alone eliminates the IA unit from my consideration. When I'm presenting on the road I rarely have much control over the physical layout of the room, and even with a few feet of cable coming from the projector I don't think the IA unit would offer enough flexibility. Other than that, the IA unit sounds o.k.

__________________
Ted.

cageyjames

Here JakeRich's review of Margi Presenter-to-go

cageyjames

Quote:

Originally posted by tgreenstein The review on PC Thoughts says the range of the remote is only 3-4 FEET. I don't know about anybody else, but that limitation alone eliminates the IA unit from my consideration. When I'm presenting on the road I rarely have much control over the physical layout of the room, and even with a few feet of cable coming from the projector I don't think the IA unit would offer enough flexibility. Other than that, the IA unit sounds o.k.

According to JakeRich...

Quote:

. I backed away over 50 feet and it was still perfectly reliable in signaling the Axim. With this range you can be in front of your audience with the Axim at the back of the room and still control the show. The IR receiver is built into the Presenter-to-go card, not using the Axim’s IR port at all.

oymd

Quote:

Originally posted by cageyjames According to JakeRich...

U see...now we're getting somewhere.....

In POCKETPCTHOUGHT'S review...they said the range was "3-4 feet!!"....that's because the IA presenter relys on the PDA's IR port!!!

Now that guy was using an HP jornada.....:crooked: ...bearing in mind the POOR performance of the Axim's IR..that would worsen the range even MORE....

But from what you say....the MARGI has a SEPARATE IR port and doesnt depend on the PDA's IR...guess that explains the price difference...


Any OTHER differences??

oymd

another card.....what the heck...seems they are all basically the same....except for the MARGI one??

ProLink 1024 X 768 Video Compact Flash Card @ http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=PK203

ikehiker

The website for FlyPresenter says their remote works from 3-4 meters (10-12 feet). The fact that it relies on the PDA's port isn't an issue. The Dell has poor range for transmission but I suspect can receive as well as any other IR receiver. In fact, the few times I've played with my Axim's IR, I was always able to see the other computer/PDA even if they did not respond to what I was sending. In any case, most of the presentations I've given, I've been within a few feet of the laptop so I could use the keyboard when I needed to back up.

In any case, I wasn’t willing to spend $200 on the Margi but for $80 less, I decided to go for it (I haven’t bought any new toys for a couple of months). I just ordered one! I wasn’t willing to pay an extra $24 for the fast shipping when I really don’t have an immediate use for the thing, but I’ll post a review once I’ve had a chance to play with it if no one beats me to it.

__________________
-Ike-

oymd

yeah...a review would be quiet interesting.....!!!

jaja_75

" The LifeView FlyPresenter CF is currently the best card to play video with PocketTV, for several reasons:

1) It has a special API that allows a much speed when displaying video (i.e. higher fps).

2) It is capable of zooming video so that 320x240 size is displayed fullscreen with a very high fps.

With all the other cards, when you play at Nominal size, the video will be displayed small in a larger black screen. You can choose the "Fill Screen" option under "tools>Options>Size", but this will cause the video to be scaled by software and this is VERY slow (goes form 10 fps at Nominal size to 2 fps when scaled).

3) PocketTV Enterprise Edition (a $50 value) is FREE to owners of LifeView FlyPresenter VGA CF Card. It will be bundled on a CDROM with the FlyPresenter, but if you already have a FlyPresenter, you can download PocketTV Enterprise Edition 0.9.15 or later and use it without having to purchase it. Just do a soft reset, insert the FlyPresenter card (the FlyPresenter driver must have been be installed before) and run PocketTV Pro, it will recognize the FlyPresenter card and unlock itself.

To watch video on a VGA card with PocketTV:

1) first you should select the video mode. To do that, you should generally run the "Mirror" or "Shadow" application coming with the card, and select a video mode. Best results are generally obtained when you select the 64k color mode that has the lowest resolution. In general the lowest resolution is 640x480, but sometimes it may be lower.

2) Exit the "Mirror" or "Shadow" application. This is important, since you don't want this application to use the VGA card while playing video with PocketTV.

3) Start PocketTV Pro and select the VGA Card in tools>Options>Fullscreen.

4) To switch between normal display and VGA display, just tap on the Pocket PC screen."

http://discussion.brighthand.com/sho...threadid=75721

godotnut

If someone reading this has actually used the Flypresenter to project a movie or cartoon onto their TV, could you please let me know the results? Was the quality watchable? Was it "blocky"? Is this something one might do at home, rather than just using the Flypresenter for business or teaching purposes?

Personally, I'm saving up to buy one so that I can use my Ax to organize good presentations for the class I teach (American lit). It just occured to me that I might want to use it also to watch the Southpark cartoons I've formatted for PPC and watch right now using PocketMVP on the small screen. So far, I haven't wanted to watch a whole movie on my Ax, but maybe with the Flypresenter--but I'm having my doubts about the quality if projected onto a larger screen--any thoughts?

webbahboy

About reviews....aximsite user numsquat informs us in another thread that he is preparing to review three different VGA cards at PDA AVENUE I think there is a delay in it, as I haven't seen it yet...

I myself bought an FlyPresenter-CF. Try a search in the forums under FlyPresenter or PowerPoint to find my comments.

I bought the product to use for presentations to TV, as a lot of the folks I work with don't have LCD projectors. The TV output is a major difference between this card and the Margi card. The IA Presenter and Colorgraphics cards offer output to TV as well.

To correct a previous post....The FlyPresenter DOES NOT use the Pocket PC's infrared port -- the IA PRESENTER does. The simple, pen-like remote for the FlyPresenter is amazing. I have stood all the way across a large room and found it worked fine. There is a bubble window on the graphics card that receives the infrared. The controls are simple -- forward and backward...and the other side of the remote has a laser pointer. The IA Presenter card includes greater control over the presentation from the remote, but is limited by the range as noted.

I haven't tried the PocketTV option - haven't found use for that.

I returned my first FlyPresenter to the EXTREMELY helpful Lifeview support staff, as I was having problems with the VGA output to Monitor/LCD. However, when they tested it, it worked fine. It appears that it was just a matter of tweaking some settings in the Lifeview Shadow program that comes with the unit.

I am quite happy with it, especially for the price.

vettenet

I had to eat some crow for ordering this one, but my wife has shown her self to be quite understanding of my geeky ways and the resulting purchases.

The FlyPresenter caught my attention about a week ago. The software seemed very capable (Licensed IA Presenter is on the Dell Axim CD), the IR remote w/ laser pointer is cool, and the 3 different video out options sealed the deal. At $120 plus $12 US for shipping to Canada (UPS Ground...still waiting - expected to be 10-12 days total), I ordered one. ;)

I'll give it a run next week after I get it.