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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?

#171

Post by Eleison23 »

naikrovek wrote: post #169
pontifier wrote: post #44

This is one thing I really miss about analog tv. You could switch channels as fast as you could press the button. Everything now is so slow.

> You could switch channels as fast as you could press the button. Yep, and everything was exactly the same video format, and all TVs had the same capabilities. The slowness was present on VGA monitors as well, if you recall. Slow switching is a tradeoff worth having, given that it allows me to have any number of digital resolutions and color depths available to me.

No post body was provided.

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

#172

Post by rsync »

tcbyrd wrote: post #41

Closest you’ll get is something like a Blackmagic ATEM switcher, using “Program” as the output. Then you can map a software key to swap it out in a single frame. As discussed in another thread, the computer has to be sending the display signal to some device that is seen as a display, and that switcher keeps the video from both PCs buffering at 60 or 30 fps. To the computer it can’t know the display switched and the…

Tangent ... these BlackMagic 2.5" multidocks are so cool:

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicmultidoc...

I don't really have a use for one but I wish I did ...

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

#173

Post by brokenmachine »

dmurray wrote: post #81
pontifier wrote: post #44

This is one thing I really miss about analog tv. You could switch channels as fast as you could press the button. Everything now is so slow.

I assume this is for a different reason - buffering and stream compression, you have to wait for a key frame before your TV can display anything. Similar root cause though - technology becomes available that makes the steady state performance much better in return for some setup costs, the setup costs are worth paying in almost all applications so it's an obvious choice to go with the new technology but still annoyin…

Good point.

What would be nice is if it had a low-quality stream with more keyframes so it could switch quickly and then go to the higher quality stream when that gets to a keyframe.

But I can see why that kind of complexity wouldn't be added just so you can switch quickly to 3 seconds of low quality video.

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

#174

Post by jemmyw »

Handprint4469 wrote: post #90
jemmyw wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the USB-C upstream port for if you connect PC-2 via HDMI and PC-1 is connected to the USB-C display port.

I meant further to the bottom-right. Here: https://imgur.com/00KDqpq

thanks! I had no idea that one was even there. That sorts out my headphones!

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

#176

Post by mixmastamyk »

orthoxerox wrote: post #96
pontifier wrote: post #44

This is one thing I really miss about analog tv. You could switch channels as fast as you could press the button. Everything now is so slow.

My current (Samsung) display is a pain to switch off . If I forget and switch the PC off first, it goes to sleep and starts blinking its annoying bright blue LED, which I managed to disable when it's on or off, but not when it's asleep. To get it to switch off I have to wake it up, wait until it cycles through all its inputs, gives up and shows me the menu, from which I can finally turn it off.

I destroy or cover with electrical tape any blue leds that mistakenly come into the home. I try to avoid them but sometimes not possible.

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

#177

Post by leriksen »

I have a Samsung S34J55x, and a DisplayPort 4 port KVM from Lindy. I have 3 laptops connected, all different makes (lenovo, dell, ms), and they generally take 1-2 sec to switch between machines. Maybe the key is the video interface eg HDMI vs DVI vs DP, be an interesting experiment.

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

#178

Post by causi »

patentatt wrote: post #149
causi wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My "NEWCARE HDMI 2.0b Switch 3 in 1 Out" switcher is that fast.

Can I inquire how you switch inputs (mouse, keyboard) along with the hdmi?

I've found the simplest way is to just use a mouse and keyboard that support bluetooth and RF and just keep the RF dongle on one PC and the bluetooth paired to the other PC. If you're running Windows, Mouse Without Borders is a handy utility and I'm sure there's an equivalent for Linux. I often find myself just using Moonlight streaming as a remote desktop since my tower is a lot more powerful than my laptop.

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

#179

Post by neurostimulant »

causi wrote: post #178
patentatt wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I inquire how you switch inputs (mouse, keyboard) along with the hdmi?

I've found the simplest way is to just use a mouse and keyboard that support bluetooth and RF and just keep the RF dongle on one PC and the bluetooth paired to the other PC. If you're running Windows, Mouse Without Borders is a handy utility and I'm sure there's an equivalent for Linux. I often find myself just using Moonlight streaming as a remote desktop since my tower is a lot more powerful than my laptop.

On linux you can use Barrier / Input Leap. No Wayland support though, still work in progress for unforeseeable future. Can't find any KVM app that works on Wayland yet. RKVM used to work on Wayland but not anymore.

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

#180

Post by yourapostasy »

Take a look at ConnectPro video emulators [1]. Mentioned [2] and praised [3] here on HN before, but there are limits on their KVM's [4] to watch out for so just a caution to don't hastily ascribe the same performance from their emulators to their KVM's if you're also messing around with switching configurations.

[1] https://connectpro.com/collections/video-emulators

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24362388

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24362975

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26906688

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