DP KVM - First Impressions, and some minor "issues"

[Mmike87]

Just setup my 2pc/2dp level one tech KVM. First, some background:

I work from home, and have a nice desktop home/gaming PC with a 4k,144hz monitor and a 27" 1440 monitor. I have BYOD laptop I use for work, and I was originally hooking up the Thunderbolt dock of the laptop to HDML on my 4k ViewSonic Elite monitor, and using the monitor joystick and a $20 USB switcher from Amazon (which worked fantastic, BTW). However, despite the high-end nature of the monitor, the little joystick used to change monitor setting and inputs just doesn’t feel like it’s going to hold up with 20 or 30 switches a day for years to come.

I have tried other KVM switches, and none seemed to work for a 4k gaming monitor at anything higher than 60hz. Until now!

So far, this is working really well for my Display Port 1.4 connections. I moved the laptop dock from HDMI to DP, and I can switch back and forth, and everything seems to work. Once when powering up the laptop from a shutdown, it saw the 4k monitor as a 640x480 - I had to disconnect and reconnect the dock. I don’t think this is an issue with the KVM - the Dell dock is finicky as hell.

However, the monitor disconnection issue is pretty annoying. I read on this forum from 2019 that L1T was working on a device to fake-out the monitor input to make the PC think the display was still connected. Did this ever come to fruition? Amazon has some devices, with mixed reviews, and none seemed to support 4k at 120/144Hz at all.

I am looking at DisplayFusion as a software solution to at least restore window locations. It’s $50 for a lifetime license, multiple computers. It seems promising, but I am still messing with it.

Does anyone know of a hardware solution to this? It blows my mind that switching between monitors has become such an issue - these days, it’s no longer an edge case IMO, and I would think there would be better support.

Open to suggestions. Otherwise, so far the L1T KVM seems to be doing exactly what it said it would do. I have a three-key, HID compatible keypad for $18 coming tomorrow to use for swithcing, as my Keychron keyboard doesn’t work (not surprised there) plugged into that port. It was funny, as the keypad had two reviews, and one of them was a guy who bought it specifically for use with him L1T KVM switch!

I had HDR enabled on the 4k display, but sometimes when I switch back, the display is washed out. I can fix it by re-enabling HDR … I suspect this is a Windows thing, given HDR in Windows is a train wreck. I’ll disable HDR for now, and I can always enable it manually if there is ever a game with good HDR support.

Thanks.

EDIT: I just saw the " DP Repeater + HDMI Splitter" which apparently is also an EDID cloner. However, the picture shows it works for 4k/60Hz so I dont’ think that will work, and I’d need two.

DisplayFusion continues to look promising … I’ll post here with some more info after a couple of days in the trial, with some setup instructions if anyone is interested.

[Mmike87]

Some updates … the little keyboard works great in the HID port to switch the KVM.

Amazon.com: GOWENIC Mini Programmable Keypad, 3 Keys Macro Mechanical Keyboard...

I programmed the left key as Left Control, and the other two as “1” and “2” - and it just works.

Some observations:

1. I had a passive USB hub plugged into the output of the KVM, with the keyboard, mouse, camera and Steel Series headset plugged into it. It worked most of the time, but sometimes the keyboard or mouse would not connect, and the camera would not work at all - even if I moved it the other rear port on the KVM. With the camera plugged into the front of the KVM, it worked fine. I assumed the unpowered hub was the culprit, and just plugged the kb, mouse, and camera directly into the KVM. So far, so good … I plugged the Steel Series headset just directly into my desktop PC.
2. The disconnecting monitors is a real PITA. The DisplayFusion software is installed (trial) on both the laptop and PC, and it restores the window positions sometimes … and when it does, it’s slow doing so. I think I will keep using it for the trial duration and see if I can improve its performance while looking for another option.

[fphredd]

Also interested in the ‘disconnect issue.’ My old Dell 38" ultrawide had a built in KVM that handled this. Upgraded to an Alienware widescreen, unfortunately no built in KVM, so here I am not able to use the same workflow as before. This way, it’s too much user interaction as my laptop locks every time it disconnects and I need to login again.
Any solutions on the way? Will the USB-C version solve this with a lightning cable (Ik, I’m reaching here). Thanks

[Mmike87]

I have identified some open-source / free stuff that may do a better job of restoring the window positions … I am going to try them this weekend.

[wendell]

Wi dows 11 has a built in tbing to not move windows

Windows 10 give the persistent windows utility a try

[riceaddict]

What was the free stuff that you tried @Mmike87 ? Did it improve the performance at all? I know Microsoft released PowerToys (link was blocked ) that will allow snap-to-sections for different windows. That’s worked well for me in my current set up (dual 24" 1080p, 60Hz work monitors).

I’m looking for an Ultrawide Monitor similar to your specs (4k, 144Hz, etc) and want to make sure that when I get it that the KVM is compatible without too many hiccups.

[Mmike87]

I tried several, but Persistent Windows, that Wendell suggested above, seems best. Just Google it, it’s open source. It takes a few seconds to restore them … But I don’t think it’s the program I think that it just takes Windows a little bit of time to move and resize all the windows and it can only do one at a time.

When I get some time I’m going to dive into the code and see if there’s any optimizations in there, but it’s free and it seems to do a pretty good job of restoring the windows so their locations.