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Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

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Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#151

Post by alanbernstein »

balefrost wrote: post #137
alanbernstein wrote: post #136

I appreciate this question, I would also appreciate a solution, and the explanation of why it happens is interesting. However, what I really want is just to be able to switch the input via command line. I know that there is a protocol that supposedly allows this (ddc?), But it seems that support for it is not standardized. This means the feature I want can't be found in the product specs. So my question: what's a mon…

If you just need "switch using keyboard", not necessarily "switch using shell", some KVM switches allow input switching using keypresses. For mine, it's , though I think that can be customized.

Well, what I actually want to do is switch via my DIY macropad. My keyboard switch goes through that, without relying on any of the main computers. I had a cheap HDMI switch that worked the same way, but it just stopped working reliably after a month.

I sometimes want independent control of the keyboard switch and the monitor switch, so I'm not sure if a KVM is the best option for me.

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#152

Post by rollcat »

mschuster91 wrote: post #126

If you got the cash, get a Blackmagic Atem Mini video mixer and an appropriate amount of x-to-HDMI dongles.

I have a hand-me-down Atem Mini that "survived" many, many productions, and honestly I wouldn't recommend it - the internal fan noise is getting worse, and I wouldn't want it next to my setup.

I haven't tried it with a computer but I think mouse-to-screen latency would be a limiting factor.

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#153

Post by Aeolun »

Raglov wrote: post #73
Aeolun wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with one of the fancy KVM switches that were recommended here my switching isn’t instant. It did go down from 10-20 seconds of flickering to +/- 2 seconds though. May not be worth it if you are already at 4s though.

What model do you use that gave you 2 seconds switching time? One of the mentioned Rextron or something else?

I have the https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/aw/d/B078LY741V?psc=1&ref=p...

Please note that I’m having issues with their smart keyboard port, but that may be related to the interaction between the two.

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#154

Post by bob1029 »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #147

100% convinced we wouldn’t live in a world with trash like this if just a few more people would say “it’s very slow, can you make it faster? No I don’t care what the excuse for it being slow is I still think it can be faster, currently it feels cheap and awful” Weird how you say that then the thing that was “that’s just the way it is” is often completely solved in the next day or two.

> if just a few more people would

This is the challenge... Not many are willing to question why things are the way they are anymore. In fact, this seems to be frowned upon in more circles than ever before.

"don't rock the boat", "it is what it is", et. al.

The only way out of this hell is to begin construction of your own ladder.

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#155

Post by theideaofcoffee »

Raglov wrote: post #73
Aeolun wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with one of the fancy KVM switches that were recommended here my switching isn’t instant. It did go down from 10-20 seconds of flickering to +/- 2 seconds though. May not be worth it if you are already at 4s though.

What model do you use that gave you 2 seconds switching time? One of the mentioned Rextron or something else?

I have some knockoff brand off of Amazon, but it has full HDMI EDID emulation so stuff doesn't move around when switching screens. The input switching is about 2.5 seconds or so. The listing [0] looks scammy, and I thought so too when I bought it, but it works -much- better than the previous unit I had from Tesmart, which had generally good reviews but didn't work at all for my purposes, and it was like 40% of the price. I took the plunge on this one as the Tesmart didn't behave nicely with my thunderbolt docks hanging off my various mac laptops, which was extremely, maddeningly frustrating to not have it work all the time.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088WGKFZH

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#156

Post by Arrath »

VLM wrote: post #118
Moru wrote: post #9

This has been annoying me since I first tried a PC after using Atari computers since they were a thing. No matter what monitor I use, it will take for ever to switch input port or just a simple change of resolution. I was used to be able to switch resolution several times per frame, you could make a game with low resolution and color on the upper 3/4 of the screen and have the stats in higher resolution 4 color mode…

Good news is thruput always increases with computers over time, bad news is latency only increases over time. See, for example, boot up times. Also see how recovering from sleep/hibernation is now slower than 80s computer boot times, so expect a second layer of abstraction to form soon in the market, a faster recovering sleep mode than actual sleep mode.

The switch from Analog OTA TV to Digital, as well. I miss being able to instantly switch between channels. That little delay now is just annoying.

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#157

Post by MichaelZuo »

lostdog wrote: post #46
chmod775 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With basic analog you could set it up in a way where you would just wait for the next frame (or don't even wait that long), but with the new digital stuff there's bootstrapping/handshaking - whatever you want to call it. It's not so simple anymore.

What could they possibly be doing that takes 4 seconds? That's ~4,000,000,000 instructions on a typical embedded processor. It's much more likely that the handshaking was implemented by an incompetent organization that doesn't care about quality.

It is extremely odd to see so many people in this thread ignore that a handshake requires billions of instructions to be executed for some reason....

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#159

Post by magixx »

If you're looking for a monitor with responsive software avoid the Gigabyte M28U like the plague. Sure it's got 4k 144hz and when that works it's visually great. However, monitor sleep/wake or any other funcitonaly such as switching inputs had been a nightmare to the point that the most effective way to switch inputs quickly is to turn it off and on. At this point I'm really considering selling it for something with better software.

Re: Ask HN: Can you recommend an “instant-switch” Monitor? Does one exist?

#160

Post by texasbigdata »

mkl wrote: post #121
fragmede wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same as Synergy which is at https://symless.com/synergy

Unlike Synergy, Barrier is entirely open source.

I actually pay for Synergy hence the curiosity :)

Thank you kind stranger.

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