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Comment by alanbernstein | Hacker News Reader

Can you elaborate on the kvm/switching feature? My current monitor is awful for that, I really just want a dedicated "cycle input" button. Or ideally, an N-position slider switch, but I can't imagine anyone would ever build such a thing.

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If it works like the 3419W you have one button press to wake the OSD and then a press on the input you want to switch to. Not terrible, not great either because on the 3419 the OSD is a bit slow and the button are below the screen so you can’t reliable double click to switch.

This is more or less how it works. If you want to install software then you can control it with keyboard shortcuts, but the shortcuts respond much slower than just pressing the button so I doubt anybody actually uses them after trying them once.

If you ever try using the KVM feature on for instance a Phillips monitor, you'll realize the Dell feature is a dream!

Oh I’m sure, it’s mostly fine, my biggest annoyance is actually that the OSD buttons take just a bit too much force (especially for how small they are) so you pretty much always lift the corner, which results in the display “bouncing” for a few seconds before it settles.

And that sometimes it’ll get confused and won’t switch the USB peripherals correctly, but that’s not too common (hasn’t happened in a long while in fact, maybe there was a firmware update I didn’t notice which fixed it).

The Dell 6k has the buttons on the back so this is not a problem.

Software hotkey/gesture can select monitor input via DDC, https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/hm2mvk...

We have ultrawides at the office that send usb to the source of video in auto mode but also has a button to override that and you press it to toggle between targets. Not sure about brand and model. Can check it when in the office.

The built-in kvm feature is very basic and I don't even setup the keyboard shortcuts because that requires software to be installed on the computers. Basically it just lets me switch between computers with 2 quick button presses on each monitor. I use an additional usb 3.0 switch from CableMatters so my peripherals can be switched between each display incase I want to have both computers up side by side.

If you only need 4K, there is this extremely badass TESmart KVM switch that I have used before and would highly recommend. It also has a cycle mode. It's $700 but the thing supports 3 4K monitors and 4 computers and works exactly as described. https://www.tesmart.com/products/4-port-triple-monitor-hdmi-...

Extremely badass but still 60Hz :(

I wonder if I’ll ever find a way to drive 4k@144Hz and switch inputs without the current cable replugging ritual.

The best option I've found is to hook both computers up to a USB-only KVM, and plug them in via separate video cables to the monitor. Then set up the computers to tell the monitor to change inputs (via DDC commands, which most but not all monitors support) when you change devices on the KVM

There's software to help do this automatically (https://github.com/haimgel/display-switch)

I set this up on my M1 Mac yesterday, it’s awesome, and because I have Mac on all the time I only need it installed on that machine

I think displays with built-in KVM switching is your only option right now.

Gigabyte m32uc

Does this KVM work with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse? Do you have to reconnect the devices every time you switch?

I don't think any KVM supports Bluetooth. You either need to use software like Barrier or get devices that can switch between multiple. The other option is wireless peripherals that use a USB dongle can work fine with KVMs like the ones Logitech sells.

If you want unified switching, you need to go through USB ports AFAIK.

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