AVerEPack 300, Version 1.0

AVerEPack 300, Version 1.0

Slide show presentations, particularly in Microsoft PowerPoint are becoming so common that a lawyer ignores the need to be conversant in slide show software at the peril of losing business.

While preparing a slide show is similar to creating art, the execution of a slide show often presents a number of practical problems. Unless you have an assistant attuned to your style of presentation, you can’t stray far from your laptop to advance the slides.

Enter the AVerEPack 300, a nifty little device that frees you from being at the mercy of a laptop. Roughly the size of videotape, the AVerEPack enables you to do a basic slide show without your laptop, but rather on a television monitor, a VGA (Video Graphics Adapter) monitor or a VGA projector. Best of all, it comes with a remote, so you can advance the slides without being chained to the podium and the computer.

The device translates your PowerPoint 2000 slide show into a series of visual images. Using the software that accompanies the AVerEPack, you can download a converted PowerPoint presentation from your computer to the device, which then stores the converted file on a flash memory card. You also can store as many slide shows as will fit on a flash card, making it easy to swap out the flash cards for different presentations.

Although I can’t figure out why you would want to, the AVerEPack and its software permit you to insert or delete the slides in the presentation. This type of activity is better handled in PowerPoint, but you can do it on the computer and live on the screen on the AVerEPack.

Conversion between PowerPoint files and EPack is easy and painless. One click transforms a PowerPoint 2000 presentation into a series of images, which are easily transferred to the device. Earlier versions of PowerPoint also can be used, although the conversion is a bit more complex.

Once the slide show is transferred, the EPack has an impressive array of features, including the ability to zoom in and out of different areas of the slides (this is useful for mixed slides where you want to magnify a chart or graphic) and the ability to shade out portions of the slide and other special effects that are not available on most versions of PowerPoint.

Timed advances of the slides also are available. As is, a timer lets you know how much time you have remaining in a presentation.

Best of all, you can control the special effects and the slides from a remote control, which is about the size of a standard television remote. Since it’s an infrared device, you have to be in visible range of the unit, but it does free you from the podium.

With so many good things to say about the unit, it seems churlish to complain about some of its limitations. Special effects are not available because each slide gets transformed into a JPEG or similar graphic image. You are not able to have fades.

There are ways around the problem, but these workarounds require additional slides to accomplish what PowerPoint can do seamlessly.

You also have to set the dual inline package (DIP) switches depending on the type of device you use. The instructions in the manual and on the bottom of the device are not clear about how to set the DIPs.

I had quite a bit of trouble figuring out the proper configuration for my VGA monitor.

The help files on the software also are rather rudimentary and are oriented toward the software, not the hardware. A phone number for technical support seemed to be omitted in both the help files and the printed manual, although the company Web site was easy to navigate for the correct answers and technical support.

Once I found the phone number, the support was extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

The help menus also lack troubleshooting entries, a particularly irksome omission I hope the company will remedy in the next version.

Other minor complaints are the lack of support for Windows NT and an occasional inability to handle extremely large files. (It choked on a 600K PowerPoint file with 120 slides.)

You will also need your own parallel cable (male to female, not male to centronics) if you want to connect your computer through the parallel port. A Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable is provided, as are the appropriate adaptors for television attachments.

If you are connecting to a VGA projector, you will also need to provide your own VGA cable.

While the company still has room for improvement on this device, it was a pleasure attaching it to both a television set and an old VGA monitor and wandering around the room while changing the slides with the remote. If your slides are straightforward (no animated GIFs or complicated fades), the AVerEPack is an effective substitute for running your slide show.

AVerMedia Technologies Inc.
www.aver.com
(408) 263-3828

Win 95/98/ME/2000 (no NT support; no parallel port support in Windows 2000, no USB support in Windows 95)

Price: $249.99.

Reviewed by Joe Hartley, a civil trial lawyer in Santa Monica, Calif.

Aug/Sep '01 Issue

PROS
Compact, portable, ability to roam using remote to advance slides, easy to use with variable media.

CONS
DIP switches need to be set depending on media used, can’t use with Windows NT, no special effects, some problems with extremely large files, weak help menus.

VERDICT
Definitely a plus if you are giving similar presentations frequently. Although not as powerful as PowerPoint, it’s considerably easier to use. Recommended.