Topic: Weather Display vs. VWS vs. Other Apps.

[lddaly]

My Davis VP2 has been up and running for a month now and I have been mostly happy with VWS. It seems like a majority of users here at WXForum are VWS users. I have been reading about Weather Display and am considering investing time in a trial. I would appreciate anyone who has experience with both applications and can provide a few pro's and con's for the 2. Is it worth my time to trial WD? Is there another app I should consider? Right now, I am only pushing data to wunderground, but plan on publishing to a website and adding a web cam.

Thanks in advance.

[saratogaWX]

For some strange reason, the link to Gary Oldham's reviews of major software packages is gone from the menubar,

But... you should try http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?action=reviews and see what he'd said.

There are a fair number of us who run all three (Weather-Display, WeatherLink and VWS) thanks to tinplate's great VirtualVP software for the Davis VP stations.

Best regards,
Ken

[kray1000]

Both Weather Display and Virtual Weather Station have their pros and cons.  Both programs are stable and still being actively developed.  Weather Display has a lot more features, uses less CPU resources, and offers stronger support.  VWS has a more intuitive user interface, produces prettier graphics output, and has a good website builder for your first weather Web site.

I actually run both at the same time, thanks to VirtualVP, which allows you to run up to 4 weather programs at once.  You could do the same thing... continue to run VWS while you try Weather Display.

Both VWS and WD will upload to web sites.  WD also supports webcams, although for that I use ImageSalsa, one of the many webcam software options available.

[George Richardson]

Kevin,

Why do you say VVP allows up to 4 weather programs at a time. I'm probably missing something but I thought VVP had slots for 8 programs?

lddaly,

I use VWS and not Weather Display but it is one of the few programs that I'm not familiar with that I would recommend. The support is fantastic. I would caution that you to check for the length of trial period and not download until you are sure you will have that amount of time to invest. The learning curve is steep and many have downloaded only to have other projects crowd their time and not evaluate sufficiently. The cost of WD is the same as VWS.

FWIW, there is a nice little (free) program called Cumulus from http://sandaysoft.com/ that you may enjoy.

I have come to the conclusion that Brian of WD fame is actually a 63 member team that all think alike and service their product jointly. It is the only way Brian could respond so quickly at any time of the day or night to the slighest whims of his customers!   By the same token, Steve of Sandaysoft claims to have a full time job and Cumulus is a hobby but his job must be a mattress tester 4 hours a day because the rest of the time he's supporting his programs' users!

FWIW

George

[ALITTLEweird1]

I have come to the conclusion that Brian of WD fame is actually a 63 member team that all think alike and service their product jointly. It is the only way Brian could respond so quickly at any time of the day or night to the slighest whims of his customers!  
George

How did you come up with 63 people?

[George Richardson]

I carefully analyzed  his signatures on his web site!

[Mark / Ohio]

Kevin,

Why do you say VVP allows up to 4 weather programs at a time. I'm probably missing something but I thought VVP had slots for 8 programs?...

True, four COM port and four TCP/IP connections.  Not all weather software has the TCP/IP capability though.

[lddaly]

Ken, Kevin, George - EXACTLY the type of feedback I was looking for. Thank you.

[CNYWeather]

I'm a sole WD user after some issues with VWS. Tremendous number
of guys who have made customization so so easy.