Adding multiple displays to your PC with the USB to DVI High Res External Video Card
12/17/07 Update: The newest version of the driver (available here) now supports Windows Vista Aero effects. You do not need to do anything with your hardware - simply download and install this newest driver and you’ll be running Vista Aero on your additional displays in no time.
Note: We got a very interesting and informative comment from a representative of DisplayLink, which makes the chip in the USB to DVI external video card, explaining some crucial points of the USB to DVI’s capabilities:
- this page mentions a limit of displays up to 20″ - that’s not really true - it will support any display up to 1600×1200 or 1680×1050 (wide), regardless of the panel size. For instance, most 22″ panels these days are 1680×1050 and this resolution is compatible with this adapter.
- The big thing about our technology is its low-latency; that’s what DisplayLink does best. The USB connected display will feel like a DVI connected display in almost every respect, and it will get better quality than VGA especially at high resolutions. This isn’t anything like previous generations of USB to video products.
- Support for Vista Aero is coming soon - we have demonstrated this at WinHEC this year:
Special thanks to Jason at DisplayLink for the update. Hey Jason: any word on Mac compatibility? 
So, we love our new-found USB to DVI External Video Card. Well, the news just gets better and better and we’ve come to really appreciate her older sister (yes, design this brilliant deserves a feminine pronoun in personifying a PC adapter….), the USB to DVI High Res version.
The new addition boasts two big time features that the low-end model simply doesn’t have. First off, it obviously (by its name) supports a higher resolution, up to 1600×1200. This means you get a clear picture on any display up to 20 inches.
The second major difference between the low and high res versions is that the high resolution USB to DVI video card will let you use MULTIPLE adapters on a single computer. That’s right - you can add up to 5 additional displays from a computer with available USB ports. Sounds too cool to be true, right? It’s not. I tested it just this afternoon. And I even have photo-proof (you’ll have to trust me on this since I recognize it would be pretty easy to duplicate this scenario without actually driving displays via USB). Want to see?
Neat stuff, right? It’s a beautiful thing, too, since the USB to DVI high res is a pretty affordable solution at about $150/unit. (Compare that to the VTBook which retails at $230 and maxes out at 2 additional displays)
I was quite the skeptic regarding what it would actually be able to do when using multiple displays, but I was very impressed when I actually tested the adapters. I was able to do my regular work stuff, navigating between FireFox, Outlook, etc. while running (on the 3 monitors in the distance) an instance of Windows Media Player full screen at 1600×1200, a video in FLV player at full screen, and a YouTube video in FireFox. I was very impressed as all the videos ran fine. I’m not running a supercomputer either. This was all driven by a Dell Inspiron 9400 with 1 gig of RAM, an Intel Core2Duo @ 1.73 GHz.
The bottom line? Check out the USB External Video Card over at Sewell Direct.
This adapter would work well with a touch screen monitor as well.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Does this work on a MacbookPro?
October 30th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
No Mac compatibility *yet*, though we’ve been bugging the manufacturer about it and they say it’s “in the works.”
October 30th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
How does this power the screens does it have its own video ram in the device or does it allow for coprocessing with the already available video card in the machines. If so would you ever look into doing some sort of distributed video acceleration with the on board processors on these devices?
October 31st, 2007 at 10:12 am
@primate:
DVI doesn’t power the screens - they still require a 3rd party power source. This card is driven off USB power, so it’s just a single USB cable.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:27 am
Great Product!
However WUXGA would be the real killer, as most external displays are nowadays primarily available in widescreen.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:26 am
Does it support rotating the displays? I’m looking to run three LCDs rotated into portrait mode. Right now, I can only do two.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:37 am
when you are using the monitors attached via the usb graphics card, do you notice any lag when you are using them?
i have tired various usb graphics cards in order to have more than 1 external display when using my notebook. yet i have found every set up ive tried where the 2nd external monitor was attached via a usb graphics card has been accompanied with tremendous lag when trying to do every day things .
October 31st, 2007 at 1:21 pm
@Kyle:
Yes it does support rotating displays using the included software. It’s actually very simple: you click on an icon in your system tray, select which monitor to rotate, and select the rotation angle (90 deg clockwise, counterclockwise, or upside-down).
October 31st, 2007 at 1:23 pm
@Eric:
There is minimal lag when going from your initial display to a secondary display (run on the USB to DVI) but I really mean minimal. Right now, I drive a second display using a Belkin Express Card Docking station and there’s more lag on that one display than I experienced with the five displays I was running on this adapter. Honestly, I was very impressed with how fluidly I could drag windows from one screen to the next.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Does it support Aero interface?
October 31st, 2007 at 2:54 pm
It does not support Aero at this time - when you use the display it ceases the Aero interface until you unplug it.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:04 pm
[…] [Via SewellSupport] […]
October 31st, 2007 at 7:19 pm
[…] La compañía Sewell ha lanzado a la venta un producto análogo con salida DVI y soporte UXGA, a diferencia de otros productos similares el sewell puede alcanzar una resolucion de hasta 1600 x 1200 pixels, dentro de la diminuta cajita plastica de la fotografia se alojan 256 Mb de RAM. El Sewell es compatible con hasta 6 monitores simultanea mente, eso si necesitaras los respectivos adaptadores para cada una. Este dispositivo se conecta directamente al puerto USB, y realmente es un invento útil para todas aquellas personas que trabajan con mas de una pantalla, tiene un coste aproximado a los 150 dolares e incluye un adaptador DVi a VGA para aquellos que necesiten conectar dispositivos con otra entrada.Vía sewellsupport […]
November 1st, 2007 at 2:22 am
[…] [Via SewellSupport] […]
November 1st, 2007 at 2:41 am
Hi
Sounds great this device, my question is how long can the usb cable be before it will have a signal loss?
I like to connect a 19 inch display that I have left over and put this on a location thats about 8 meters away from the desktop.
Thx Riku
November 1st, 2007 at 2:47 am
BTW 8 meters is 315 inch
November 1st, 2007 at 4:03 am
USB specs say 5 meters tops but you can purchase active extenders just Google “USB extender”
November 1st, 2007 at 4:04 am
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November 1st, 2007 at 4:48 am
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November 1st, 2007 at 5:00 am
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November 1st, 2007 at 5:02 am
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November 1st, 2007 at 5:09 am
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November 1st, 2007 at 5:13 am
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November 1st, 2007 at 9:18 am
Hello everyone. I’m writing from DisplayLink, the folks who make the USB to DVI chip inside this Sewell dongle.
I just wanted to point out a few things:
- this page mentions a limit of displays up to 20″ - that’s not really true - it will support any display up to 1600×1200 or 1680×1050 (wide), regardless of the panel size. For instance, most 22″ panels these days are 1680×1050 and this resolution is compatible with this adapter.
- The big thing about our technology is its low-latency; that’s what DisplayLink does best. The USB connected display will feel like a DVI connected display in almost every respect, and it will get better quality than VGA especially at high resolutions. This isn’t anything like previous generations of USB to video products.
- Support for Vista Aero is coming soon - we have demonstrated this at WinHEC this year:
http://www.displaylink.com/news/news150507.htm
If you want to learn more, take a look over at http://www.displaylink.com.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:19 am
[…] Source: Sewell.com […]
November 1st, 2007 at 9:45 am
[…] The idea of driving a DVI or VGA display with a USB adapter isn’t new, but Sewell’s latest adapter seems to be fairly cheap and useful. Their adapter costs $119 and has 128MB RAM on board, which is then powered by USB ports from your computer to drive a 1600×1200 resolution monitor at the same time as your standard monitors. Sewell claims that these USB-driven monitors have the same quality as standard DVI monitors at displays of up to 20-inches. If you’re trying to power anything bigger, like a 22 or a 24-inch, you’re better off getting a new video card anyway. Unless you’re on a laptop, in which case you’re boned. [Sewell via Sewell] […]
November 1st, 2007 at 9:49 am
@Riku:
http://sewelldirect.com/usb2extensioncable.asp
A couple of these will cover the distance from your source to your display.
Either that, or you could run a longer DVI cable (I used a 16 foot (about 3 M) cable with it and it worked fine).
http://sewelldirect.com/DVIDMaletoDVIDMaleSingle16Foot.asp
November 1st, 2007 at 9:53 am
You guys are quick!
> Hey Jason: any word on Mac compatibility?
It’s in the works. We’ll have more to say on that soon.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I have a four year old Toshiba P3500 Tablet PC (Pentium 3, 1.33 GHZ Processor with 1G RAM). It’s drivers will not support a 1680×1050 Display. This device may be the trick- however, can I expect my CPU utilization to go “way up” or are the drivers nearly as efficient as the drivers for an internal display?
November 1st, 2007 at 1:41 pm
What’s the performance hit if I put this device on a USB 2.0 Hub with only other USB 2.0 Devices? (I only have two built-in USB 2.0 ports on my Laptop.)
November 1st, 2007 at 1:49 pm
@VH:
I personally haven’t tested this with a USB hub with other ports.
Also, it’s hard to say exactly what type of resource draining you’d see on your laptop. That being said, the system you described does meet the minimum requirements for hardware and we tested these in house with a 2 year old Dell Latitude D520 with 512 MB RAM and it ran just as smoothly as it did on a more high-performance machine.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:10 am
[…] spare, you’re in business. Well, after you cough up $149.95 to claim one for yourself, that is.[Via SewellSupport] Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsOffice Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum […]
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
does this work in linux? (ubuntu?)
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:04 pm
No Linux support yet. Sorry. We’ll keep you posted on updates, though.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:26 am
Would this adapter work with a 57″ projection tv with a dvi input?
This is the tv.
http://reviews.cnet.com/projection-tvs/hitachi-57s500/4505-6484_7-30521418.html
Thanks!
November 5th, 2007 at 11:33 am
@Brad:
Yes, that’s not a problem since 1600×1200 resolution will drive up to the TV equivalent of 1080p (basically the highest high res you can find).
November 6th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Any word on an HD version? I’m guessing there’s no possibility of this version doing 1920×1080. True?
November 6th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Everyone hints about gaming, no one will actually say it. Will one of these give my TC4200 the graphics it needs to run CAD software or play half-life, UT2004 and/or other FPS gamers with my son? In short, does it come with OpenGL? Aero is nice if you want eye candy, but if you’re going to do real work, you have to have some on-the-ground capability.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Do you have to use an adapter for each monitor, or can you use a dual DVI cable to split one adapter to 2 DVI monitors like with the VTBook?
November 13th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
I simply cannot get this thing to display 1680 x 1050. Sewell has shipped me two of these adapters now, and I have tried them on both a Windows XP machine and a Vista machine. No luck on either. The maximum allowed resolution is 1280 x 1024 even though I ordered the high res device and both packages are labeled as 1600 x 1200 DVI-I on the box. I even made sure Sewell sent me the high res version when they shipped the second adapter. What is going on?
November 14th, 2007 at 8:37 am
@Lewis
I recently installed the adapter on a Dell Latitude 830 running XP SP2. The adapter is working fine except There is no icon on my taskbar to rotate the display. DisplaylinkManager, Service, and UI are running in my Task Manager. My primary video card is an Nvidia Quadro.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
November 17th, 2007 at 3:38 am
I encountered the same problem of “no icon on my taskbar” when I installed the driver off of the installation CD.
I went ahead and uninstalled the driver, searched around a bit and found a link for an updated driver on the description/order page for the adapter.
That link is as follows: http://sewelldirect.com/drivers/SW-8601.zip
Once I had downloaded the zip file I then proceeded to read the ReleaseNote and discovered that the driver had been updated several times since the one on the CD and there was a direct reference to the the fact that the external display can be controlled via the DisplayLink GUI, accessible by the icon in the system tray.
Once I installed the updated driver, I was able to change settings on the fly and I am now able to toggle back and forth between regular and portrait mode, which rocks!
November 18th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I’m a complete frickin’ moron when it comes to the inner-workings of computers, what-have-you, but, along the same lines of this, and moreso specifically in respect to the NEWER, higher-end card…do any of you have any more recent knowledge of anything (in respect to hooking up the max amount of monitors to these things)…anyone else have anything to say that’s been coy in sharing their knowledge. I flip stock and need to watch a buttload of screens at once…bought a new Dell XPS 420 system and have thought about buying these USB/DVI adapters to utilize for 5/6 screens…for REAL TIME quotes, etc. PLEASE, anyone of you who intimately know anything more about these things or have an awesome guess as to what will happen, please write back…thank you! …otherwise, I’m just gonna get a POWER MAC, which may be my best choice anyway and just ‘play’ with my DELL!
November 19th, 2007 at 7:47 am
On the website, http://www.displaylink.com/news/news150507.htm, it is said that “the company’s technology allows any number of monitors to be connected to a single PC and function independently to display different content”. How to display different content?
November 19th, 2007 at 10:50 am
@Ray Brohinsky:
Didn’t have any CAD/CAM software to test with, but did try it with a half life demo (what a great excuse to “demo a game” at work, right?) and couldn’t get it to display. I wouldn’t say that outright rules out the possibility, but I couldn’t get it to run due to inability to run DirectX 9.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:53 am
@Mike:
I was driving 5 with an Inspiron 9400 (not a powerhouse by any means). A sixth screen is also reportedly possible, but we haven’t tested it here. That’s in the “to do queue.” Anyway - my professional “guess” is that you’d be very happy with the USB to DVI as a solution for 6 displays - I haven’t seen technology that makes it this easy to add this many displays that work seamlessly together.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
so, Lewis (and everyone else) THANK YOU ALL for writing back, but, Lewis, do I have to be some kinda rocket science major do figure out how to run this flawlessly or am I going to rather shove my body through a wood chipper and make myself mulch because I will be soooooo flippin’ aggravated trying to make this work??? …remember, I am a complete dope when it comes to this crap…completely clueless…trying to learn, however, clueless! I am NOT STUPID because I do well for myself, but, have honestly never taken the time to learn the ins/outs of the inner-workings of this stuff…don’t have a problem paying for it, but, it has to be easy, or, should I say, understandable!
November 21st, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Will this product work through a USB port on a docking station? I’m currently using a Targus Express Card docking station between my Dual-Core 2ghz Vista laptop and 22″ monitor via DVI port. Using a Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS 128mb card, the only prob im having is choppy and slow data transfer for Windows Media player clips and figured your product will help on this.
November 25th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Can I play strong game with this External video card………How many MB this External video card have? Please answer me quick, because i need it…… thanks you
November 26th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
@Mike,
I can’t picture anyone running their body through a wood chipper over technological frustrations, so maybe I’m not the right one to respond. This really is a simple device, though. I’ll give you the rundown:
You plug in the one end to your USB port.
You plug the other end into your monitor.
You install drivers (on a CD or available from our site)
Your computer sees it as an additional display.
I think it was super simple, but I’ve been using computers for a long time (I think I built my very own for the first time when I was 11 - it was a Christmas present).
If you get it though, just remember we have some friendly tech support guys here that are willing to help you before you go gassing up the chipper.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
@Flynn:
Just want to clarify… you’re running your current display through the docking station or you’d want to run the USB to DVI through a USB port on the docking station?
In all honesty, the performance will probably be similar to an internal video card if you’re just comparing it to your existing GeForce 8400, so it might not be the way to go for you.
However, if you’re using a DVI port on your docking station through ExpressCard, I think you’d be happy with the superior performance of the USB to DVI.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
@Nakata:
The card has 128 MB onboard RAM. It doesn’t support the most recent versions of DirectX at this time, so it might not run all games (we failed to get Half Life 2 to initialize on it, for example).
November 27th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Lewis,
My original thought was running the Sewell adapter between my docking station USB port and the external monitor,considering there’s a USB port on one end of the product and DVI port on the other. With your latter suggestion of using my docking station DVI port, where would the USB end of the Sewell adapter go?
Thanks!
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Hi,
This might be what I need.
I use a laptop max res 1280 X 800 from memory.
When I play a Hi Def movie I only have s-video and vga outs on the laptop so it inhibits the quality when sending to an LCD TV (32 inch).
So will this cable give me the option to play hi def files at 1600 X 1200 on the LCD TV vi dvi? (provided the tv supports 1600 X 1200)
And my existing video card has nothing to do with it?
December 14th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
If I am playing a DVD / BluRay / HD-DVD / using my HDTV ASTC tuner card and watching a program with the HDCP ‘broadcast’ copy protection flag set, will it still display full 1920 x 1080p @ 60 Hz through the USB-to-DVI converter into a High Definition Monitor? i.e., does it even look at the CP flag?
Is there any bandwidth limitation that causes it to cut-back the frame rate from 60p? 24p would be OK, as the monitor I have will interpolate the 24p frame rate to 48 / 72 / 96.
Does this device strictly playback the 8 bit per color DVI spec? Or will it allow for up to 16 bits per color of the newest HDMI 1.3a ‘deep color’ spec? (I can convert the DVI plug to an HDMI plug with an adapter.)
Will it playback the xv.color “wide color” gaumet permitted under he new HDMI 1.3a spec? (again, using a DVI-HDMI adapter.)
December 16th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
OK….I am one of the techless people in the world, my mind just does not work that way so what someone else finds easy, I could be entirely clueless….So….I have a machine that I have a dual card on now….can I use the two monitors I have now and add 4 more with with the USB to DVI and how many of these would I need? Someone told me only 2 and use splitters?….I was not real keen on this.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
@JM:
That’s correct - it doesn’t matter what your video card is capable of, so long as the system itself meets the minimum requirements (check the product page). Sorry for the delayed response - didn’t see it until now.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
@Ted:
You certainly can combine it with your current video out ports. If you need 4 different displays (each one would be viewed as an additional screen so you could drag a window from one screen to the next, to the next, etc.) then you need 4 different units. If you just need 2 displays as extended monitors but want to show the same thing on 2 additional displays (this is called mirroring), you can use 2 units and a video splitter. However, with what DVI splitters cost (like this one http://sewelldirect.com/Gefen-1×2-Single-HDMI-to-Dual-DVI-Splitter.asp) you’re really just better off getting an additional USB External Video Card.
Hope that helps.
December 18th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
[…] [Via SewellSupport] […]
January 4th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Will this “USB to DVI External Video Card, High Resolution” support 1440 x 900 widescreen?
Thanks…
January 4th, 2008 at 10:23 am
@Ron:
You certainly can.
January 4th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
nice…
January 6th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Hi. I just got a Gateway One. The video card doesn’t have the possibility of a 2nd monitor (which is quite annoying). I just want to play videos from my computer on my 37 inch Olevia. Before I got the new Gateway, I used the s-video output from my laptop and that worked fine for me. My question is whether this external card will do the trick? My Olevia has a VGA/Component on the back and I guess that I can use the Sewell that way. I only intend to use the 2nd monitor for video. I was looking at the Iogear external card and the reviews were not good for video. How does the Sewell work for videos on the 2nd monitor? Also how does the Sewell technology differ from Iogear? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
January 8th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Now, here’s my question - does this thing for sure actually support 1680×1050 or not?
January 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
@Jay Mack:
I tested the device at high def resolutions running divx videos and it looked good. maybe not quite the same as a “native” video card, but very watchable.
@Carter:
yes, it does support 1680×1050.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
how about mac support - there is a one line sentence on the displaylink web site that they are showing their ?mac?
mac unit at CES today!
January 8th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Thanks a bunch, Lewis! -Jay
January 8th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Thanks for the speedy answer, Lewis! I might not be picking one up right now, but in the near future, I will for sure.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Hi. The USB to DVI, High Resolution, 1600 x 1200 looks like it might solve my problem of connecting a Toshiba Satellite M70 laptop to my Panasonic plasma {TH42PZ77) HDTV: 1080p/1080i/720p. Can I simply use the converter plus a DVI to HDMI cable to connect to the HDTV? Is there a support site which deals with connection to HDTV’s?
Thanks!
January 15th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Same question as Brock - trying to connect my laptop to my new 46″ Toshiba LCD to watch NetFlix movies. Not sure if this device will work - or what the issues would be. I can use an HDMI cable or video-in cables. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
January 16th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I too would be greatly interested Linux support (Ubuntu). I’d even buy one for home and then introduce the device to our Linux users group.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:45 am
@Ed and Brock:
I haven’t tested this specifically with Netflix, but my guess is that it will work. I didn’t have any trouble running VLC media player, Windows Media Player, or the DivX video player on multiple displays (all at the same time, actually).
Regarding the TV size and resolution, high def is not a problem. A fun fact: 1080p basically refers to that second number in a *number* x *number* (eg. 1600×1200) resolution. So 1080p at a 16:9 ratio is basically just a 1920×1080 resolution. That works out to more pixels than the 1600×1200 advertised, but there may be some leeway in there. If nothing else, it would be able to drive it at 720p and I think you’d be pleasantly surprised.
@ Brian:
I know, I know. We’d like to see it too. For the time being, though, DisplayLink (who controls what happens with the drivers) doesn’t think there’s enough demand.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:06 am
[…] : found a usbtodvi that does 1600×1200 but it looks like it only supports windows. [ more info […]
February 1st, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I am looking into connecting the 1600X1200 External Video Card (when it arrives in Feb hopefully— from Sewell) to my new Win xp computer via a SATA cable. I have a USB to SATA converter cable that connects a USB cable to the SATA cable which goes directly to the motherboard. The idea is to utilize the dedicated port and high speed of SATA. Would the SATA from the motherboard be able to power the Display Link External Video Card as does a normal USB connection?
Also — if I abandon the above idea and do the normal set up with the USB cable/connection, how does it work in terms of 3 monitors concerning my onboard ATI Radeon Graphics card — which shows my 2 monitors in dualView– and now I am adding a 3rd monitor via the External Card? i.e. can I run two monitors via the ATI card simultaneously with the 3rd via External Card? — and will they all show up on a single ATI management screen where I can manage all three monitor settings? Or will I need to toggle between the ATI dualview 2 monitors and the software of the 3rd monitor to activate the curser on a screen?
Thanks for any help.
Dave
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:49 am
Any chances of this working on Windows Mobile devices? I’m looking for something that will allow me to connect my WM6 device (VX6800) to a projector for presentations.
February 4th, 2008 at 10:15 am
@Kevin: No plans for Windows Mobile just yet according to the last thing I heard from DisplayLink. Sorry.
February 7th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Would there be on problems with using this usbtodvi adapter with a Wyse V90 XPE thin-client and 21″ or 22″ flat panel monitor? We plan to display radiology images through the dvi interface. Will the screen rotation work to change from landscape to portrait work with XP embedded? (Driver issues?)
February 8th, 2008 at 11:22 am
@Randy: Currently there’s no XPe support, though DisplayLink says they hope to have it released by November 08. My experience with programmers in general is that you don’t hold them to any “set dates,” though.