Do I need a KVM?

[jimmyjohnson]

Hi all, I will be moving out in a month or two and I'm planning my future set-up.

I'm keen on getting a dual monitor set-up, I have two laptops, one work laptop and a personal one, isit possible to have one laptop displayed to one screen and the other laptop displayed on the other monitor? And when necessary have one laptop displayed on both monitors? I'm aware of the TES dual monitor KVM but since it's expensive and requires a lot of wires I wanted to know if I can achieve what I want without one?

 

[EndlessWaves]

Monitors often have multiple inputs and the ability to switch between them so the simplest possible solution is just to connect both monitors to both laptops and use the button on the screen to change what they're displaying.

p.s. KVMs are for Keyboard, Video and Mouse. If you only want video then simpler switches are available. In this instance you'd want a 2x2 matrix switch if you need to control them from a central location, or only wanted one cable connected to each laptop.

 

[jimmyjohnson]

Monitors often have multiple inputs and the ability to switch between them so the simplest possible solution is just to connect both monitors to both laptops and use the button on the screen to change what they're displaying.

p.s. KVMs are for Keyboard, Video and Mouse. If you only want video then simpler switches are available. In this instance you'd want a 2x2 matrix switch if you need to control them from a central location, or only wanted one cable connected to each laptop.

I should have added the fact that I would want to control everything from one keyboard and mouse

 

[EndlessWaves]

Then you probably do want a KVM of some description.

Software solutions are available that work over the network connection. There's generally a bit of a delay though compared to a dedicated hardware KVM.

 

[oneman]

I have a KVM for work laptop and home pc (actually it's 4 way) but just use keyboard, mouse and audio from KVM and video is directly attached as KVM is VGA. Switch the input with double tap of scroll lock key.

Some KVM can get funny if video isn't attached.