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(More customer reviews)Well, I bought one of these through Dell, and man, did I get burned; I paid close to $60 more with Dell than what's advertised here. I should have shopped around a bit more, sure, but it's just another very large nail in the coffin holding my loyalty to Dell.
But I digress.
From the start my intent was to use this product to connect a computer about ten feet across the room to a 47" LG flat-panel TV mounted on a fireplace chimney. I finally got it sorted out, but not in the way this product is intended or advertised. The video works great, and did right off the bat; the audio from this box does not integrate into my TV, and I've had to resort to using speakers connected to the computer itself, on the other side of the room.
First of all, the instruction manuals really are not very good. Despite Cables To Go being headquartered in lovely Moraine, Ohio, it's clear enough that the booklets are written and produced overseas; the text does not read well. A number of the pages in one of my books were still uncut at the top of the page, forcing me to cut it myself. The text just isn't very clear. There are two booklets, a quick start guide and a more detailed, comprehensive user guide. Well, the quick start guide is just the first few pages of the comprehensive guide, verbatim, except that the quick start guide's tiny, fuzzy, hard to read graphics are in color. So what's the point of including both of these booklets? Maybe that's the extra money I paid for this unit.
And there is no information whatsoever in either book about technical support. On the Cables To Go warranty statement page you get a single 1-800 phone number. Buried in the text is a customer service number, but this is only in the context of requesting an RMA number for defective products. There is no offer of technical or installation assistance with the unit, nothing directing the purchaser of this product to a help site or a phone number where questions can be answered. That's pretty lame.
My problem is that the box's output is a VGA out, and not an integrated yellow/red/white TV/audio right/audio left output and input. The VGA output went straight into my TV's VGA in, and worked great, without any display resolution problems from the PC, so that was no problem. The box's audio output, however, is a standard 3.5mm jack, which splits into red and white right/left audio inputs. Well, the TV only recognizes one input at a time, so there was no way to combine the audio input from the VGA in with the sound coming in through another input source. I never did get a peep of sound out of my TV. I ended up rigging speakers to the PC in the corner of the room, so while the PC display comes out of the TV in front of you, all matching sound comes from a far left corner; it's not the solution I wanted, but it's the best I can do (I did put a question in to LG via their website to ask them about this, and it's been days without a reply--thanks so much, LG).
Bottom line: I paid too much (through Dell) for a product that really has delivered on only half of its promised capability. My setup is working the way I intended it, more or less, but the way it's worked out has not impressed me with Cables To Go. I can't say I'll be buying more of their gear.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Cables To Go - TruLink Wireless USB to VGA With Integrated Audio Kit - 29598
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