The L1 Dual Monitor 1.4 DP KVM Switch came in a few days ago. I just installed the thing into my work/personal computer setup and noticed a something I was hoping to talk to someone about.
I noticed the monitors disconnect whenever switching between the two computers. I was under the impression that the “EDID Engine” feature would help keep window position between display switches. I saw a conversation over the same issue in a previous L1 forum thread back in mid-2019 and hoped the feature would have rolled out by now (about “holding” window position). I also noticed that there was some consderable time switching from PC2 to PC1.
This was an issue I was hoping wouldn’t come up with a switch of such high calibre. It’s been noted that L1’s KVMs are pretty much top of the line, so I figured this wouldn’t be happening, especially considering how I can get a different KVM with seemingly just as many features at half the price.
No phantom monitor mode. Covered in the video too. Edid here is to speed up hdcp rekey so it doesn’t take so long to switch inputs.
You could get a Level1Techs repeater for phantom monitor functions at around $100 each but then you lose freesync/gsync.
What KVm is half price for same features? Last I checked we were cheaper than crappier KVMs. The connect pro one costs more and doesn’t work as well for gsync/freesync certainly. Though it does have some kind of monitor emulation feature. I was worried about it til the # people wrote in thanking me for the l1 KVMs after trying that one.
KVMs are hard. It’s pick your feature set and downsides.
On windows you CAN set your display unplugged res to match your native res but this only works if your primary monitor is on the left.
There is not currently a chipset that handles high refresh and gsync and phantom monitors well imho. I’ve been working on it for years though.
best way to minimize switching time is to make sure resolution, refresh and sub timings match between computers. e.g. 59/60hz, front porch, vsync positive or negative polarity, etc. if they match it’ll switch a little quicker. should be on the order of 2-3 seconds in most scenarios.
I’m having a similar issue and didn’t want to start a whole new thread - dual monitor setup, but each time I navigate away from then back to one of my PC’s, the monitors mirror each other again.
My setup has two nearly-identical PC’s which both:
run Ubuntu 18.04
use NVIDIA Quadro graphics card (forget which specifically, but it’s mid-tier as of 2017)
use NVIDIA’s 460 graphics driver
6-foot mini-DP to DP cable connecting to KVM
Monitors:
4K UHD, 24Hz refresh rate
15-foot DP cables
For what it’s worth, I didn’t have this issue when I was using older monitors (1080p) with 6-foot HDMI cables and HDMI-DP adapters. Using the same shorter cables and new monitors still exhibits the “reset” behavior.
@wendell do you have any recommendations? All I really care for in the end is that the EDID info is saved and used, even if it requires adding to the system. You mentioned repeaters, would these solve my issue? You also mentioned changing unplugged resolution though for Windows not for Linux…
No repeater in the KVM. So if you are having a cabling issue, it’s like as if the monitor is the combined length of cables away from the video card as with one cable individually. Each part can work fine but since no repeater/booster in the kvm the combination of cables may not work.
Your issue might not be that, though. If things come back as a ‘mirror’ its probably a quadro display setting.
quadros, unlike geforce cards, can be told to ignore it when you switch inputs
I’d suggest saving the edid of each display and configuring the quadro to remember the display settings. That should clear it up as it prevents windows from even knowing you switched inputs on the kvm.