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D**E
Exceeds my expectations so far
I only received this yesterday and have been experimenting since then. So far, this is better than hoped for replacing my aging, PS/2 and VGA-based Cybex SwitchView KVM. It does support my 1920x1080 resolution at 60 Hz and image quality is much better than the old SwitchView which suffered some ghosting. The included cables were too short for my needs so I ordered some 10 foot Amazon Basic ones for a reasonable price and they work fine as well. Both on-box buttons and keyboard hotkey (home, home, then 1 or 2 for the computer you want) work great. This box is solid and appears well made and while others have complained about the bright LEDs and beeps when switching, I guess I do not find either of these a problem. I do wish the case had 1 or 2 threaded holes on the sides so I could secure the box easily in place. But I am sure I can cobble together something that will work well enough. The unit does come with a small, 5V 1A external power supply. For grins since I was used to no external power on the SwitchView, I decided to try using this KVM without the external power. I have nothing save the keyboard/mouse connected, no USB devices to be shared. And so far the unit seems to run just fine without the external power. Wow! I do have my computers set to disable selective USB power sharing so this should keep some power coming to the unit from the computers and my main computer seems to send power even when turned off. So your results on this might vary. But nice if you can get away with it to reduce clutter and power usage. I am connected to my monitor's (with attached speakers) HDMI connector from the DVI ports on my video cards (they have no HDMI) via Amazon Basic DVI to HDMI adapters. Previously, I sent analog audio to the monitor with 3.5mm cable and there was no audio switching with the Cybex and VGA. I decided to see about sending HDMI audio through the DVI. This works but some effort may be needed depending on your video card. I have one nVidia card where it worked without my doing anything at all. I have another nVidia card where I had to make and install a small, 2-wire cable from the M/B SPDIF jumper to a jumper on the video card. I have an ATI card where this is still not working. But I believe this is because ATI requires its own DVI to HDMI adapter to do this and the generic one will not do the trick. It is pretty cool to be able to switch sound now along with video and keyboard/mouse. Overall, this has been more time and expense than I wanted. But the Cybex was giving up its ghost and I had to do something. So this unit is recommended (at least so far). I hope it lives for decades like my Cybex did. As a final note, I emailed the seller about my not using the included power supply and was warned that this might damage the chipset inside. So I am again back to using the power supply. I do wish it had a longer cord. Also wish to note how good/important the ability is to change the hotkey. By default you hit home twice in a row. I found that I often need to do this in my programmer's text editor and using the home key was a problem. It was easy to switch from home to num lock. Now not an issue at all!
G**B
Does exactly what it claims to do
I have two PCs side-by-side: one is my Linux server and the other is a general purpose Windows 10 machine, both are home built. I use the Linux machine as both a server as well as my astronomy image processing machine and the Windows machine is mainly for MSOffice work and an occasional FlightGear flight. I tried using LibreOffice on the Linux machine, as well as Windows virtual machines and while both methods will work fine, I'd rather work directly on a native Windows platform for certain things. If Libre was 100% compatible with MSOffice, I'd have stayed with it but since it isn't, I decided I had better stay compatible with the rest of the world.Which meant, until now, physically moving to the alternate machine, then back to the other to finish, or whatever. I also had been using NoMachine to work on the alternate machine (either direction) but that exposes you to software glitches, not that there many. And I freed up a keyboard, mouse and monitor! This little box works perfectly - the Linux PC is happy, the Windows PC is happy, and so am I. I just connected up the cables connected my Logitech Unifying receiver into the kybd port on the KVM and that was it - up and running. I did use my own HDMI cables since I didn't need the 5' length provided with the KVM. The hotkey was a bit confusing at first until I determined <Home><Home> meant literally depressing Home twice (it states it clearly in the pamphlet if I had actually bothered to read it - lol). Anyway, so far so good.
B**R
This one works like a charm
After reading many reviews and debating seriously which KVM switch to get, I finally settled on this one to switch between my docked work laptop and my personal desktop (2 Port KVM HDMI Model). After taking a few moments to plug in all the cables and run out for a display adapter (my fault entirely), it was up an running. No additional drivers. Literally plug and play.I have to say, I'm not disappointed in the slightest. I ended up needing to convert both hdmi ports to dvi and it had no effect on the performance of this switch.I can also say that the usb hub portion of this unit is fantastic. I ran a usb extension from the back of the unit so I could plug in a usb headphone. The headphones switch just like the rest of the unit with no issues. I had hoped this part would work, but didn't really expect it to since there's all sorts of issues that can crop up with usb headphones and normal usb hubs.There are mechanical switches under the front lights to physically switch the unit and there are keyboard commands available if you don't want to reach over. I've had no issues switching via either method and the buttons give a nice solid click so I imagine they will last some time (especially since the keyboard commands are what I prefer). There is also an AC adapter included to give the unit more juice for power hungry usb keyboards and such. I don't have a backlit keyboard so can't really speak on that functionality, but the unit can run off of pc supplied usb power if needed since I don't see any effect on my setup if I remove the AC adapter.Overall, very much a plug in play unit and I'm very happy with my purchase. Would highly recommend to anyone.
Trustpilot
3 days ago
1 month ago