Customer Reviews

IOGear Wireless USB Audio and Video Kit with Audio, VGA and Wireless USB Adapters GUWAVKIT (Grey)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I just moved from a house to an apartment and decided there should be a way to cancel cable and just watch Hulu on my 50" plasma for free. I researched online and found this product to have the highest customer rating, so I bought it. I spent an enlightening hour on the phone with their tech support, and here's some things you should know. My apartment is 740sq ft. My computer is located just around a corner and exactly 24 feet from my TV.
1st: the product WILL NOT WORK with Windows 7. They're working on the issue. Yeah, great.
2nd: when they say 30 foot max distance, they mean it and even that is stretching the truth.
3rd: when they don't say anything about REQUIRING a direct line of sight, they are omitting facts. I had to hold the USB piece in mid air with a direct line of sight to the TV and it still only had 2 orange bars (should have 5 green).
4th: other wireless devices WILL interfere with reception, even at different frequencies. The tech told me this. My wireless router was blamed for the choppy video coming across to the TV.

I even hooked it up to my netbook and placed it 12 feet from the TV-- video was still choppy. Bottom line, if you're looking to watch video from the internet on your TV wirelessly, you are ahead of your time. Maybe in a few years someone will figure it out. Iogear is not that someone. I returned for a refund, and Amazon was, as always, absolutely wonderful.

Quick and basic. I spent three days researching and testing wireless AV (and audio) devices. They ranged from complete failure to almost but not really. I then came across this (the most expensive) and bought it.... This one worked just as it should. It was a little complex for a novice to install (more so than I wanted for the boardroom hook-up I am using it for) than the others, BUT this one had good picture quality (steady and clean) as well as crisp audio. The USB hook-up is simple for our sales and marketing staff to use (once installed on the laptops).

Take time to read the advanced adjustment pages to get best out of it and you'll be poorer, but satisfied.

Spend the extra for this and save HOURS and HOURS of trying to get the others to work.

ONE BIG NOTE: not all of the wireless laptop/pc to LCD systems come with audio, this one does. Check them with care or be dissapointed.

Lastly, this only works with Windows XP and Vista. There is no Mac version. No word on Windows 7 yet.

Don't waste your time and money.
The video portion of it works 'ok'. (Good, not Great)
Very CPU intensive, even on a fairly new laptop. Couldn't do fullscreen.

Wasted one evening trying to get the audio receiver to 'sync' up with
the USB transmitter. Barely got it to work. (Laptop running XP).
The next days, it didn't work anymore.

Tried installing the whole thing on a different laptop. This time, on Vista.
Same damn thing. Video was 'ok', sound was not working. The audio receiver couldn't sync up.
Uninstalled everything. Reinstalled with the latest greatest drivers from iogear's website.
Absolutely no improvement. Read thru all the FAQ, Troubleshooting Guides, googled everything, etc...
Wasted three nights trying to set up that gizmo.... Packed up everything and sent it back.

BUY A SIMPLE GOOD OLD 25 VGA CABLE WITH AUDIO. It doesn't require any convoluted installation, no drivers,
no sound issues, takes 30 seconds to install and it will allow fullscreen display on your big screen TV....
$20 instead of $200.....

This product is a great idea, on paper, but unfortunately, this one from IOGear is not ready yet...

I bought this product from Best Buy so I could play online streamed material to my 50" Panasonic plasma TV (my 42" Panasonic didn't have a VGA port so I upgraded). The video on this thing sucks for motion pictures. The audio is not too bad.

I initially installed it on my Windows Vista laptop. But I figured maybe because it was a cheap Celeron processor and it only had Vista Basic that it may have been the laptop. Then I stalled it on my Windows XP desktop. It's not any better. The video is very disappointing.

I noticed the poor reception problems that people talked about. I only wanted it for the living room, so I didn't have that problem too much.

I was really disappointed. I really wanted this product to work. I guess I should just put my laptop by the TV and get a wireless mouse and keyboard instead.

I installed this device two weeks ago because my boss wanted to eliminate the mess of wires on the table during conference room presentations. This is the only device I found that would do this and deliver audio and video to the plasma TV. Setup on the HP Vista Business (32-bit) laptop was simple and quick. Software interface is very simple. Video playback is great for powerpoint and the likes, but movie playback has some slight jerkiness that would cause me to not use this for regular TV/movie viewing. Audio plays clear and syncs pretty well with the picture, but again, this is not for your home theater. For web browsing, streaming video, or standard office applications, this gadget is very nice, and you could use it for watching movies, but there are better choices for a permanent theater setup.

I will preface this review by saying that my goal is typically to eliminate wires and cords wherever possible. I recently bought a new all-in-one computer and all of my other peripherals (printer, external hard drive) are connected wirelessly. When I originally thought about buying this my entire goal was to try to minimize wires in my home. I live in an apartment and did not want cables running from my computer to my TV. However, the unit itself creates an entire mess of wires and power cords that I did not anticipate. Perhaps if I were using this for another function it would be ok but for what I want, a clean organized way to transmit from my computer to my TV this does not do it for me.

The unit came in about a week. When I opened it upI was pleasantly supprised at how small it was. I was planning on using it with my projector to watch movies and liked that it's size would not make it obvious. The ease of setting it up was a plus too, basically plug and play after the cd was inserted. Once all was said and done and I was ready to go I turned on my laptop and picked a video to sample. That's where my negative experience started. The sound was good, as it connected directly to my surround sound and there was no interference, but the video lagged. At first I thought something might have happened to the video so I just picked another one. The same thing happened again, and again and again. I was using windows media player, so I tried div-x player...same thing, tried vlp...same thing, roxio...same thing. Finally I called cust. support, which answered quickly. After trying to resolve the issue with tech suppport they suggested I send the unit back (at my expense) and they would send me a new one. They told me to fill out the form they were emailing and return it through amazon since I bought it there,but the email never came. I've been down this road before and decided it is okay for audio, just not video, so I didn't send it back.( Really not worth the problems) Do I think it's worth the money?...NO. My review/opinion...Do not buy this if you wish to watch videos. You will be ready to smash it after the 2nd or 3rd attempt. I'm still using hdmi cables until a more reliable solution is developed.

Ok I got this over in Iraq to eliminate plug use and cords everywhere. Well First off you are going to need a VGA gender changer (male to male) in order to plug this directly to your projector or will have to use a VGA cord. The sound is "ok" but still a bit choppy when transmitting (it is in Line of Sight no more than 2ft apart).
The bad- when you try to watch a movie ( I use VLC player) it is VERY choppy and stops. The only way to keep the video playing is to keep moving your computer mouse constantly.
The other bad- PLUGS
I didnt realize that after you sync it all - the audio transmitter - directly connected to your stereo, has to be plugged into a power source as well as the transmitter connected to your projector! Thats not really convienent considering alot of people have their projectors mounted to the cieling.
Overall its only good purpose is to be used as a wireless audio transmitter (you can find the IOgear Audio only is cheaper) but expect some choppiness.
Had I known of the quality of the video I would have splurged a bit more on a better quality.

Bought iogear video audio transmitter from Bestbuy. Couldn't get the sound to work. Talked to tech support. Downloaded drivers. Reinstalled. Took product back. Receiver was fifteen feet away and wouldn't work (audio).

Poor communication, poor image and bad sound. It makes the connection of devices but the quality of transmission is not the best, it affects a lot.