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https://twitter.com/tekwendell/status/933441036138971137?s=1...
Still more expensive than a 4k monitor, but heading in the right direction.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel-based_Virtual_Machine
Or they can just remote in. It's kind of dumb.
PSA: It's about this "KVM": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch Not this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel-based_Virtual_Machine
I opened the link because I was wondering what is it talking about when KVM (the virtual machine) is more popular today than ever. :)
The little two-PC switch box the article refers to (I think) was always a spillover from the server KVM technology, except with a very small market and more difficult to make. Servers don't need sound and are fine with just VGA video. Home computers want USB (which variety?) and audio switched, or high bandwidth signals that are very touchy about interference or suddenly being connected to a different device like HDMI, Displayport or Thunderbolt. And then people want the stuff for cheap.
> signal switches with arbitrary bandwidth remain available: analogue relays
Have you tried that? Cut a HDMI cable in half and splay it out, then try switching that to another display. See what happens. If it were that easy, it'd be around (or you'd just be building it yourself).
The main thing that has pissed me off with technologies like DisplayPort and HDMI is that I cannot actually turn my monitors off when I'm not using my computer. With DVI I could turn the monitors off and the desktop and applications would stay where they were. With HDMI/Displayport it considers the monitor disconnected, hence re-adjusts the desktop and moves everything around. I would love an option that I could swit…
You must have some dodgy hardware. This is definitely not normal, at least with HDMI. I just tried it with the monitor right in front of me, even unplugging it from the wall didn't cause the laptop to drop the monitor like it would if I had disconnected the HDMI cable.
* It's been a problem since at least 2012
* HDMI cables have an active-low connection pin, therefore it's easier to fool the video card into thinking the monitor is still connected.
* DisplayPort is an active-high signal, therefore if the monitor powers off, it's the same thing as the cable being physically disconnected.
Ideally I would be able to switch the monitor off in such a way that it still maintains a connection, just that the display is off.
Edit: formatting
PSA: It's about this "KVM": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch Not this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel-based_Virtual_Machine
Of course KVM switches will eventually disappear; when was the last time any of us (minus datacenter staff) has been to the server room since the dawn of the PaaS age?
Frankly there are entire categories of desktop computer peripherals that get a deserved reputation for being flakey junk. USB hubs used to be this way, but presumably they've finally got those right. Inkjet printers too.
I'd guess the comment about HDCP is onto something. To build a KVM switch that works with modern displays without weird errors, it probably has to be an active HDMI/HDCP endpoint on its own - which means a vendor would either need to get its own sets of keys and do additional work to enforce all DRM restrictions - or they'd have to use leaked keys and prepare to get sued in an instant. Even without HDCP, I remember a…