On this page, we review EZ View, a simple solution to the problem of hooking up your laptop to an HD TV
What is EZ View?
It’s a rather nifty solution that gets your PC screen to appear on your HD TV set. Uses for this include:
- Playback of PC videos (YouTube, DVD, camcorder) on your TV
- Playback of online video services from your computer (BBC iPlayer, 4oD player, Sky Go, etc)
- PowerPoint presentations from your laptop wirelessly.
- Sharing music, video, photos and documents without wires
How does EZ View work?
EZ View is easy to set up, and transmits HD video and sound to a TV set. Here are the installation steps:
- Install the supplied EZ View software onto your laptop
- Plug the USB dongle into your laptop
- Plug the receiver into your TV’s HDMI socket
The dongle transmits sound and video from your computer wirelessly to the receiver, and this appears on the TV via the telly’s HDMI input.
It works up to a maximum of 30 feet (10 metres) at 720p HD to a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
EZ View – UK AvailabilityYou can buy the EZ View Laptop to TV kit from the following places:
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EZ View Review
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve needed to hook up a laptop to a projector or a TV set over the years. Normally, this involves running a cable from the laptop’s VGA screen out into another VGA socket, or using a converter to connect to a series of phono plugs. That’d get the video working, and then it’s a case of hooking up a lead from the computer soundcard to take care of the audio.
This nifty solution from EZAir makes things a whole lot easier. Using a USB dongle and the supplied software, you can transmit video and audio to a TV set up to 30 feet away. No cables to run and no need to deal with the audio separately.
Keen to try this out, we unpacked the EZ View kit and started by installing the software. The software, supplied on CD, runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, and installed without problems. Next, we plugged in one of the two USB dongles into the laptop – The transmitter has a 90 degree bend to allow it sit upright in the laptop’s USB socket.
EZ View USB Transmitter
Next, the second USB adapter slots into the receiver base unit, the HDMI lead connects from receiver to TV, and the mains plug goes into the base unit.
We switched on the telly, selected the HDMI input, and there was our laptop’s screen. First thing we noticed was that the laptop screen didn’t fill the screen correctly, but this was soon traced to a telly issue, where the telly was set to only display HDMI at a certain ratio. Once sorted, all was good, and the feed from the laptop was excellent. No fuzz or ghosting (sometimes found with a VGA connection), and no nasty lag when playing back 720p HD video from the laptop.
Mirroring a laptop’s screen onto a TV with EZView
The software has a couple of handy options that allow you to fine-tune things – you can set the TV to act as a second monitor (effectively giving you two desktop screens), and you can also opt to use the TV as the main monitor, blank the laptop screen or mirror the same output onto both the TV and the laptop.
You can also rotate the screen and if watching HD video, use an “Optimise for Video” setting to get best performance. The Advanced option allows you to take control of aspect ratio and screen size if needed. Here’s a screenshot of the options available from the EZ View control panel:
EZ View Software Control Panel
If your telly doesn’t have an HDMI socket, or you need to connect in a different way, the receiver also has a standard VGA socket (for video) and a 3.5mm audio headphone socket. This could be handy for connecting to an overhead projector as opposed to a TV, and the audio socket could also come in handy for transmitting just audio from your laptop, perhaps to feed music into a hi-fi system.
EZ View Base Unit with HDMI, VGA and 3.5mm audio connectors
Specification:
- Resolution: 720p HD – Maximum of 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Range: Max 30 feet / 10 metres
- Runs on: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
- PC Spec: 1.6GHz CPU, 512MB RAM (1GB for Vista / Win 7)
Supplied with EZ View:
The EZ View Wireless Laptop to HDTV Kit is supplied with the following:
- USB Dongle – Transmitter for laptop
- EZ View Adapter (USB dongle and base unit) – Receiver for TV
- Software CD
- HDMI lead
- User Manual
- Mains adapter for base unit (5V DC) – UK, Euro and US connectors
What’s supplied with the EZ View Kit
Summary:
For us, this just worked. Video quality’s great, setup was easy, and we’ve tested on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 with no problems. We tried on our slightly old Asus 701 netbook, and were told that the PC didn’t meet the minimum spec, which was expected.
We’re happy to recommend this product as an easy-to-use way to show PC video on your HDTV. For us, it actually came in handy when one of our team needed to run through a demo of how to use Adobe Audition as part of a training presentation. The product’s billed as a way to watch HD video on your TV (hence it’s inclusion on this site), but it’s also really handy for business presentations, training sessions and the teaching environment (where leads can be a pain)
A nifty product that gets the job done well. More details, and a tool to check if your hardware is compatible, can be found at www.ezairwireless.com
EZ View FAQ
- The EZ View kit is DisplayLink certified
Got a question? Let us know
