kvm recommendation

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dern
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kvm recommendation

Post by dern »

Hi, I'm looking for a specific kvm recommendation and can't find anything that fits my needs so thought I'd check if anyone had a similar setup...

The peripherals I want to share are...
- Monitor A = 4k monitor using an HDMI cable
- Monitor B = LG Dualup monitor using a USB-C cable
- USB hub with keyboard, mouse, camera and mic connected to it.

The two laptops are...
- Windows 11 gaming laptop with hdmi out, usb-c out for the monitor and usb-a to the hub
- Mac with hdmi out, usb-c out for the monitor and usb-b to the hub (I use another mini hub to convert this to usb-a and it seems to work but feels wrong)

I don't use the laptop screens at all.

The problem that I'm having is finding a switch that can switch the hdmi monitor connection and the usb-c monitor connections. I've never tried running the usb-c monitor through a hub as I don't have the appropriate adapters and I can't imagine it would do the quality/latency much good.

Thanks.
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Re: kvm recommendation

Post by Rockburner »

I got somewhat confused by all this a while back trying to run 2 Ubuntu laptops onto the same peripherals.

TBH I just use Remmina and RemoteDesktop to access one machine directly on the screen of the other. Does help that I have an ultra-wide monitor instead of duals so I don't need to mess about trying to get the remote machine's screen spread over 2 monitors. (it also helps that both are Linux so easier to config).

RDP or one of the other systems might allow you to do what you want if you need both machines running at the same time, but if you're turning one off to turn the other on... then it might be workable to just have 2 cables going into each monitor and a smaller (non-monitor) hub for the USBs which you can manually plug into the live machine?

I did try one of the cheap switchable hubs from amazon, but it was shite and never worked.
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Re: kvm recommendation

Post by dern »

I thing that the pc would have to be the one on all the time and route the mac through it if that would work. However the mac is silent and the pc sounds like a jet aircraft when it's doing any work so I'm not sure that that would work that well. I'll have a look though.

I thought about connecting both monitors up to both laptops but monitor source switching is a pain in the arse... I think one of the monitor only allows moving down the list of sources in one direction and it has 5 inputs... probably less annoying just to move the cable.

Cheers though.