Hey folks. I’m a happy user of an L1T KVM switch. I have a different use-case in that I want to swap my PC between sets of displays, without necessarily needing USB switching, and avoiding an explosion of devices or cost. I need high resolutions and refresh rates, and the second set of triple displays (for a sim rig) would likely need FIBBR cables due to distance.
If there are previous discussions on this, I’m sorry, I tried to search.
Is the L1T KVM bi-directional? If so, would that suffice? (Setting aside the $650 cost, of course, so I’d still want alternatives if possible).
If not, the only alternative I’ve seen so far is using a Bidirectional DisplayPort Switch/Splitter per port, of questionable or unknown efficacy, e.g.
If that’s the expectation, I will absolutely do that, just figured a specific topic would be better.
Sure, sorry it wasn’t clear! The typical KVM scenario is sharing one set of peripherals with multiple computers; in my case I want to swap my single PC between two sets of displays (two at a desk, three in a nearby gaming station) since I can’t drive them all at once and easily switch via software. By bi-directional, I mean the KVM doesn’t care what is a source and output, it just swaps the paths.
The displayport splitters I linked are listed as bidirectional, in that you can either split one input into two outputs or vice versa. I wonder if the L1T KVM behaves the same way, since it’s described as appearing effectively as a direct connection to the end device. Does that make sense?
My gut wants to say no, but since my understanding is that it’s just a passthrough then maybe? I’d probably have to wait for Wendel/Amber to reply to confirm though.
In theory though wouldn’t it be cheaper to just get a splitter to split the output of your PC to each instead of buying one of these KVMs to try acting as a splitter?
Are you referring to DisplayPort MST (i.e. one output from my GPU becomes multiple displays)? If so, I suppose now that I’m looking more closely [1], DP 1.4 hubs may be able to do 3x 3440x1440@120Hz, which could work for now. Though I have no idea what the behavior will be trying to drive either 5x monitors - or 3x I suppose if I can have the MST hub present itself as a single giant display - while switching stations. If not, can you clarify?
Ideally I’d have a solution that can handle 3x 4K displays at >120Hz (whether or not I can meaningfully drive that today). The only way I’d know to do that is effectively giving each display its own GPU output, which brings me to my current problem.
EDIT: I very much wish what BillBob described is/was a solution. Because as it stands today, with the way my room is set up, even connecting the GPU directly to the triple displays, I’d have to run 3 ~20 ft DP cables from the PC, and getting high res and refresh reliably may require expensive cables on top of that. My ideal world would be a single video/data cable to a little hub near the monitors.
Admittedly I’m not super experienced here, but my thought was to buy a Display Port splitter that supports SST. My understanding is that SST would let you duplicate a single source input into two or more duplicated outputs. Then you could use two monitors with only one output from your GPU. Granted this is only to duplicate the screen so you couldn’t use them as “extended”. MST would be needed for that.
Since you have 3 monitors on one set up and two on the other I’m not sure how to best set it up, but my thought would be take two of your output and connect them to two splitters in SST mode. This would let you duplicate 2 of your screens from the 3 monitor set up to your two monitor set up.
I believe your graphics card would still only see 3 monitors but you’d be displaying to 5 with 2 being the same image for each splitter. This unfortunately doesn’t solve the need to still run a long cable from the further monitors to the splitter, but hopefully would meet what you’re looking for?
That said I’m not having a lot of luck trying to find a SST splitter that does more than 4k120fps so what I’m describing might not exist for high refresh rate. The closet I can find that might work is this one
It looks like there’s a partial extended mode mirroring a second display for SST that’s supported for Macs [1], the distinction matters less in Windows where MST is supported. Maybe just semantics in the context of this discussion, but everything I’d plan to do is with MST*.
In any case, that seems like an interesting but strange setup. I don’t want to muddy the thread too much since I’m still hoping for input from Amber/Wendel regarding the KVM switches.
I don’t think any solution with mirroring is going to suffice (though I appreciate the research! that splitter looks quite similar to the one I linked in the OP). If nothing else, because the pairs of mirrored displays between the two groups of displays will likely not be identical.
* As an aside, the L1T KVM I use today is actually to use both my personal Windows PC and a Mac laptop on the same peripherals. There may be some unholy combination of SST Extended from the Mac to do multiple displays, in addition to the stuff we’re doing here to support my Windows use-case. But that’s so far into complexity I don’t even want to think about it haha.
i think ltt did something like this, had his pc on the basement and various displays in different locations (altough i think it was all mirrored). he used DP over fiber and icron dock for the usb. if you search for “my computer is everywhere + ltt” you’ll find the video or forum post
Thanks, I remember seeing that, and I refreshed myself on it now. While it would naturally be way overkill for 15-20 feet, it’s also not the best solution for display - even Linus uses DP over Fiber cables in addition to the USB over Fiber for the icron dock. I’m already considering DP over Fiber cables given even 16 feet is pushing it, just doesn’t solve the monitor swapping.
Closest I’ve done to what you describe is two sets of several monitors all connected simultaneously and swapped back and forth using monitor profiles in DisplayFusion. I would selectively offload rendering to my primary GPU when I was on the second set of screens.