Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-featured multi-monitor KVM

Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by cowtongue on Saturday December 18, 2021 @10:58PM (#29611177)

An alternative approach that I've taken is to have the HDMIs from my work desktop plugged into a capture card on my main Windows desktop. I then use the preview from OBS to see the display and also hear the audio. Still need a separate keyboard + mouse, but I like being able to move/minimize my work OBS window off to the side when I'm not actively working.

I also use this setup with gaming consoles so that I don't have to dedicate an entire monitor.

https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by gbraad on Sunday December 19, 2021 @12:26AM (#29611613)

I wrote a very simple html5 webapp which does this http://webcam.apps.gbraad.nl never got around to mute the audio or so, but patches welcome!

I use two capture cards and them on th bottom monitors when needed (use 4 screens). This way I can also easily stream and records the screens when on a meeting that is on another machine.

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by bmurphy1976 on Saturday December 18, 2021 @11:28PM (#29611320)

How's the latency?

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by cowtongue on Saturday December 18, 2021 @11:58PM (#29611472)

I don't notice it when using it for work. I barely notice it when using it for console games. Probably wouldn't want to use it for competitive shooters, but non-issue for most other games.

Few more notes:

- I use PCIE rather than USB for the capture card

- Can be costly if you need 4k + multiple inputs (for multiple "monitors" as different OBS windows)

- I had issues getting the capture card to recognize scaled HiDPI resolutions from my work Mac

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by crtasm on Sunday December 19, 2021 @08:15AM (#29613663)

You can do this without a capture card using https://ndi.tv/tools/ - other clients on your LAN can view in OBS or with the included program. I'm yet to try it with 4k.

No help with consoles of course, and perhaps not an option for a work machine.

edit: feature list also mentions "KVM remote control of any workstation running Scan Converter from NDI Studio Monitor"

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by gbraad on Sunday December 19, 2021 @09:36AM (#29614244)

I use NDI a lot, but with a phone as webcam, or from obs to obs, scan converter, audio stream between devices like ipad/iphone/Android to desktop... But it is demanding to encode this way. HDMI capture does only use bandwidth over the USB or pcie bus, while ndi uses cpu or gpu.

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by tekknik on Sunday December 19, 2021 @10:31AM (#29614672)

HDMI capture cards can definitely use CPU, and this is the case for most USB capture cards as USB does not have enough bandwidth to send an entire raw stream in realtime.

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by gsich on Sunday December 19, 2021 @11:18AM (#29615091)

Yes, it's MJPEG for the cheap ones.

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by crtasm on Sunday December 19, 2021 @10:23AM (#29614610)

It's not at all demanding on my RTX2060 but I'm only doing 1080p 60fps - don't know how other cards/resolutions/framerates compare.

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by gbraad on Sunday December 19, 2021 @09:37AM (#29614248)

You have hardware devices for ndi, but they ain't cheap!

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by fatboy93 on Sunday December 19, 2021 @10:57PM (#29621417)

If you're doing this, why not use barrier or something like that? Iirc, it does have audio forwarding as well?

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Re:Display-switch: Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-feature... by ranger_danger on Sunday December 19, 2021 @02:49PM (#29617603)

You could use synergy to keep the same keyboard and mouse.

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