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dual monitor and dual computer set up.

B

bockchow

Platinum Member
what i want is 2 PC's that share a keyboard and mouse and can easily switch between the 2. this can easily be acomplished with a KVM but what i would like is to have a duel monitors set up where the main monitor displays whatever is happening on the main system and the 2nd auxiliary displays the idle macine. can this be done?
 
Originally posted by: Stattlich
I think you're going to need one of these:

http://www.smithsonianmag.si.e.../oct97/images/duel.jpg
Click to expand...

Posting useless crap like this in General Hardware should get you banned. If you want to be an asshole, go post in Off Topic.

Anyway, Bockchow, with regard to the active versus idle displays, do you mean that you'll ever switch monitors via the KVM switch? Why don't you just hook monitors directly to the boxes and just use the KVM for mouse/keyboard control?
 
that would be the easy thing to do and then just have the one monitor exclusively display each PC. but it's not realy what i want. basicly i want a 20 or 21" LCD as my main display and a smaller 15" off to the side just so i can keep an eye on the idle PC but when i switch over with the kvm i want the idle PC to switch over to the main display.
 
You realize that you'll have to set the resolution to something REALLY huge like 800x600 so that 15" will be able to handle it, right? Do you have any clue what 800x600 looks like on a 20" or 21" monitor? :laugh:
 
i have seen a thing that can connect 2 comps using same keyboard and mouse at tigerdirect. but why not just use one computer? and use two lcd on it.
 
I've not personally seen a KVM that has more than one monitor output. *shrug* I'll see what I can find, though.

Anyone else know of a KVM that will switch keyboard, mouse, and handle two monitors (toggle primary/secondary displays)?
 
Originally posted by: w00t
i have seen a thing that can connect 2 comps using same keyboard and mouse at tigerdirect. but why not just use one computer? and use two lcd on it.
Click to expand...

i'll be running different OS's XP and linux to start and possibly even throw in OSX and some point further down the road.
 
so you want to connect 2 computers using 2 different os's......sounds cool a mac and a pc.... sounds even cooler, check out tigerdirect i know you can connect two computers using one keyboard and one mouse check it out.
 
not exactly, each PC is only going to be useing a single display at a time but i want to be able to switch which display out of the 2 that it's useing. it's something i've neve seen before, probably because there's no real need for it. thats mainly why i want to do it.
 
Why don't you just use a regular KVM but not hook up the monitor cables on the KVM?

Monitor 1 -> computer 1
Monitor 2 -> computer 2
Keyboard + mouse -> KVM -> Computer 1 and Computer 2
 
Well if the monitor you get has dual inputs, an analog and a digital, and the video card in the second PC had multiple outputs, you could do what I am doing. I 2 LCD's, with my main rig connected to both using digital outs. I have a second PC, connected to one of the monitors using the analog connection. I can simply switch the monitor from digital input, to analog input to switch the display to the second computer. You probably do what your trying if your bigger lcd had both analog and digital inputs. Granted, you would have to switch it via the monitor instead of just flipping a switch on a KVM, but it might work for what you're trying to accomplish.
 
that would alow me to run a duel monitor set up on one machine and switch to the secound box when need be but it's not acomplishing what i wanted to do. it was something that cam to mind though.
 
You should really check out a program called synergy. I used it when I wanted to use my 2 17" CRTs, but couldn't do dual display. I found an old computer that I had and installed it. Its kinda like having 2 computers next to each other with a KVM, but this is all in software and you could go to the other computer by moving the mouse off the screen. This also let my good windows rig be used for gaming and hooked up to the 5.1 system while i had my old linux box up for IM/teampspeak (the headset was separate from the surround sound, which is a real plus).

Anyways, the software is open source and runs on a variety of platforms (and heterogeneous enviroments). You can find it on sourceforge by searching for a project called synergy. Might edit with a real link later on.
 
Perhaps 3 KVMs where one is used for the keyboard and mouse and the other 2 are used for sharing each monitor with 2 computers. The two for the monitors would require a button on the kvm as the keyboard couldn't be used. I have one like that. Of course if each monitor has dual inputs you could eliminate one of the pair of kvm's for the monitors. This may be acceptable if your monitors are easy to toggle between inputs.
In addition, with the 3 kvm solution you can use 2 monitors for the typical dual monitor features for one or the other computer. My nView software that I use on my nVidia video card allows two different monitors with resolutions and refresh rates as I'm sure Matrox and ATI provide.
I can't vouch as to how smooth and slick this proposed solution will be.
GL
 
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