Got my ultimate retro KVM setup working | Hacker News Reader

Got my ultimate retro KVM setup working

rubenerd.com

105 pointsTomte9 comments

That’s a nice setup.

I’ve enjoyed using older professional / broadcast gear picked up used The Extron and Kramer switches and scalers are available for a fraction of the original price and perform very well.

I’m using it with Amigas, old Macs, ZX Spectrums and old PCs once I’ve got them into the VGA / HDMI domain (and that’s a rabbit hole as the author discusses).

lol, the headline made me think pretty certain "KVM" was a VM setup for emulation, but it turned out to be the other KVM (keyboard/video/mouse?).

See [1]. The acronym for keyboard/video/mouse was first, though you may be familiar with IPMI. Saw a vid today of someone running PiKVM with HDMI hub. Then you can run it on multiple outputs (if HDMI). Pretty cool.

Right now I got the issue that I have USB-C/TB output on MBP but my hub is a Chinese one with output to HDMI and DP. Which both work, but... my monitors only have 1x HDMI, 1x DP and the DP are in use on desktop. So I'm going with a 8 USD reversible DP splitter from Ali. From what I understood it can do 4k 120 Hz so that should be DP 1.4.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM

Retrotink is nice. OSSC[0] and OSSC Pro[1] are nicer, and open source hardware.

0. https://videogameperfection.com/products/open-source-scan-co...

1. https://videogameperfection.com/products/ossc-pro/

Nicer how?

Open hardware is itself enough to warrant that label.

But e.g. on OSSC I can (and do) set pixel perfect timings for the platforms I use it with (Amiga, most of the time). This is not possible with most scalers/converters, including the retrotink.

Anyone can recommend an IP KVM to connect to DOS machines that have 1 VGA signal, 1 component video signal (this is a secondary video signal from an old camera on this machine), DIN keyboard connector and RS232 mouse? So far PiKVM looks like the best candidate.

Doesn’t converting all those old machines to an LCD screen lose the magic?

AliExpress has lots of retro game consoles though the game selection is limited to whatever that’s offered. The hw is nice, hook up to hdmi, wireless controller etc.

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